Kristi Martel

Biography

Kristi Martel (born 1973), is a singer, songwriter, performance artist and yogini based in Rhode Island. She has recorded much of her music, and has toured extensively across the United States and Canada, giving concerts in many cities. She also teaches classes in a variety of yoga methods.

Background

Martel was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, in 1973, and moved to Rhode Island at age five. She studied music, theatre, dance, poetry, and performance art at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, earning a bachelor's degree in 1994. She pursued similar subjects at Mills College in Oakland, California, receiving a master's degree in 1998. She began performing and recording original music and performance art.
From 1997 to 2001, she taught at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, California. In 2000, she suffered a back injury while studying jiu-jitsu. She turned to yoga to rebuild her strength and improve her mobility. This sparked a serious interest in yoga, which led to yoga teacher training Yogaphoria in New Hope, Pennsylvania. She has studied with several prominent yogi and learned meditation, kinesiology, herbal healing, and integrated energy therapy to complement the more traditional yoga.
She has since returned to Rhode Island, where she teaches yoga, voice, and piano. Her musical style mixes jazz, soul and rock styles, combined with her classical training. She incorporates her own personal experiences as well as yoga philosophy into the music and into the lyrics. She continues to record and to give concerts, and for two years was music director at a local Rhode Island radio station.