Destiny Best has always been interested in singing in different languages. As a child in the Toronto Children’s Chorus she sang in approximately 15 languages, and as a student in Holland College’s Music Performance program, she sang in Italian, performing Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot during the opening gala of the Florence Simmons Performance Hall.

But this time, she’s taken on not only a different language but an entirely different musical style – singing Buddhist sacred music in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mandarin for an EP in collaboration with the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS).

Destiny met some of the monks this past May, during an open house at the GEBIS centre, located in Little Sands, Prince Edward Island. After discussing her interest in music with the monastery’s executive secretary, Geoffrey Yang, he proposed an interesting project: to record more than 800 songs of praise composed by the group’s leader, Master Zhen-Ru.

Destiny is provided with a recording of the songs, along with a Romanization of the lyrics, and instrumental tracks recorded by members of the Dream Lotus Symphony Orchestra. So far, Destiny has recorded four of the songs, which you can hear on the EP Do It With All Your Heart, along with a Mandarin version of Brahms’ Lullaby:  https://destinybest.bandcamp.com/album/do-it-with-all-your-heart.

Plans are in the works to develop a video of one of the songs.