From Tour in 2024 to Fire in 2025
Former Opera Singer turned Singer-Songwriter
Susan Mohini Kane was raised in a musical family in Iowa and has been writing songs and performing them since she was seven years old. She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the University of Iowa and her Masters and Doctorate in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. These academic degrees took Susan in the direction of classical music. After her undergraduate degree Susan moved to the big city of Chicago. In Chicago she taught elementary music while performing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus under the baton of Margaret Hillis on such recordings as the Bach St. Matthew Passion and Beethoven 9th Symphony and she also performed with the a cappella group, Bon Tempo, while also singing with the Chicago Gilbert & Sulllivan Society and conducting at the Chicago Children's Choir and teaching piano and guitar lessons on the side!
While in Cincinnati for graduate school Susan performed with the renowned Vocal Arts Ensemble where she soloed with the famous bassist, Berry Green (Inner Game of Music) and she also performed with the amazing Percussion Group (now called PGC) and the Cincinnati Wind Ensemble. In 2001 after receiving her Doctorate, Susan leapt into solo performing with regioinal operas and orchestras while teaching full time in a tenure-track position at Cal State LA. She performed professionally at Cleveland Opera Theatre in Ohio (Marriage of Figaro), Carnegie Opera Theatre in Kentucky (Impressario), Independent Opera Company in California (Tragédie de Carmen), Opera in the Ozarks in Arkansas (Magic Flute, Werther, Village Singer), Paducah Symphony in Kentucky (Lord Nelson Mass, Messiah, Mozart Requiem), and Bakersfield Symphony (Dvorak Te Deum, Cosi fan tutti, Messiah). Every summer and holiday she wrote songs and performed them in her local community.
In 2009 Susan Mohini Kane recorded her first album of her favorite classical music, A Moment of Joy, and in 2015 her second album of all vocalises, From the Heart was released. During that time her classical cabaret duo, Kristof & Kane, were performing in America and abroad. Oxford University Press published her first book in 2015: The 21st-Century Singer, Making the Leap from the University into the World, a sort of career guide for up and coming singers. It was the effect of these projects that caused Susan to look for even more meaningful ways to contribute to the well-being of all through music.
Finally in 2020, during Covid, Mohini realized that life is short and she'd better take her own adivce and make the leap from the university into the world. That is exactly what she did. Her first solo album of original songs, Waking Up in Wonderland, came out in November of 2023 and she joined the Academy of Recording Artists just after her spring tour in 2024. On a roll, Susan was in the middle of writing her second album of original songs when the Eaton Fire hit in her hometown of Altadena, CA. At this writing (May 2, 2025) she is still displaced from her home which is still standing but heavily damaged. Right now she is helping everywhere she can, especially with altadenamusicians.org, which recovers musical instruments for those who lost everything in the fire. She is hoping to start back to her own work very soon.
Classical Cabaret Show with Kristof & Kane
Hello! My name is Susan “Mohini” Kane
I perform as simply Mohini, which rhymes with yogini. And indeed I am a yogini, I've been practicing meditation, hatha yoga, chanting, studying spiritual texts from all over the world, and trying to be a good person for many decades. To that end I have a spiritual teacher, a guru, who has directed my practices and who graciously gifted me the spiritual name of Mohini back in the 90's and somehow, it stuck. Many of my friends call me Mohini, or simply, Mo. I embrace that name as my performer name as well as my spiritual name because it means “enchantress”. I do not wish to appropriate anyone's culture by adopting this as my public name and I hope you will forgive it. Mohini's story incorporates my own mission as a singer-songwriter and Indie artist. My mission is: to taste and share the nectar of happiness by creating and performing beautiful, love-filled music.
The story of Mohini goes back to the ancient world when it was just coming into existence with the churning of the oceans. Just as the amrita, or the nectar of happiness, appeared, two demon brothers stole it! These demons were crafty - they had made a pact with the gods that no one could kill them except each other. The world was plunged into bleakness…the people called out to one of their favorite gods named Vishnu to help them. Vishnu hatched a plan to make himself into a beautiful woman to seduce the two demon brothers into being so jealous of the other that they would fight to the death, which indeed they did, and both died. Vishnu as Mohini had saved the amrita, the nectar of happiness, for the world.
Back to the present day, we all have our inner demons of fear, anxiety, greed, anger…and these can cause us to be our own worst enemies. We simply cannot let them win! I'm here to be your siren, the call to love, to offer my beautiful, love-filled self and music to only you…my hero, in desperate need of a little respite from fighting the good fight.
When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, prosperity, happiness. All the good things. ~Maya Angelou
Mohini's Waking Up in Wonderland…
Mohini is a seasoned artist who has released her third album in a style that could be called “Soulful Americana” - a mixup of her influences of classical, pop, folk, & jazz. As a Voting member of The Recording Academy for the Grammys ® ~ Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from CCM ~ author of The 21st-Century Singer (Oxford University Press), Mohini submitted her new album, Waking Up in Wonderland to the Grammys® 2025. Though none of her songs gleaned a nomination this year, she did get this lovely message from a Grammy-nominated® artist…