projects

UNFRETTED

Violinist Sruti Sarathy and chitravina (South Indian fretless lute) exponent Vishaal Sapuram bring you a profound Carnatic string experience. Bow meets slide, antiquity meets modernity, and the two fretless instruments of the Carnatic tradition voice a colorful story of South Indian strings.

SONGS FOR MANY LIVES

What are the sounds of the South Asian American immigrant experience in the Bay Area? Sruti Sarathy and Roopa Mahadevan sing new Carnatic songs about Desi American life in its radicality and richness.

Listen to “Tinku’s Wedding Song,” a speculative re-creation of the sweet love song performed at one of the first gay wedding ceremonies, held in Tilden Park, Berkeley. In “Song for a Dead Sister,” two voices, one in English and one in Telugu, converse across the ragas Mayamalavagaula and Sahana to mourn the loss of and violence against a young girl in our community. In “Tillana Paduvome,” the dance of Carnatic rhythms urges us to make art that celebrates friendship and calls for justice.

In Songs for Many Lives, Carnatic music takes root in a context close to home: our lives as immigrants to the Bay Area.