The Heartsong Shala Instructors
Emily Joan Smith
Emily (she/her) is a devotional singer, musician, sound healer, certified yoga teacher, holistic voice coach, music educator, and spiritual guide & companion with nearly a decade of experience in curating intentional sacred spaces, building spiritual community, and leading heart-centered spiritual practice. She is the founder of Louisville kirtan band Anahata Bhakti and is a weekly instructor at The Inner Warrior yoga studio.
In 2024, after 8 years of leading local kirtans and song circles, Emily began teaching holistic voice coaching through her original course Way of the Heartsong: an 8 week course in singing as spiritual practice and authentic expression. What has followed has been an ever-growing and evolving work of the heart— in reclaiming our voices as a potent modality for healing, connection, expression, community, spiritual practice, and as our fundamental human birthright. Emily has now led and facilitated several multi-week Heartsong courses, including her current Song & Chant Leader Training Course. This work has been the inspiration for The Heartsong Shala, a sacred space studio devoted to the heart-centered remembrance of our Holy Being, both human and divine, through the use of intention, voice, music, meditation, and community as the orienting modalities of practice.
Emily completed her 200 hr YTT from Yoga East in 2017. She has a bachelor’s degree in music education, emphasis in voice, from the University of Louisville School of Music. She has years of experience in leading a variety of sacred offerings, such as classes, retreats, meditations, satsang, song ceremonies, kirtans, and more. She has been a regular teacher at the bi-annual MYPATH Yoga Festival since 2018, and has been a featured devotional musician at Louisville’s internationally recognized Festival of Faiths for the past three years in a row. She has over 25 years of varied musical and genre experience, both as a soloist and member of ensembles.
For more information on Emily, you can visit her website here.
Founder
Charles Mitchell
Charles (he/him) is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His songwriting credits include “Hymn of the New Body,” “Servant of Love,” “This Moment,” “I Will Be Grateful,” and many more beloved favorites. He sings with the kirtan band Anahata Bhakti, in the sacred singing ensemble Joy Loom, and his songs have been part of healing ceremonies and workshops for years. Charles is also a qigong teacher, woodworker, music educator, permaculturalist, and devoted father and husband.
Christina Rountree
Christina (she/they) is a ceremonialist, singer/songwriter, and intuitive guide. With training in counseling, Qigong, Reiki, spiritual companioning, and process facilitation, they bring over 20 years of meditation and healing practice into spaces of connection and renewal—inviting presence through movement, energy work, song, and soul-centered ceremony.
Guest Teachers & Musicians
Mandy Olivam
Mandy Olivam is a retreat facilitator, spiritual program writer, and social change explorer. Her study of AI opened new awakenings. She seeks to continue to explore and grow in her spiritual journey with others eager to engage complexity.
Offering: AI Inquiry: Spiritual Exploration of Emerging Intelligence
Learn more about Mandy’s work Here.
Brian Lottman
Fourteen years ago, Brian, a wandering monk, renounced his former life and set out on the road to share the mystical path to Self-Realization. He has held hundreds of gatherings at spiritual centers, churches, and yoga studios all over the country. He is an inspirational speaker and a meditation teacher.
Satsang means “association with higher Truth.” In these sacred gatherings, Brian speaks about the nature of Truth and Love, and he recounts his amazing adventures as a monk and renunciate. He tells ancient tales about the mystical lives of saints. He holds transformative space to bring the mind into deeper states of meditation. He plays harmonium and leads kirtan.
Learn more about Brian Here.