Thursday Satsang In-Person and Via Zoom – October 23, 2025
“Musika Medica” with with Maja Radovanlij, Molly Sturges, and Sara Pajunen
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
5:30-6:45 p.m.: Gentle Hatha Yoga – TBD
7:00-7:30 p.m.: Meditation guided by Swami Radha Bharati
7:30-8:30 p.m.: “Musika Medica” with with Maja Radovanlija, Molly Sturges and Sara Pajunen
8:30 p.m.: Evening Chants
8:40 p.m.: Tea and Snacks
Everyone is welcome!!!
About Musika Medica
Musika Medica is a women-led improvisational music, collective healing and meditation project that weaves together deep listening, musical exploration, and embodied inquiry. Rooted in the practice of attunement, the project responds organically to each unique context, creating experiences that transcend traditional performance boundaries. By collaborating with guest musicians, storytellers, and diverse community voices, Musika Medica crafts immersive concerts, workshops, and restorative performances that invite rest, reflection, and creative wondering.
Founders
Maja Radovanlija is a versatile guitarist and musical explorer whose artistic journey spans continents and musical traditions. Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 1975, she brings nearly two decades of classical guitar training from Eastern Europe, and Indiana University, Bloomington. Her musical path has been defined by a rich tapestry of collaborations that traverse diverse genres, from Balkan traditional music to jazz, intuitive free improvisation, and experimental soundscapes. Radovanlija is an active member of multiple distinguished ensembles, including the Szilard Mezéi ensemble, Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Ensemble Studio6, MM Guitar duo, the Linda Chatterton-Radovanlija guitar/flute duo, and the Satu Jiwa improvised music collective. Her innovative approach to music-making reflects a deep commitment to cross-cultural musical dialogue and creative expression.
Molly Sturges is a healing-centered composer, soundrest artist, musical improviser, meditation teacher, and community healing facilitator, with over three decades working at the intersection of music, ceremony infused improvisation, collective healing, contemplative practice, and social justice. A United States Artist Fellow in Music, Molly brings depth and innovation to her research and creative endeavors. She has led and participated in a wide range projects including community sourced arts activations, creating and performing music for circus, sound installation creation, directing creative music ensembles and creating-directing Lifesongs, an intergenerationald music and end of life project for over twelve years. Currently Molly serves as a senior researcher in music and health and as founder/director of Waking The Oracle, an arts, earth kinship, and wellbeing project at University of Minnesota’s Medical School and Center for Spirituality & Healing. www.mollysturges.com
Sara Pajunen is an interdisciplinary artist based in Minnesota (USA), specializing in music and the sonic arts.
Her work blends folk traditions (violin, hardanger d’amore, voice), still and moving imagery, environmental recordings, and improvisation. Born into the immigrant culture of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, Pajunen’s artistic practice is driven by the interactions of her ancestral roots, American cultural histories, and a deep connection to environments through sound. While questioning dominant American narratives, she searches for long-rhythm values and uncovers beauty and familiarity in the overlooked.
As a composer and improviser, Pajunen challenges conventional boundaries between noise and music, using sound to alter our perception of the physical world. She has studied composition and improvisation with Tanya Kalmanovitch, Anthony Coleman, and Ted Reichman and environmental recording with Chris Watson, Jez Riley French, and Jana Winderen. Longterm project Mine Songs: Sounding an Altered Landscape explores the transformed environment of the Mesabi Iron Range, investigating the fissure in our relationship with the earth and the complex stories we tell ourselves (or have been told) about history, power, identity, and agency. Works from Mine Songs have been presented on stage, in galleries, and as a 2024 audio album.
Steeped in both folk and classical music since childhood, Pajunen has studied folk traditions extensively in the Nordic countries [with Arto Järvelä and Ritva Talvitie (Finland), Benedicte Maurseth and Knut Hamre (Norway), and Mats Edén (Sweden)] and has released six audio albums that use traditional music in progressive yet reverent ways.
Pajunen has performed extensively in Europe and North America and her work has received funding from the Jerome Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, Kone Foundation, New Music USA, American Scandinavian Foundation, and the Arts Council of Finland – amongst others. She holds classical music degrees in both the United States and Finland, and a Master of Music in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory.
CONTACT
Maja Radovanlija, mradovan@umn.edu , 763-300-9795
Molly Sturges, mollysturges@gmail.com , 505-660-9473
