About Me
Darlene Koldenhoven is a GRAMMY® Award winning vocalist and 3 time Grammy nominee. She is a vocalist, author, composer, producer, keyboardist, voice/music teacher, certified sonic therapist and certified NLP Practitioner with a Master’s Degree in Voice, a Bachelor’s in Music Education. Darlene was the featured soprano in the PBS-TV & DVD special “Yanni, Live at the Acropolis” seen by over 1.5 billion people worldwide, and was the production vocal coach, real-life choir director, and beloved choir nun in both Sister Act films with Whoopi Goldberg. In 2016 & 2017, Darlene performed as featured soloist in Bangalore, India in Grammy winner & UN Music Ambassador for climate change, Ricky Kej’s concerts/videos for environmental consciousness. In addition to her own mesmerizing concerts, her voice has graced a plethora of movies, records, television shows, and live performances ranging from Pink Floyd, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Luis Miguel, and Robin Williams on the Academy Awards 2000, to singing for President Clinton and soloing with the Royal Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestras.
Darlene’s latest album, “Color Me Home” (4/21/17) debuted #1 on worldwide New Age/Ambient radio charts and has garnered 9 award wins and nominations with more pending and is considered in the 60th Grammy Awards for Best New Age Album. To enhance the listening experience, the CD comes with a coloring book with images that depict each song and album notes/lyrics/credits woven throughout. Darlene’s classical crossover Infinite Voice CD, went #1 on the New Age Radio Charts in April 2007, was ranked #2 for the Top 100 Airplay in 2007, and was voted Best Vocal Album 2007 from the Broadcasters’ LifeStyle Music Awards, worldwide. Her Christmas CD, Heavenly Peace, debuted #2 on the same charts in 2000 and when re-released at #4 in 2007, also won the LifeStyle Music Awards’ Best Holiday Album. Her two previous albums are a commissioned work, the inspirational gospel “Free to Serve”, and her positive pop “Keys to the World.” “Angel on Ivories” (2/11/11) is her fifth album, consisting of 17 classical songs from 1546-1958 with Darlene accompanying herself on piano. Darlene was a Finalist in The American Prize for Best Art Song Vocalist 2011 for “Angel on Ivories”. Darlene’s 6th album, “Inspired by a True Story” (6/28/11) is a heartwarming, inspirational collection of her original positive up-tempo & restorative spiritual music. Darlene’s 7th album, “Solitary Treasures” (10/10/11) is classical pop. Recently, her piano instrumental composition “Lucid See” from “Solitary Treasures” was Nominated in the 11th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best New Age Song. Album number eight is “Tranquil Times,” her first instrumental only album that went to #1 on the radio charts and won Best New Age album from the 13th Independent Music Awards.
Darlene is singing and speaking throughout the US and Canada, uplifting audiences everywhere in concerts filled with New Thought, New Age, and Classical Pop music and her vocal and/or sound healing workshops. Included in some of her events Darlene sings inspiring songs and tells compelling stories of her work with musicians and spiritual personnel in Sierra Leone, West Africa. This work blossomed into a multi-media concert tour of 7 major cities in the US and Canada titled Free to Serve, where Darlene composed and performed all the music with local choirs – some as large as 900 voices, produced the Free to Serve album, and co-produced/co-directed the event. She has been on the voice faculties of UCLA, CSUN, CSLA, Citrus College and their Japanese Kenshu program. With the addition of her comprehensive book with 7 CDs “Tune Your Voice: Singing and Your Mind’s Musical Ear,” endorsed by everyone from Juilliard to American Idol, and touring with her sound workshops, Darlene has been able to cross 2 major bridges: one, bringing the academic into the esoteric, two, bringing the world into consciousness of the benefits of music, sound and healing. Her articles on The Healing Power of the Voice have been published in the US in “Evolve Magazine” and in Italy’s “New Age and New Sounds Magazine.” Darlene’s has performed and facilitated her Healing Power of the Voice workshops at the Global Sound Conference, Integrated Listening Conference, culture festivals, conferences, churches of multiple faiths, youth rallies, and New Age bookstores nationwide.
As a deeply spiritual woman, Darlene enjoys singing her positive message songs of faith, serenity, humanity, spirit, and love, at services and concerts of spiritual centers and churches nationwide, as much as possible. She is a guest speaker, delivering the message of the day on Connecting Voice With Spirit – engaging the congregants in a rejuvenating sensory connection of music and spirituality. Darlene conducts ‘special event’ workshops on The Healing Power of the Voice and other sound therapy, voice, and music topics including an interactive, outreach, community building, spirituality workshop for all ages and genders, titled The Sister Act, using themes from the feature film. Unity Houston, Christ Church Unity Orlando, Unity Hawaii, Power of Oneness Spiritual Center Chicago, Oakland Center for Spiritual Living, Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. Center Houston, Theosophical Society of America are just a few of the centers who have experienced Darlene’s healing with music workshops and vocal/choral workshops.
At the center of her work is the strong belief that God is the great creator and that music is one of the many expressions of God, to lift us all, higher in consciousness. While recording in the studio or singing live, encoded in Darlene’s music is her belief that we are all vessels of God’s voice and sings by drawing upon this loving intention and communicating this energy, moving the listener far beyond the ordinary states. Darlene’s lifelong passion for the study of sound, vibration, music and effects on energy, mood, spirituality and health began at age nine with her first hand experience in assisting in the therapy and teaching of her deaf baby sister to speak and sing. Darlene was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois and resides in Los Angeles-Studio City, California.
“I enjoy motivating people and sharing my gifts with others, whether it be through my music, my singing, or through music education. I’m grateful for the divine gifts I have been given and for the privilege of helping and entertaining others, engaged in something I absolutely love – music. It is my constant desire to write, record, produce and perform music that could uplift and touch all people, bringing us closer, to our center and to each other, through music – simply creating beauty in everyday life.” – Darlene Koldenhoven
My Interests
Music, music therapy, music education, spirituality, cosmology, collecting stones, astronomy, reading, hiking, photography, animals, singing bowls . . .
My Audio
My Video
My Links
http://www.tuneyourvoice.nethttp://www.facebook.com/DarleneGrammyWinner
https://www.listeningmatrix.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darlenekoldenhoven/
