Shantala is composed of Benjy and Heather Wertheimer. Benjy Wertheimer is an award-winning songwriter, vocalist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Benjy tours and records with Krishna Das, Deva Premal & Miten, and virtuoso guitarist Michael Mandrell. He has opened for such artists as Carlos Santana, Paul Winter, and Narada Michael Walden. A founding member of the internationally acclaimed Ancient Future world fusion music ensemble, Benjy has toured the U.S., Canada, and Japan with renowned bamboo flute master GS Sachdev. He has studied Indian classical music for over 25 years with some of the greatest masters of that tradition (including Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan and Z. M. Dagar). Benjy’s CDs are featured on Echoes, heard on over 150 public radio stations around North America. His CD Circle of Fire was rated #1 on the New Age radio charts in November 2002. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.