Biography

Artful Music for Evolving People.
Nijole (pronounced Neola) Sparkis arrives at her dreamy pop/world/spiritual sound through a diverse set of influences. Born and raised on Chicago's South Side in a tight-knit Lithuanian community, Nijole’s vocal arrangements are influenced by the spontaneous 5-part choral harmonies that commonly erupted at social gatherings (Lithuania is the country that staged the Singing Revolution in 1991, ending their 51-year Soviet occupation). But while listening to the pop/rock music of the day, Nijole became especially fascinated with the combinations of old and new, modern pop and ancient folk, that were being created by Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Sting, Kate Bush’s use of the Bulgarian Women’s Choir, or David Bowie’s Middle Eastern-influenced “Lodger” album.

Nijole grew up on stage, acting and declaiming Lithuanian poetry, but she soon started writing songs and singing with neighborhood bands. She studied jazz and 20th Century Music composition at De Paul University, where she also expanded her spiritual studies thru Comparative Eastern Religion and Creation Mythologies courses. At the same time, voice teacher Doug Susu-Mago opened up her voice range to a full 4 octaves thru the study of arias in 4 languages. Upon receiving her Bachelor’s in Music Theory, magna cum laude, Nijole toured the Midwest playing cover songs and some originals, studied poetry writing at Antioch U. in London, and then moved to Los Angeles, where she played clubs and festivals with an all-originals band, organized an a cappella all-girl trio and a Lithuanian singing duo. She acted in performance art and avant-theatrical shows and independent films, contributing singing to some of these projects, including singing the theme song for the DVD release of “Timothy Leary’s Dead”. She opened her own voice teaching studio, The Vocal Point, taught singing at the legendary Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute (made famous by The Actor's Studio TV show), and also for the Disney Channel, where she witnessed the careers of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and Jessica Simpson, among others.

Nijole’s CD “Parallel Universe” features mystical pop songs with haunting Lithuanian background vocals, lush world music instrumentation, and inspirational lyrics. Her songs are regularly featured on veteran FM Underground DJ Jim Ladd’s Theatre of the Mind radio show “Headsets” on Los Angeles’s #1 Classic Rock radio station, KLOS-FM, as well as various podcasts, Internet and underground radio stations. Her music video “In My Dreams” was broadcast on Comcast Cable Network’s groundbreaking Visual Music On Demand service, Harmony Channel in 2006. And she co-wrote and sang 3 tracks on organic animator John Banks’ and electro-classical composer Fritz Heede’s second DVD “Ritual Path”, currently available at most Barnes & Noble bookstores and other national outlets. The DVD also features vocals by Jon Anderson, lead singer of “Yes”. Nijole just completed multiple tracks of background singing on Jon Anderson and Fritz Heede’s next Trance-Scendant Dance album, due out in 2009. Recently, her song "Everything" was included in the documentary "Belonging" which premiered at the Vancouver Film Festival in Oct. 2008. Nijole’s influences and favorite female vocalists are England's Kate Bush, Ireland's Enya and Sinead O'Connor, Australia's Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance), Norway's Anneli Drecker (Bel Canto), Russia's Milla Jovovich, Canada's Loreena McKennitt, Scotland's Eddie Reader, India's Najma, Morocco's Amina, and Egypt's Natacha Atlas.