Join host Stefania Passamonte as she welcomes the remarkable Karen Salicath Jamali to the 5th edition of Future Classical Women Awards. Karen is an accomplished American artist, painter, sculptor, photographer, and award-winning composer and pianist who is also a member of the Recording Academy for the Grammys. Currently based in Orlando, Florida, Karen shares her extraordinary journey from visual artist to classical musician, which took an unexpected turn following a profound near-death experience in 2012.
After suffering a serious head injury, Karen experienced a transformative spiritual encounter that fundamentally changed her life’s direction. Following three years of recovery, she began hearing music in her dreams and miraculously taught herself to play piano without formal training. Since then, she has created seven albums, performed at Carnegie Hall eight times, and composed works inspired by angelic energy. Her latest album, ‘The Hope of Angels,’ features pieces named after different angels—Gabriel, Chamuel, and Arcadia—each representing distinct spiritual energies and qualities.
Throughout the conversation, Karen explores how her diverse artistic disciplines are interconnected through energy and spirituality. She discusses how her visual art and music both emerge from the same compassionate, peaceful energy source, and how this creative philosophy extends to her family life with her husband and young son, both of whom are also artists. Her unique approach to composition—hearing music intuitively rather than reading or writing notation—challenges conventional understandings of musical creativity.
Main Topics
Karen Salicath Jamali is a multi-disciplinary artist working as a painter, sculptor, photographer, composer, and pianist with over 180 exhibitions worldwide
A near-death experience and head injury in 2012 led to Karen's transformation from visual artist to classical musician, after three years of recovery during which she began hearing music in dreams
Karen taught herself to play piano without formal training and has since created seven albums, performed at Carnegie Hall eight times, and is a Grammy Recording Academy member
Her album 'The Hope of Angels' features compositions named after specific angels representing different spiritual energies: Gabriel (peace), Chamuel (love), and Arcadia (harmony with nature)
Karen composes intuitively by hearing music and remembering it rather than through traditional musical notation or formal training
All of Karen's artistic work across different mediums is connected through universal spiritual energy, with an emphasis on compassionate and peaceful expression
Karen's background includes classical guitar training from age 8 and early influences from composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Villa-Lobos, which shaped her artistic foundation
Full TranscriptHello and welcome to the 5th edition of Future Classical Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Sta...▼
Hello and welcome to the 5th edition of Future Classical Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artists on the classical panorama. Today on Future Classical Women Awards, we will be talking to Karen Salica Jamali. Um, she's a professional American artist, painter, sculptor, photographer, and award-winning composer and pianist and member of the Recording Academy for the Grammys in America. Hello, Karen. Hello, Stefani. Thank you for inviting me. You're very welcome. Um, now, Karen, you're not in London. Where are you now? I am all the way down in Florida. Florida? Yeah. Ah, fantastic. How is the weather there? Oh, it's beautiful. Sunshine, 20 Celsius, no cloud. I'm very jealous. Are you by the sea as well? No, I'm not by the sea. Okay. In Orlando. Yeah. Now tell me a little bit, I mean, um, how are you everything? Basically, you are a painter, a sculptor, photographer, a pianist, a composer. How can you do all these? Yeah, I don't know. You know, um, I, I come from a family full of artists and musicians. And I already, when I was child, I, I knew I was an artist. So, um, very early on I took an education as an artist. I was only 17 when I started in the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen School of Design. And since then I have been all over the world with my art and exhibit I think it's 180 exhibitions around the world and also in Louvre in Paris, Paris, yeah. So, but it was first in 2015 that I became a musician, pianist, and composer. When I was child, I was playing classical guitar for 15 years from I was 8 years old. Okay. And I would I would like to have become a musician, but I became an artist instead. And then in 2012, I had an accident, a head injury, where I had a near-death experience, and I came back here to Earth. I think I was gone about 14-15 minutes. And in that time, I was literally out in space and with my angel. And I hear the, the, the stars were singing to each other. And I saw the light, and I want to come home. And I saw Jesus stand and waiting for me, and I saw all them there. I love who passed away standing and waving to me. But my angel told me that I was— it was not my time and I had to go back. And I was then sent back to Earth and I came bang down in my body with a lot of pain. And it took me 3 years to come back really to life. The first year was in darkness and I couldn't have any noise, I couldn't have any light, it was hard for me to speak. And slowly, year by year, it went better and better. And after 3 years, I suddenly began to hear all this music coming to me in dreams and I didn't know what to do. Other than trying to get it out of me because I'm an artist. I know when these things come to you, you have to get it out of you. Paint or anything. So now it was music that was coming and I just bought a little piano for my son at that time, 3 years old, and I thought that I maybe could do it on piano, getting these sounds on Even I can't play piano and I started and suddenly I could play piano. I never even played or learned piano. And then I began to record all what I was hearing and slowly I sold a big sculpture and bought a Steinway piano from this money. Wow! Yeah, golden Steinway piano. And then it began to really take off with this good sound, and I created— until now I created 7 albums and performed in Carnegie Hall 8 times with my music. Wow. Yeah, so that is my story about music, and it's still coming. I do not write or read music, but I remember what I'm hearing, and, and then I can play it. It's a kind of miracle for me how I this is working. But that's the way it is. It's just coming and then it's coming out of me. So that, that's amazing. I mean, that's quite a story. Were you, um, religious before this experience happened to you? You know, I'm not a religious person, no, but I believe, I am believer in I'm a believer in nature. I'm a believer in what you call the universe, that there's a bigger power than us, um, and then everything is connected. But I have always in my art made angels in my sculpture, in my paintings. And now after that happened to me, and angels are always then very close to me also when I was child, and it is really them that come with the music to me when I play. I can't explain it in other ways. So in that way I know they exist and they are here. Surrounding us. Every, every person on Earth have their own angels around them. So yeah, this is very, very powerful. Now, your album, The Hope of Angels, um, that what I was gonna ask you about actually. So somehow you read the answer to this. So is this the first album, I mean, that comes out of this experience with the recordings about the angels? Would you like to tell us more? Yeah, yes, yeah. That particular album, it's not the first one, this is the 7th one I think I have made. But this one I make it more precise, the energy of the angel. Example, Angel Gabriel, who is the messenger of peace, and This— when I got this music in a dream, I feeling that this is what this piece of music need to have the name of and what this music in hold, a peaceful, compassionate music. And that is really the message. Of the music. And then for each of these pieces on this album, there is different angel. Angel Chamuel, who is the angel of love, and I can feel it when I play it, so therefore I, I gave it that name. And there is Angel Arcadia. Angel Arcadia is the angel that's in harmony with nature. And sometimes, often when I play, there comes a little bird outside my window when I play and sing with me. Yeah, I have that. I know that, specifically that one. These birds are coming and playing, so that also is a part of why this is the name Angel Academia. And that is— and that, yeah, you know, we really have to be in harmony with our nature, and we really need to be from inside. Now I have another question. Um, you know, we spoke about Angel Gabriel. That was the first one you mentioned to me, but it's not the first one in the track of the album. Is there a reason? Is there a reason why the angels are in this order instead of being, let's say, with Angel Gabriel who is the one, you know, the messenger, if you like. Yeah, I don't know why. At first I would have done that, and then it ended up there. I just think that the piece Angel Arcadia, who is the first one, just starting out very nicely, very interesting. It has a very interesting composition. Yeah, well, let's listen then. 'Angel Gabriel' from your album 'Hope of Angels,' composed and performed by our very special guest in Future Classical Women Awards, Karen Salikat Jamalie. And this was Angel Gabriel 'The Angel of Hope' from the album 'Hope of Angels,' composed and performed by artist and composer Karen Salikhat Jamali. Do I say your name properly? Is that correct, or I should pronounce your name differently? Oh, it's right. It's such an interesting name. I mean, you said you come from Denmark, am I right? Yeah, so I'm born in Denmark and now you're in America. So how does that work? And I, yeah, I met my husband over here. All right, name is Jamali, so now I'm selling at Jamali. Got you, that's why. I got you. Ah, fantastic. So, and did you meet your husband before you became a musician, or that was— yeah, yes, yeah. I had an art show in New York, and then I met him, and that was it. Wonderful. And how is it to live when you're both artists? You know, how is it to share a house with someone who does the same job somehow? Do you have separate studios? Do you still, uh, or you do completely different media, for example, apart from music? Of course. Yeah, so we, we have different studios, of course, and you know, we are so close, so everything is so— like, I can't even imagine how it should be without us. We are— everything is We speak about art, music, science all the time, everything. And what we're doing, our ideas. And so we support each other all the time. That's wonderful. Now I have another question. Um, um, you have a son, you said, who is 3 years old, or is older now? No, now he's older. Yeah, yeah. So did he take the art from you and your husband, or he took the music, or is he doing something completely different? He is both. He just— he's painting and he is playing also piano. He's doing all of the stuff, so he's an artist too. Yeah, wonderful. Well, you know, when I was a student and I was in a student house, it was mainly for musicians but we also— I had my neighbor, she was an artist and painter, um, from France, and she would sometimes come into my practice room and be inspired while I was practicing about something to create, right? Um, so would you say that music— I mean, you told us about a very, you know, specific inspiration that comes to you when you're composing music, um, but is there a connection between what you do with the music and what you do with your art as a sculptor and a painter, or you— yeah, yeah, there is, you know. For me, everything is about energy. My music come very early in the morning, so I go up very early and play my music when you're asleep, and there I get the energy I'm gonna work with, which is in the music. And from there I take that energy, the same kind, and put it in the painting or in the sculpture. It's all energy. And some people, they connect best with hearing. Some people connect best with seeing. And some people connect best with touching or feeling a sculpture. But in my art, it's all about the same. It's about coming with this— most of the energy, you know, it is this compassionate energy, a peaceful energy. And you know, when you hear my music, you get relaxed, you come into yourself. I hear so many say these things, so I know it's not only me to feel that. And the same I hear when people are seeing my, my paintings, or when they see my sculpture. They connect with it because they connect with this energy who is in it. So it's, it's all the same, it's just coming out in different materials. If I should explain it like that. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. And I, I think that, you know, makes sense in the sense that in the, in the truth is art is all energy, as you're saying, and is very much trying to do the same thing somehow, you know, bringing you something to feel. And when you are, you have the ability like you do to express this energy in so many different outlets, um, it's, it's gonna create something that is very unique and special. Now, do you— I don't know very many artists that are also good composers and musicians. Um, do you know any others that you could say you could look at or that inspired you in the past who do all this? No, I don't know. That's what I was thinking. No. Yeah, that's what I thought, yeah, yeah. But you know, when you were a student then and you were studying art, were you looking at someone that thinking, you know, one day I would like to become like this person or that artist, you know? You know, very clear path in front of you. Yeah, I was— when I was young and I played guitar You know, my biggest composer, this was like Bach and Beethoven, it was Villa-Lobos. I love Villa-Lobos. Oh yeah. Some other Spanish composers. And you know, from, I really think that these composers and this music I played that time, You know, that they were, they are grounded in my heart. You know, when you're young, you, you, you set your, your, you make your ground. And already when I was, I remember when I was 7 years old, I told my mom I, I want to, I wanted to play cello, but we didn't have money enough for that. So it was, we could rent a guitar, so that was it. And that's all my guitar teacher that time that I want to create music. And he looked like, I mean, you can't do that, I can't learn you that, you can't learn that. And I was very, very disappointed. Anyway, I kept going with making this classical guitar education there, and I wanted to be that one. So, and my teacher wanted to take me out of school when I was 12 years old because He thought I was so talented and came to my home and cried for her 3 times in a row. And but she didn't give in, she didn't want me to go to the music academy in Copenhagen. Oh, anyway, so I thought, what do I do now? Okay, I take this education I have to do and go in this called Gymnasium, and then after that I can search into the music academy, but I didn't went so far because I couldn't do this. I was not a student that could do this kind of thing, so I dropped out and then I went to be— make sculptures instead. My grandfather was a very well-known sculptor in Denmark and He was very, very, very kind and very, very— he stimulated me with many ideas and took me around and looked at his things and told me all kinds of stuff. So he was a very big inspiration for me. And he said, you know, go and take the education where you learn the handwork. First, later on you could become an artist. So I did that and I got— you know, I love this, uh, sculpture, uh, Zúñiga, the Mexican sculptor Zúñiga. Yeah, you know him? He's fantastic. So he was one of my idols. And still are, yeah. And Moore, William Moore, I think it is, yeah. So that time it was very sculpture and I traveled around and I looked at sculpture in whole Europe and yeah, I traveled a lot. So then later on when I also painted later on the side But painting first come when I had met my husband over here, because he is a painter and he learned me how to paint. So then the painting came and then the music came. Wow, well, in a way, you know, you use your hand for all of these, particularly the piano and the sculpture, so you're really getting the sound out with your fingers. So I think it's very much related, you know, with those and make a sculpture of sound. So I really like this. But the next— yeah, the next piece we're gonna listen is the opening one from your album Hope of Angels. So it's the first track, it is called Angel Arcadia. And this was Angela Arcadia. From the album Hope of Angels by— performed and composed by Karen Salikhat Jamali. Karen, really, really beautiful. Now I wanted to ask you, because, you know, we're talking about inspiration, um, is there any other woman composer or performer or sculptor that you admire? Yeah, Francisco Zúñiga, the sculptor, I really love him. And as a composer, you know, I reach back to Beethoven, Chopin, and I love Villa-Lobos. But in my own music, you know, it really coming to me from above. And I discover more, you know, I play and the more I work with it, I discover, as you said before, that how much music is like sculpting and how there is rules like in mathematics. Everything have their place and everything is in order, and you have to follow this beautiful creation of order. Everything is in, then thing just come by itself. And this, yeah, this is just the beauty with creating, to come into this invisible world of that everything is built by specific laws you cannot break. You have to follow them. And this is in music, this is in art, this is in mathematics, and I believe it is in science also. So that way everything You know, and it's also in our own lives that we have to follow the rules, the laws that nature has set for us here on Earth. And when I make this kind of music and this kind of art, it is really what I'm trying to put out from me to the world. And why this album have the name Hope of Angels, and why I put these angels in there, that we have to connect with the insight in us for making this world a more peaceful place. We really need right now, everywhere in the world, there's chaos everywhere, and it really starts with ourselves. We cannot change this world without changing ourselves, and we had to start from inside. So I hope with this music I'm making, one by one, person who listening to, just they get one little minute of peace, and I hope to have given a little peace to this world. That is really my main thing. Well, that's very beautiful, um, and very important, I think. Um, and I guess this is somehow what we all try to do with art, music, sculpture, painting. Um, so yeah, I'm— I really love it. And particularly, you're talking about the calm, and somehow when we had the COVID pandemic and the whole world had to stand still That was an incredible moment of calm. How did you live that moment? Was it calm for you? Was it like somehow the world listened to the angels in a way? Because it was quite surreal, you know, suddenly you had the nature coming back to the streets and to the cities and taking back, you know, the world that we had somehow taken over with the busy schedule that's getting busier and busier and busier. Yeah. So this, you know, how I so slowly come back to this world was a really, you know, one of the most hardest thing I ever tried. And because I thought I will never be able to speak, I will never be able to work. And then I thought I lay in darkness and couldn't have sound or light anymore. I really thought that this would be the rest of my life. Um, and you know, this music that came to me healed me. This sound, a healing sound. And the more I played, the better I became. And but in the start it was 10 minutes a month I become better. After 3 years, you know, I could work slowly 3 hours a day, maximum 2-3 hours a day. And I knew I had this portion of energy and that was it. So I was very particular what I was using my energy to. And that still hold, you know, I really have to schedule my day. I have to be very tight what I'm doing because you only have the energy you have. So I really learned my lesson there to be focused on the most important things in life. And also that this life is very, very short. It just like a nips with a finger and then it's gone. And what are you doing here on Earth? What is it that's most important? And that is to create love, joy, and light. That is the only thing that exists. Nothing else really exists. And there is no time. There's only time here on Earth where we feeling time, but when we are back In the light, there's no time. There's no time outside Earth. It's only here you have the time, and we only have these time around the sun on this Earth, and they go very, very quickly. So you really have to— it doesn't— very, very careful of what you're using your time on. So Because the worst thing would be you come back in the light on the other side and you have not done what you were supposed to do, then you really have wasted your life. So that was what I learned, some of the stuff. No, it's, it's, it's very deep, and it's very important, and it's very beautiful what you're saying. And I hope the people listening, uh, you know, are sharing, you know, your thoughts or understanding, um, as deep as I am. Um, now to be on a lighter, um, question, uh, you performed the Carnegie Hall, that is the temple of classical music basically. Um, was that the most challenging place you performed? Were you nervous when you performed there? Oh my Oh, it was my first public concert. I was shaking on my fingers. I didn't know if I was playing right, but it worked. It worked out. Wow. Yeah. Did you perform somewhere else or you mainly record? No, I In fact, I have only performed there. Not bad. I tried all the stages. I was on the big stage here this summer. Yeah, Sterns Auditorium. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Oh, you think you are in a dream. Yeah. All right, well, the next one we're gonna listen to is the next Angel. It's Angel Shamuel, the Angel of Love, from the album Hope of Angels. Yes, Hope of Angels by Karen Salike Jamali. And this was Angel Shamuel from Hope of Angels by Karen Salikat Jamal. Karen, did you record this one on your beautiful Steinway, or you went to a recording studio? Yes, I record all my pieces on my Steinway here. In my home studio. So that's quite beautiful because you are in your own space and you have, you know, the time and the opportunity, you know, to think about. And, and it's quite, it's quite relaxing. Now, normally in the last part I ask about other, um, hobbies, or do you have any other passion, um, apart from— do you have time to have any? Yeah, exactly. Do I have time? Yeah, I, I love, I love to be in nature, and it is from nature I get my inspiration. It is in nature I get my peace. So I love that, and I also love to grow my own roses. Oh, beautiful. I love that, but And then of course travel back and forward from Denmark to United States and yeah, often other places also. So I love travel too. And what was the most— yeah, and then— yeah, I don't know, I don't have so much time more than that in my life. No, but what I wanted to ask you, what was the most unexpected place that you visited, you know, a place that you didn't think it would be that amazing? I just love Italy. I love the Italian people. They adore art and they adore artists and they really understand art. I think of people where I have— and I have nearly been everywhere— The Italian people, they really, really understand art and adore it and respect artists. Well, I'm coming from Denmark, they don't respect artists really. It was easier for me that time to say I'm just a homegoing mom, say that I was an artist, it's the worst thing you could say. No respect. I don't even want to speak with you. So, but in Italy, all men, they just love art. So I love them too, and I love their nature and their culture and their food. Even they're crazy sometimes, that's okay. I love crazy people. Yes, yes, yes, they are. Another place I really love is Japan. I have been there a couple of times. There, you know, the art of nature. Yeah, it's very special. The Zen, I love it too. Yeah, very beautiful. Now I have another question. Do you have any funny experience that you can share with us happening, for example, uh, at one of your exhibitions or, you know, one of your concerts? Um, normally what we do when we have performers, we ask them if anything crazy happened, like forgetting the concert dress or the shoes before going on the beach or tripping on the steps, you know. Now, for you, I would like two examples. One, when you performed, if you have any, and the other one, um, when you were maybe doing the vernissage— I don't know how do you say— the first opening, the opening of an art exhibition. Maybe someone, you know, mistaking you for someone else, not knowing you were the artist, for example. Do you have any of these stories? I have a very bad one. I had a— I had this huge solo exhibition on a museum in Tokyo, and I worked for it for more than a year, and there was a huge dinner and all the prominent people in Tokyo were coming And guess what? I got pneumonia and I couldn't come. It was maybe the most embarrassing thing I ever have been able to— oh, that was just so embarrassing. And I was on TV and filming, and they have put all the amazing food and for this dinner, and my art, that it was just— and I was not there. No, you can't do that in Japan. You cannot do things like that. I know, you have to go with the fever. I was so sick. I was so sick. So, and my music, yeah, yeah, you know, I had not so much experience with. I've only performed 8 times, but I would say the worst thing is that I really get nervous And then I'm afraid I can't play. And then I shaking on my hand. I remember one time I was shaking so much on my hand that I hardly could reach the notes, but I made it. But, um, that's— yeah. And then I couldn't— oh yeah, I couldn't get my dress on. I was stuck inside my dress. And I have to go to the stage and somebody help me off my dress. Yeah, oh no, no, no, that was not good. But I mean, that's not maybe the worst. No, but the dress malfunction is quite common, unfortunately. So those are crazy. Does it happen as a sculptor, like you go to a vernissage and suddenly your dress is failing you? Or somehow it is a show, you know, when everyone is coming for the grand opening, apart from when you missed it when you were in Japan. But at the time, well, I love art, and I've been to the opening of many exhibitions of my friends, and I think it's really, you know, beautiful. And it's such an art— people in general, you know, there is this extra element of understanding, you know, from a color, from a shape, from nothing, and they take out and they produce these incredible things like you do. So that's That's really incredible, special. Now, have you been at the Grammys? You're a voting member of the Recording Academy. Did you have the opportunity to go? Uh, unfortunately, no, no, I, I, not yet. The last two albums I made was up for the consideration, but, uh, well, it's very difficult, you know, it's very difficult to make it to the shortlist, to the nominees. Yeah, but still, it's, it's fun to go and, uh, to meet with so many other artists. So hopefully we will meet each other next time and next year. Let's make a date. Yeah, let's do that. I will meet there in person. That would be fantastic. Yeah, we had previously on Future Classic Women Awards Masa Takumi, who won the Grammys this year. And he is so good. I love him. Yeah, he was amazing. And the other one that was competing on the chamber music album was the Naev Trio, but unfortunately they didn't— I mean, win. I mean, they made to the nominees. So already it is a winner, that one. Um, and it's such a celebration of music, is really fantastic. I love it when it's the Grammy season and you get all these, uh, um, albums to listen, and so much inspiration, so much— yeah, creativity, and so much new. As I love to hear all these new music coming from all over the world, you know, it's so interesting. Yeah. Now, what would be your next project? Do you already have something in your pipe? Pipeline, or for now you are concentrating on this album? No, I'm making a new album. So, um, I just released a little single, and they're coming a new one in about 6 weeks or something like that. And then I'm gonna make a whole album, uh, which I'm working on. So, um, Yeah, well, we actually have that single that is called Angel Stars that was released on 26th of January, so really recently. And, um, well, I'm too curious to listen to it. Let's listen to it and then you tell us a bit about this new album, okay? Yes, thank you. And this was Angel Stars. This is the new single released on 26th of January by our special guest of Future Classic Women Awards, Karen Salikath Jamal. Karen, so you said this is going to be part of a new album. Can you tell us a little bit more about this new upcoming album? Uh, yeah, it's a secret. I don't want to push on the secret. It's hard to— you know, I get so much music down every day, which I record every day, and then I'm collecting the best of them. And in a lot of my music, you know, it's very simple. I love simplicity. But yeah, in the new one that's coming here is a little more complicated, compact, and diverse in its creation. And still it's very calm. You remember you told me, you find the upbeat music for the end. Yes. I did the opposite. I found the most calm down pieces you could have. So, Anna, yeah, we're gonna finish this wonderful interview very relaxed, very inspired, very in tune with nature. So it's really been pleasure, you know, having you on Future Classic Women Awards on the women's radio station. Now, do you have any upcoming exhibition then? You know, we have a gallery here in, in Orlando where me and my husband have our art exhibit every day. Ah, so, and then we are opening up one in Fort Lauderdale in a couple of months. So this is also a big part of my life, to take care of this gallery, all what's going on. Wow, that sounds fantastic. If we want to see your art, we can come and visit you in Orlando, Florida. Yes, please come. And do you play your music? Do you play your music in your art gallery? Yeah, we play my CDs, albums. Yeah, yeah. But my— because I'm sure— yeah, no, what I'm saying is that I'm sure it's gonna be very, very special to be walking around while listening to your wonderful music and watching, you know, the art that you produced at the same time. So very special. Wow, thank you so much, Karen. Karen Salikat Jamal, our very special guest and nominees for Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station. If you would like to ask more questions to our guests or nominations for our Future Classic Women Awards, please email presenters@womensradiostation.com or tweet us @WomensRadioStn. Again, a very big thanks to our guest Karen Salikhat Jamali for the great chat and the really beautiful music played today. Thank you, Stefina, it was a pleasure. The pleasure was ours. You've been listening to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station live every day at 10 AM and 10 PM London time. And if you would like to listen to it again or catch up on our previous programs, you can head to my presenter's page, Stefania Passamonte, Future Classical Women Awards on womensradiostation.com. Thank you for listening.
