Aruna Sairam & Ganavya

Aruna Sairam has created and performed a dazzling range of South Indian classical music repertoire in varied spaces from intimate chamber settings and salon music concerts to large auditoria. (The Padma Shri is one of India’s civilian honours presented in recognition of distinguished contributions to Indian culture and society.) Her repertoire includes varying classical, semi-classical and folk music forms and genres in several languages. Her music has also provided sound for dance, film and television. By continuously interacting with international musicians, Aruna communicates through music that goes beyond geographic borders, regional contexts and cultural mores. She uses melody as a language of basic and refined human expression.

Tamil Nadu-raised and New York-born critically acclaimed vocalist Ganavya lives, learns, and loves fluidly from the nexus of many frameworks and understandings. Hers is a deeply profound and rooted voice.  A multidisciplinary creator, she is a soundsmith and wordsmith. Trained as an improviser, scholar, dancer, and multi-instrumentalist, she maintains an inner library of “spi/ritual” blueprints offered to her by an intergenerational constellation of collaborators, continuously anchoring her practice in pasts, presents and, futures. Much of her childhood was on the pilgrimage trail, learning the storytelling art form of harikathā and singing poetry that critiques hierarchal social structures. She is a co-founder of the non-hierarchical We Have Voice Collective.