Sri Chinmoy’s first organ performance in Zurich

30 years ago, on May 26, 1987, spiritual master and peace advocate Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) opened a new musical chapter with his first pipe organ performance in a church in the centre of Zurich, Switzerland. It was one day before he gave his first big 7-hour concert in the Swiss mountain village of Davos. Sri Chinmoy does not play the pipe organ as you would expect. He creates spontaneous and powerful improvisations seemingly connected to another world. He does not prepare any written music nor did he study at a music school. His approach is purely from his heart. The result is unforgettable and it was the first of many more improvisations on famous and less famous pipe organs in churches and music halls all over the world that followed. The performance in Zurich was one the longest ever. It lasted for 38 min. and was later titled by Sri Chinmoy as “The Summit-Song of Self-Transcendence”. Although there was a problem with the recording and we could not capture the whole performance visually you can enj