Ep. 019 - An Intercultural Melding of Music with Shruthi Rajasekar

On today's episode of music/Maker with Tyler Kline, Tyler is joined by Shruthi Rajasekar.

Named by The Guardian as a composer "who will enrich your life", Shruthi Rajasekar is an Indian-American musician exploring identity, community, and joy. A 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Shruthi draws from her unique dual background in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical traditions to create intersectional music.

She was awarded the Global Women in Music Award from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights & Donne in Musica Adkins Chiti Foundation. Shruthi has been an artist-in-residence at Tusen Takk Foundation, Britten Pears Arts, and the Anderson Center. As a soprano and Carnatic vocalist, Shruthi has performed and recorded in numerous traditional and experimental settings. She was a Marshall Scholar in the UK, where she pursued postgraduate studies in composition and ethnomusicology. A graduate of Princeton University, Shruthi lives in Minnesota and serves on the board of new music chamber ensemble Zeitgeist.

In this conversation, Tyler takes a deep dive into Shruthi’s intercultural identity and work, and a significant part of this discussion is Shruthi sharing her journey as a musician with roots in Carnatic music and how that has melded with her work as a Western classical composer over time. 

She and Tyler also talk a bit about gatekeeping issues in the contemporary music field, how composers might consider placing more emphasis on process rather than product, and what experimentation means to her in her work.

You can learn more about Shruthi and listen to her music at https://www.shruthirajasekar.com.

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