same time he heard an interview with the English musician Jill Purce, one of the pioneers of overtone chanting in the West, on KPFA radio in Berkeley, California, and obtained her recording. Seven years later he found a Tuvan record at a local record store called Tuva: Voices From the Center of Asia, and listened to it "continuously". Based on that record and extended experimentation, he was able to teach himself the vocal techniques called Khoomei, Sygyt and Kargyraa: Pena also taught himself Tuvan. There were no Tuvan-to-English translation dictionaries, so Pena used two dictionaries: Tuvan-to-Russian and Russian-to-English. He used a device called an Optacon to scan the pages and convert the printed words into tactile sensations he could read with his finger. Pena attended a performance of Tuvan throat singing at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco on February 6, 1993. He performed an impromptu Tuvan song in the kargyraa style, which impressed famous Tuvan throatsinger Kongar-ol Ondar. Ondar invited Pena to sing in the second international Khoomei Symposium in 1995 in Kyzyl, Tuva. Pena travelled to Tuva and was the first westerner to compete in the Symposium. He placed first in the Kargyraa contest and also won the "audience favorite" category. Tuvans affectionately call him "Cher Shimjer" (which means "earthquake", , ), because of the deepness of his voice. Pena said, "My voice is lower than most Tuvans. They have a style that makes your voice lower. When I use that, there's a slow song when I hit a note that's four white keys from the left of the piano." The 1999 film Genghis Blues documented Pena's journey to Tuva. It won the 1999 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for a Documentary. It was also nominated for an Academy Award in 2000 in the Documentary Feature category. Health issues and death In 1997 Pena was severely injured after his bedroom caught fire. He suffered from smoke inhalation and was in a coma for four days. Pena had diabetes. He also waged a long battle with pancreatic illness, and was originally mis-diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He began chemotherapy treatments and doctors gave him six months to live. In 2000 he was properly diagnosed with pancreatitis, a life-threatening illness. Pena died in his San Francisco, California, apartment of complications from diabetes and pancreatitis on October 1, 2005. Discography Studio albums Paul Pena, released in 1972 by Capitol Records (re-released