'One Drop of Kindness': Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo brings tour to Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque

Yungchen Lhamo has lived a life of prayers, offerings and song.

The Tibetan singer’s latest album is “One Drop of Kindness” and she’s on a tour that will make three stops in New Mexico.

“I sing to help transform people’s minds and make them better human beings,” Lhamo says. “We are living in difficult times. But together, bit by bit, we can change the world.”

Lhamo will perform at the Taos Center for the Arts on Wednesday, Jan. 17. She then travels to Santa Fe on Thursday, Jan. 18, where she will perform inside the intimate San Miguel Chapel. On Friday, Jan. 19, Lhamo will perform at Fusion in Albuquerque.

“One Drop of Kindness” is Lhamo’s seventh album and she says it’s a reminder to keep kindness moving forward in the world.

It is co-produced by John Alevizakis at Little Buddha Studio on the forested slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada.

She says the body of work is a fresh take on an ancient practice, a work whose seven songs — or better still, seven offerings — are flavored by musicians on everything from piano, flute, drums and electric guitar to didgeridoo, Indian violin, the Turkish cümbüs-oud and the Armenian duduk-oboe.

'One Drop of Kindness': Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo brings tour to Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque

“Musically, I wanted to do something different, more instinctive and rhythmic,” Lhamo says. “John has enough instruments in his studio for a small orchestra. We chose some and started creating.”

Along with the amazing arrangements, Lhamo wanted to keep the focus on her vocals – which have gotten stronger as her career has endured.

“The older I become, the better I understand how to transmit sound healing to people no matter their religion, beliefs or non-beliefs,” says Lhamo.

Lhamo is the first Tibetan singer to sign to a major label.

During that time, she has collaborated with Bono, Billy Corgan and Annie Lennox, as well as headlining performances at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House.

To encourage acts of kindness, she established the One Drop of Kindness Foundation in 2004 with the aim of helping those in need within Tibet, the charity has since supported projects in the United States, Nepal and India.

“So many people in the West are living in fear. They feel isolated and unloved. I tell them they are beautiful, that all human life is beautiful,” she says. “When the people I work with are sick or dying, I stay with them. I wash them. Cook for them. Sing for them. These are my offerings. Kindness is recognized as a virtue in many cultures and religions. Just one act of kindness, no matter how large or small, can change a life, and remind us that we are connected. That we are all breathing in and out. That we all share the same earth and sky.”