Birdheart

Theatre Production

Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane’s BIRDHEART – An intimate and stunning chamber piece of animated theatre with a sheet of brown paper and a box of sand. A show about transformation, loneliness, and the urge to fly, BIRDHEART holds a hand-mirror up to humanity and offers it a chair. Through a series of animated images built in front of the audiences’ eyes BIRDHEART creates something achingly beautiful from the humblest of beginnings.

The show tells a story of man’s relationship to the world. An egg lies on the sand, and from the egg is born a large sheet of crumpled brown paper. The sheet of paper pulls elements up out of the sand; different hands, feet, heads. Sometimes the paper opens outwards and shadow images are projected in the heart of the paper figure. The figure dreams of a bird. Eventually, the sheet of paper transforms itself into a large paper bird, lays an egg, and flies off.

The onstage creation of something from nothing is at the very heart of the piece. The brown paper suggests the soul and emotion of the metamorphosing puppet, and the objects that are pulled from the sand give identity and story to the shifting characters. The egg reminds us of where we all come from. The uncontrollable nature of the material means that each show is different and grows organically in the moment.

Birdheart features a recorded soundtrack of double bass and banjo composed and performed by Saskia Lane and Julian Crouch.

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller

Sound Installation Artists

Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller live and work in British Columbia, Canada. The artists are internationally recognized for their immersive multimedia sound installations and their audio/video walks. They have created recent video walks at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2019), and for the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh (2019). Over the last few years, Janet and George have shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2019) Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico (2019); Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (2018); 21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Japan (2017); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2017); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark (2015); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2015); Menil Collection, Houston (2015); 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2013); and Documents 13, Kassel (2012). In 2020 they were awarded the Wilhelm Lehmbruck prize for sculpture and in 2011 they received Germany’s Käthe Kollwitz Prize. In 2001, Cardiff and Miller represented Canada at the 49th Venice Biennale , for which they received the Premio Speciale and the Benesse Prize.

Click here to learn more about Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller.

Read on for an exclusive Q&A with Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller ahead of the Summit:

What does wellbeing mean to you?

Well-being is a state of mind that is essential to the healthy functioning of our whole body. I find that my own sense of well being is connected not only with treating my body and mind well but also by the action of creativity. Through playing in the studio I’m able to feel fuller and happier.

Why are you looking forward to being part of The Wellbeing Summit?

When creating monumental sculpture, I consider how our architectural surroundings influence and affect our state of mind.

How does your work connect to wellbeing?

We are creating an artwork that uses the concept of “voice toning”, a therapeutic practice where the natural vibrations of voices help to contribute to healing and well being. Our piece will play back a collection of “voice tones” creating a calming listening environment. Additionally, we will invite audience members to participate in the making of the piece over the course of the conference by adding their own “voice toning” that will then be mixed into the piece. We believe that creating as well as experiencing artworks contributes to wellbeing. In this piece we are excited that each audience member will be able to both experience the therapeutic elements of the artwork but also contribute their own voice to the wellbeing of others in the community.

Connect with Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller on social media :

Gerald Wirth

Professor and Choirmaster

Prof. Gerald Wirth received his first musical training as a member of the Vienna Boys Choir and at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria, where he studied voice, oboe and piano. In 2001, he became artistic director of the Vienna Boys Choir, in 2013, its president.

Wirth was a choirmaster of the Vienna Boys Choir and chorus master at the state theater Salzburg. After 1991, he took over the direction of the Calgary Boys’ Choir, became musical director of the Calgary Civic Symphony in Canada. Gerald Wirth has conducted choirs and orchestras all over the world. His first love is the human voice. He holds workshops all over the world, and he can get practically anyone and anything to sing.

Most of his compositions are vocal works. He has written three children’s operas, several large oratorios, motets, and songs. “Carmina austriaca”, his most recent large-scale work, is a cycle of medival songs for large orchestra, mixed chorus, and boys’ choir. Gerald Wirth is often inspired by myths and philosophical texts.

Over the years he developed his own method of music pedagogy. In 2003 he founded the wirth music academy in order to educate music teachers and choir directors according to the wirth method which combines classical music theory, consciousness for sound, training in listening, rhythm training and singing within a holistic approach.

Gerald Wirth trains teachers in schools with little or no access to music, and supports a number of organisations offering workshops for refugees – children and adults – in Jordan, Greece and others. To him, music is the language of emotions understood by everyone; through music, other subjects become accessible. “Music is a gateway to learning, and this is particularly important for children who have never been to a school.”

He is convinced music has a positive influence on every aspect of a person’s being.

Hope Masike

Musician

Hailed as one of Zimbabwe’s Mbira music custodians, Hope Masike has been bringing her brand of Zimbabwean music to diverse global audiences since 2007.

Masike’s music is a fun-filled hybrid of music styles tied together by her signature sublime Mbira playing, sultry voice, and highly-charged performances. She mostly sings in little-known African languages like her mother tongue, Shona. Her live performances seamlessly move from classic Zimbabwean traditional music to her compositions of of the traditional mbira together-blended with different music styles.

Hope Masike draws her inspiration from all things Art and Africa, leaning very heavily on nearly a century of a strong Mbira music legacy but not ignoring the obvious influences from modernity. She has brilliant hopes for the future of Africa and basks in carrying her African culture with her all the time. Fans come to a Hope Masike concert to have fun, feed their spirituality and experience the beautiful Zimbabwean culture. She takes pride in her culture and heritage, often challenging colonial-induced stigma against it and championing it’s documentation and youthful re-packaging both through her music and brand.

Masike has three studio albums to her name, namely ‘HOPE’ (self-released in May 2009); ‘MBIRA, LOVE AND CHOCOLATE’ (self-released in May 2012) and ‘THE EXORCISM OF A SPINSTER’ released on London-based label Riverboat. She has also published two poetry anthologies; one in English titled ‘Ask Me Again’ and published through Amazon on February 7 2020 and an anthology of Shona Erotic Poems called ‘Dzevabvazera’ published on February 11 2022.

Hope Masike has collaborated with other musicians such as Salif Keita, the late Oliver Mtukudzi, Steve Dyer and Loius Mhlanga. She has several international tour credits including performing in Southern Africa, Asia, Europe and the west coast of America. Her versatile music approach has seen her venture into different music collaborations of note such as with the Afro-Nordic outfit, Monoswezi, the Southern African collaborative, Mahube and the Austrian-Zimbabwean collaboration named ‘Kunzwana’. She has also collaborated with Zimbabwean alternative Hip Hop outfit The Monkey Nuts and American horn band, The Huntertones among many others. In the early years of her career she was part of the Norwegian cultural exchange programme Umoja CFC which composed Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and Norway; and Onebeat music exchange programme which comprised numerous different countries including Zimbabwe and USA.

She has thrilled music lovers and critics globally. She has graced numerous cooperate and national events as well as festivals in Zimbabwe, playing at presidents’ inaugurations, product launches, weddings and many other kinds of events.

Besides performing, Masike is a music teacher, offering lessons in Mbira, voice and Music Theory. She also ventures into mentoring younger musicians through her TribeHope Trust program called ‘The Seven of Us’. Masike has featured in Zimbabwean local soap opera Muzita rababa’; acted in and done scoring for the short film on child marriages called ‘Ruvimbo’s Wedding’; as well as directed her NAMA-nominated 10 years of Hope autobiography documentary ‘One Woman and her Mbira’.

Hope Masike holds a Degree of Music from the Zimbabwe College of Music in affiliation with Africa University, a Diploma in Fine Art and National Certificates in Applied Art and Design and in Musicology. Currently she is studying for a Master of Philosophy in Art with Arrupe Jesuit University in Harare and also studying French with the Alliance Francaise de Harare.

Hope Masike’s work – collaborative and otherwise- has earned her several awards and nominations both locally and internationally, including Zimbabwean NAMA awards, KORA Awards, ZNCC Women in Enterprise Awards and The Zimbabwe Achievers Awards. She has been interviewed by CNN Newsroom, BBC, SABC’s Morning Live, ZTV’s Good Morning Zimbabwe and numerous other platforms in and around Zimbabwe.

Hope Masike is a board member of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, and a member of the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association and Zimbabwe Writers’ Association.

Press

‘An accomplished mbira player and vocalist with a watertight backing band, she balances tradition and experimentation to carry ancient rhythms effortlessly into the 21st century.’ -Liam Brickhill – Mail and Guardian

‘Hope Masike is a mbira musician making a big name for herself.’ -Kumlar Dumor – BBC

‘In motion picture, Hope Masike’s video to Huyai Tinamate can only be likened to Madonna’s epic Frozen video …,’ -Tapiwa Zivira – News Day Zimbabwe..

Links to music

Click here to listen to Shuwa.

Click here to listen to Ndinewe.

Click here to listen to Tsubvubone.

Click here to listen to Huyai Tinamate (Winner Best Video of the Year, NAMA Awards and nominated for KORA Awards under Best Female).

Click here to listen to Povo m’povo.

Click here to listen to Idenga .

Grimanesa Amorós

Interdisciplinary Artist

Grimanesa Amorós was born in Lima, Peru, and lives and works in New York City. She is an interdisciplinary artist whose diverse interests include social history, scientific research, and critical theory. A direct relationship to technology is one of the distinctive features of Amorós’ practice. Some elements must be planned and programmed but others, such as the exact placement of the lines of lights, come to Amorós while she installs. In this sense, the technology does not determine but complements the concepts of her work. Her art incorporates video, lighting, and electronic elements to create monumental sculptures activating architecture and engaging communities.

Grimanesa Amorós draws upon important cultural legacies and landscape for inspiration. Still, she does not hold an essentialist or nostalgic view of her subjects. In the art of Grimanesa Amorós, the past is meeting the future. She is often invited as a keynote speaker at museums, foundations, and universities where her lectures empower young women, attracting future artists, students, and faculty involved in architecture, science, and technology.

Amorós has exhibited in the United States, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. She was a guest speaker at TEDGlobal 2014, a recipient of the ‘NEA Visual Arts Grants Fellowships 1993’, and has the distinction of being part of the ‘Art In Embassies Program of the U.S.’ and the Civita Institute NE Chapter Fellowship Grant. Her work has been exhibited in numerous museums including the Ludwig Museum, CAFA Museum, and Katonah Museum.

For more information about Grimanesa Amorós, visit grimanesaamoros.com

Watch this clip to find out more about Grimanesa and her project to be exhibited at The Wellbeing Summit in Bilbao-Biscay:

Watch this exclusive interview with Grimanesa and Arts Curator, Manuel Bagorro, ahead of the Summit:

FIND OUT ABOUT SCIENTIA TO BE EXHIBITED AT THE SUMMIT

Read on for an exclusive Q&A with Grimanesa Amorós ahead of the Summit:

What does wellbeing mean to you?

I always say that when we have our health, we have everything. Wellbeing is attending to our inner selves.

We must live in balance, physically, mentally, and emotionally. It is a process we are required to nurture and foster throughout our lives, but it is well worth the effort. We cannot effectively share ourselves to the world if we are not whole.

Why are you looking forward to being part of The Wellbeing Summit?

I’m looking forward to contributing to the summit as it allows me a platform to share the message of wellbeing and connection throughout the arts. My goal is to make people think, and to have them become inspired to live more purposeful, creative lives.

How does your work connect to wellbeing?

When creating monumental sculpture, I consider how our architectural surroundings influence and affect our state of mind.

Art provides a means, and has the power to, access our emotional selves. It makes us more empathetic, it gives us the space to nurture and prosper. Studies have shown how light improves our mood and mental health.

As a medium, it has the ability to bridge cultures and diverse audiences; we all connect to light.

Aakash Odedra

Dancer and Choreographer

Aakash Odedra was born in Birmingham, UK and lives in Leicester. He is a globally recognised and award-winning dancer and choreographer. He trained in bharatanatyam and kathak, then moved to India as a student of the renowned Bollywood choreographer Shiamak Davar. Aakash Odedra’s work forms the heart of the company and as a soloist he has performed over 300 full length performances in 40 countries in the past decade. His choreography pushes boundaries, responding to and drawing inspiration from contemporary issues. As a British-Asian, Aakash Odedra uses his voice to translate ancient and contemporary movement languages to tell new stories

Awards include the Amnesty International Award for Freedom of Expression; Best Dance at the Eastern Eye ACTA Awards 2018; a nomination for Best Stage Production at the 2019 Asian Media Awards for #JeSuis; and in 2021, Aakash was a awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours for his services to dance. Notable commissions include James Brown: Get on the Good Foot (Apollo Theater, NY). In 2017 Aakash choreographed the Royal Opera House production Sukanya composed by the late great Pt Ravi Shankar and was movement director for Curve Theatre’s Pink Sari Revolution.

As a solo performer his awards include: Danza&Danza award (Italy); Dora performance award (Canada); Audience Award Dance Week (Croatia); Infant Award (Serbia); Bessie Award New York (Best Male Performer); and a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship.

Connect with Aakash Odedra on social media :

Nikhil Choprra

Indian contemporary artist

Nikhil Chopra is an Indian contemporary artist based in Goa, India. Chopra’s art—a complex amalgam of durational performance, painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography—critically explores issues relating to identity, politics, history, and the body.

Born in Kolkata to a Kashmiri family, after attaining a degree in commerce, Chopra began studying fine arts. After first completing a BFA at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1999, he moved to the United States to further pursue his studies. He completed an MFA at Ohio State University in 2003.

His often improvised performances dwell on issues such as identity, the role of autobiography, the pose and self-portraiture, and the process of transformation. Many of Chopra’s performances originate in Mumbai, but are often re-imagined in different cities around the world. Although not explicitly politically motivated, Chopra’s performances have at times attracted intervention from authorities, which the artist says points to the ongoing critical capacity of drawing and performance.

At the core of Nikhil Chopra’s art are theatricality and performance. The body becomes a tool and canvas for art. He is best known for durational performances in which he takes on the persona of different characters, inspired by personal familial history and broader national, regional, and colonial histories. The paintings, drawings, and other objects these actions create are a residual component—the object legacy—of the performance.

Chopra’s characters draw upon his sensibilities, influences and upbringing in an upper middle-class urban Indian family descended from land-owning aristocracy, yet they are not faithful toautobiography, taking on a life of their own during the performance.The artist employs carefully conceived costume changes, appearance alterations, sets and props as signifiers of identity, fairly fluid and constantly reinvented. As each performance progresses, rituals of transformation, usually informed by common cultural practices, mark the shifts between personages.

Chopra’s most reprised roles include Sir Raja—a figure loosely inspired by the affluent westernised Indian princes of the British Raj period and the artist’s own instilled upper-class sensibilities—and Yog Raj Chitrakar, who presents as a well-travelled, turn-of-the-century landowner and draughtsman, and is partially inspired the artist’s grandfather.

Nikhil Chopra has performed and exhibited his art before a global audience since the mid-2000s. His art has featured in gallery and institutional shows, art fairs, and other major art events worldwide. In the live performance Lands, Waters, and Skies (2019), the artist worked in the galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for nine consecutive days, adopting various personae and critically engaging with the museum’s collection and its organisational principles.

Chopra co-founded the artist-run residency HH Art Spaces in 2014 with his wife Madhavi Gore—a fellow performance artist—and the French performance artist Romain Loustau.

FIND OUT ABOUT WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT TO BE EXHIBITED AT THE SUMMIT

Bishop Dr. Chantel R. Wright

Choir director and Founder of Pneuma Ministries International

Bishop Dr. Chantel R. Wright is an internationally celebrated choir director and the founder of Pneuma Ministries International. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Chantel started her career as an award winning choral conductor and received her formal education at VanderCook College of Music where she earned her BA degree in Music Education. As part of her undergraduate studies, Chantel had the privilege of studying in London, England with Ian Pleeth and traveled throughout Europe as a soloist. She started her professional career in Atlanta, Georgia where she served on the music staff of Ebenezer Baptist Church — home of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and as an educator in Dekalb County Public Schools. After seven years of service, Chantel relocated to New York City and hit the ground running as the new Director of the Girls Choir of Harlem, as well as Minister of Music at the Macedonia Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, New York. An honor celebrated by few women, Chantel lent her talents to working with the youth of Queens, New York as the Artistic Director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra Youth Gospel Choir.

Chantel gained valuable experience as an orchestral conductor, which then inspired her to establish her own non-profit organization, Songs of Solomon: An Inspirational Ensemble, Inc. Almost immediately, Songs of Solomon flourished and was soon featured on major television networks and went on to win at competitions including the Pathmark Gospel Choir Competitions and McDonald’s Gospelfest where it took home the 1st place prize. The Songs of Solomon ensemble also had the privilege of sharing the stage with American Idol winners, Kelly Clarkson and Fantasia Barrino, and served for five years at the US Tennis Open. Under Chantel’s leadership, The Songs of Solomon ensemble also performed with award winning recording artist, Elton John at Radio City Music Hall, sang with opera great, Jessye Norman at the Greenbrier Country Club. Jessye Norman was also the curator of the Honor Choral Music Festival conducted by Dr. Craig Jessop at the world famous Carnegie Hall, where today, the Ensemble is a mainstay. The ensemble has worked tirelessly over the past twenty years under Chantel’s guidance and has garnered national and international acclaim. Songs of Solomon was the featured chorus for the musical “Violet” on the Tony Awards. Songs of Solomon was selected to be a part of the inaugural Lip Sync Battle with Jimmy Fallon on network television. Having recently completing their recording project, “Variations of the War Cry,” Songs of Solomon is actively engaged across the United States and abroad as ambassadors of love.

Being totally committed to the spiritual, intellectual and artistic growth of today’s youth, Chantel knows that the only way to shape a generation of spirited, world class musicians is to work in conjunction with the education system. She then went on to establish The Songs of Solomon Academy for the Arts – an organization that directly serves New York City students in instrumental and vocal music appreciation. Since its inception, the program has given an impressive number of students from the Tri-State area, performance opportunities that rival professional artists around the world. The Academy maintained an artistic partnership with Professional Performing Arts School and the Harlem School of the Arts. As part of Chantel’s love for young people, she has also been actively involved in secured detention centers in the New York area and has continued to work with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections project for youth in detention centers. Bishop Wright is a part of the Weil Institutes Music Educators Workshop, Founder of the Sight-singing Workshop at SAG/Aftra and is a part of the Metopolitan Opera’s education department. Chantel’s Songs of Solomon Academy for the Arts plans to implement The Sounds of Hope Chorale — a trial choral program aimed at fostering an appreciation for music and creating a safe haven for detained youth at Rikers Island and the Horizion detention center in Brooklyn, New York. After a successful trial run, Chantel hopes to roll out the program nationally.

Bishop Wright has been sought out as a choral clinician nationally and internationally. For two consecutive years as the choir master for the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, South Africa, as well as the Roma Gospel Festival in Rome, Italy. Chantel is a mainstay at the Ithaca Gospel Music Festival. As an initiative for aspiring artist, the government of the island of Bermuda engaged Chantel to do a series of workshops and a culminating festival. Most recently, Bishop Wright served at the Fede Gospel Festival in Barcelona, Spain and the Coro Gospel Festival in Vigo Spain.

Dr. Chantel R. Wright holds a PhD in Theology and serves as a New York State Chaplain. Chantel is a recipient of the New York Times Teachers Who Matters Most Award, The Ebony Ecumenical Ensemble Community Service Award, and the Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist Community Service Award and is a member of the Riverside Club for Education.

Chantel remains committed to building a literate music community, and also lends her time to the vocal music department of the Steinhardt School of Music at the New York University since 2008. Moreover, she serves young people nationally and internationally through the arts organization partnerships, her uncompromised passion to see humanity win.

The highest calling in her life is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a licensed and ordained Bishop, within the Christ Centered Ministries Assembly. Bishop Wright has established Pneuma Ministries, International where peoples’ lives are being changed. She was anointed by the late Kenneth H. Moales Sr. and opened the church and preached her first sermon simultaneously. In addition to her work in Harlem, she is a minister for the nations with the Wednesday night Pentecost Service where worshipers from all over the world converge for a blessing from God. She is a Choral Union president of the Thomas Dorsey National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses where she is on the national board of directors, and can also be found on WLIB as the host of “The Hour of Power.”

Bishop Chantel R. Wright resides in New York City.

Geo Britto

Founder and Board Director of ETP

Geo Britto, a veteran Joker. Member of the Board of Directors of School of Popular Theatre- ETP(Escola de Teatro Popular) organization created and founded by himself and Julian Boal. He worked for 32 years at the Centre of Theatre of the Oppressed-CTO in Rio de Janeiro and was one of the first generation of students who trained with Augusto Boal for 19 years.

The ETP have worked with many different grass-roots movements – housing, students, LGBT, land and others – come to learn, teach and become a multiplier. Geo Britto has coordinated and participated in many projects in slums, prisons, mental health institutions, education, cultural and human rights.

He graduated in Social Sciences from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1994) and has a Master in the Graduate Program in Contemporary Studies of Arts-UFF. 2013. He has experience in the area of Arts with emphasis in Theatre Direction. In general, from his education as Social and Political Scientist and simultaneously with the start of interest in the performing arts, he started a process to join the theory of the university campus with the practice of theater. Since 1990, when he met Augusto Boal and from this meeting he has not separated from him, learning continuously a lot in their workshops, laboratories and workshops. From 1993 to 1996 democratized politics through theater as they took the theater into the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro and took the camera for the squares, streets and slums, theatricalizing their discussions and creating the Legislative Theatre. His job, as proposed by the methodology itself, has always been broad and transversely on Human Rights. In this period built and formed groups of slums, street boys and girls, black movement, women, elderly, LGBT, mental health, peasants, ecclesial movements base, students, banking, domestic workers among others were built. After the mandate, and with the experience, I could take the work of the Theatre of the Oppressed, we can call it the Theatre of Human Rights to other social groups and to continue and deepen what they already did. Geo created, as other members of the Theatre of the Oppressed, what he called the Solidarity Network in which through the Oppressed Theatre performed theatrical dialogue where different oppressed groups had for each other. Different oppressed discovered how much their oppressors were similar and many came from the same “barracks”. Today, the Theater of the Oppressed is a present methodology in more than 50 countries on five continents, working on several fronts and themes, always with a human rights focus. He actively participated in the construction of this global network. He continued as a sociologist working not only in the classroom, but in the streets, squares, slums, prisons, settlements, mental health, schools; a practical and theoretical research with the Theatre of the Oppressed his everyday martial art, holding lectures, workshops and theatrical performances in Palestine, Bolivia, Mozambique, Egypt, India, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Germany, England, Canada and U.S.A. He has a Master in Arts-UFF Federal Fluminense University and is also a father of twins.

Connect with Geo Britto on social media :

Falu & Karyshma

Musician

Falu is a GRAMMY award winning, internationally recognized artist known for her rare ability to seamlessly blend a signature modern inventive style with a formidable Indian classically-shaped vocal talent. In her early years in Bombay, singer Falu (aka Falguni Shah) was trained rigorously in the Jaipur musical tradition and in the Benares style of Thumrie under the legendary Kaumudi Munshi and semi classical music from Uday Mazumdar. She later continued studying under the late sarangi/vocal master Ustad Sultan Khan, and later with the legendary Smt. Kishori Amonkar (Jaipur style).

Originally from Bombay, Falu moved to the States in 2000 and was appointed as a visiting lecturer at Tufts University. Falu’s subsequent career in the States had led to a series of brilliant and high profile collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Wyclef Jean, Philip Glass, Ricky Martin, Blues Traveler and A. R. Rahman amongst others. She was appointed Carnegie Hall’s ambassador of Indian Music in 2006, where her shows at Zankel Hall have consistently sold out. Falu has performed for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House and was also the featured performer at the Time-100 gala in 2009.

Her songs have appeared on numerous compilations and soundtracks. She was described by The New York Times as “East and West, ancient and modern” and by Billboard as “Ethereal and Transcendent”. Her first album “Falu” was featured in Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s “Beyond Bollywood” exhibit as representative of the voice of Indian American trendsetting artists. In 2015, Falu was named one of the 20 most influential global Indian women by the Economic Times of India. In 2018, she won the Women Icons of India award in Mumbai, India. Falu was an integral part of Givenchy’s September 11th fashion show (Ricardo Tisci collection under the art direction of Marina Abramović) in NYC, where she performed for a star-studded audience. Falu continues to pursue her commitment to introducing children to the wonders of the world through both of her GRAMMY nominated kids project, “Falu’s Bazaar” and GRAMMY winning follow-up album, “A Colorful World” which take families on a musical journey through South Asia and the day-to-day of a child’s wonder, as well as through her artist-in-residence position at Carnegie Hall. She also sits on the NY Chapter Board of Governors for the Recording Academy.

Falu currently performs and writes with her band, Falu & Karyshma, an internationally recognized supergroup known for its ability to weave together the intensity of rock, the improvisation of jazz, and the intricacies of India’s deepest musical traditions. These seemingly disparate worlds, when combined, create collisions of sounds and sights rarely experienced by audiences before.

Falu & Karyshma have performed over 500 concerts in the US and around the world. The artists have been featured the New York Times, RollingStone, and Billboard magazine among others.

What brings the four band members – Falu, Sandeep, Shomo, and Gaurav together is their decades of deep musical training, intelligence, and a sense of shared destiny. They know they are meant to be on stage together. When they perform, their magical chemistry combusts with spontaneous energy, levitating audiences of all ages and backgrounds in its wake. They released their most recent album, “Someday” on August 28, 2020.

Click here to visit Falu’s website

Connect with Falu & Karyshma on social media :