GANAVYA
Ganavya Doraiswamy was trained as a vocalist, dancer, and multi-instrumentalist in Tamil Nadu, South India, for seven years.
She holds degrees in Theatre and Psychology, and graduate degrees in Contemporary Performance (Berklee College of Music), and Ethnomusicology (UCLA). She was awarded one of Berklee's first Post-Graduate Fellowships, for which she constructed a course titled Sounds of Indian Music, and published a textbook under the same name.
She has learnt from, or performed and recorded with: Danilo Perez, Placido Domingo, James Newton, Victor Wooten, Wadada Leo Smith, Alain Perez, Perico Sambeat, Vijay Iyer, Zakir Hussain, Laura Karpman, Polo Orti, Victor Mendoza, Sandra Carrasco, Javier Limón, Ousso Lotfy, and Zebbler Encanti Experience, among other artists who have influenced her work.
During her time in South India, she learnt how to play the jalatharangam, a near-extinct instrument championed by her late grandmother, Kalaimamani Smt. Seetha Doraiswamy. Her Karnatik vocal guru is Karaikkal R. Jaishankar, a senior student of Kalaimamani Sri Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan. Ganavya briefly learned to play the veenai under the tutelage of Smt. Subhadra Raghuram.
For over a decade, she learned extensively from, and toured with, the troupe of Sri Tukaram Ganapthy Maharaj, where she became well-versed in the varakari tradition of singing abhangs, which are devotional poems written by Maharashtrian Hindu saints c.a. 13th century.
Ganavya graduated in the dance art form of Bharatanatyam under Smt. Radhika Vairavelavan (née Ganesh), student of Smt. Ambika Buch, of the renowned Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts. Ganavya has catalogued the hundreds of mudras, or hand gestures, found in Bharatanatyam and published the document for Florida International University's SRAI Conference under the title Rasam for the Dancer's Soul.
Ganavya translates jazz standards to her native language of Tamil, and recontextualizes Indian songs. Her debut album, Aikyam, features all of her influences and represent the merging of these different worlds, and is currently in production.
She is proudly a part of Alfredo Rodriguez's Tocororo, co-produced by Quincy Jones.
She holds degrees in Theatre and Psychology, and graduate degrees in Contemporary Performance (Berklee College of Music), and Ethnomusicology (UCLA). She was awarded one of Berklee's first Post-Graduate Fellowships, for which she constructed a course titled Sounds of Indian Music, and published a textbook under the same name.
She has learnt from, or performed and recorded with: Danilo Perez, Placido Domingo, James Newton, Victor Wooten, Wadada Leo Smith, Alain Perez, Perico Sambeat, Vijay Iyer, Zakir Hussain, Laura Karpman, Polo Orti, Victor Mendoza, Sandra Carrasco, Javier Limón, Ousso Lotfy, and Zebbler Encanti Experience, among other artists who have influenced her work.
During her time in South India, she learnt how to play the jalatharangam, a near-extinct instrument championed by her late grandmother, Kalaimamani Smt. Seetha Doraiswamy. Her Karnatik vocal guru is Karaikkal R. Jaishankar, a senior student of Kalaimamani Sri Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan. Ganavya briefly learned to play the veenai under the tutelage of Smt. Subhadra Raghuram.
For over a decade, she learned extensively from, and toured with, the troupe of Sri Tukaram Ganapthy Maharaj, where she became well-versed in the varakari tradition of singing abhangs, which are devotional poems written by Maharashtrian Hindu saints c.a. 13th century.
Ganavya graduated in the dance art form of Bharatanatyam under Smt. Radhika Vairavelavan (née Ganesh), student of Smt. Ambika Buch, of the renowned Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts. Ganavya has catalogued the hundreds of mudras, or hand gestures, found in Bharatanatyam and published the document for Florida International University's SRAI Conference under the title Rasam for the Dancer's Soul.
Ganavya translates jazz standards to her native language of Tamil, and recontextualizes Indian songs. Her debut album, Aikyam, features all of her influences and represent the merging of these different worlds, and is currently in production.
She is proudly a part of Alfredo Rodriguez's Tocororo, co-produced by Quincy Jones.
