Harvard Sangeet: Passion! Music! Community!

Suhas Rao: Co-President

Suhas Rao is a junior in Pforzheimer House. He is concentrating in Applied Mathematics and Economics, and his academic interests include math, economics and global health. He has been learning Carnatic violin and vocal for the past ten years, as well as piano, clarinet and saxophone. His musical interests encompass pretty much all conceivable genres from South Asian classical to fusion to classic rock and everything in between. Some of his favorite artists include Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, Zakir Hussain, and the Beatles.

Juhi Kuchroo: Secretary

Juhi Kuchroo is a sophomore in Kirkland House concentrating in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She has been learning Hindustani Classical music since she was seven years old. She is also trained in western classical music and was a soprano I in the New England Conservatory of Music Youth Chorale and Camerata for four years. Juhi is also a trained Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Odissi (Indian Classical Dance forms) dancer. She enjoys singing and listening to all kinds of music, but is especially fond of Shreya Ghoshal. At Harvard, Juhi is also the Artistic Direction Chair for the South Asian Association and head of Harvard Bhangra.

Suneel Chakravorty: Board Member at Large

Suneel enjoys playing classical and jazz piano as well as tabla. His favorite classical composer is Chopin and Alla Rakha is simply the best. He has been involved with Sangeet for two years now and plans on music always being a very important part of his life.

Anusha Tomar: Board Member at Large

Anusha is a senior in Winthrop House, concentrating in Chemical and Physical Biology with a secondary in Economics. Although frequently described as utterly tone-deaf, she enjoys South Asian music in all its forms and is a particular fan of Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali, Nusrat, Kishore Kumar, and (of course!) A.R. Rahman. Her other interests include art history, international development, and all things Freddie Mercury.

Gokul Madhavan: Graduate School Liason

Gokul Madhavan is a graduate student at Harvard University, currently studying Sanskrit, Persian and Indian studies. He has been interested in Indian music, especially Indian classical music, from a very young age, and studied the Carnatic violin in Dubai. He also enjoys singing and his musical interests include critical appreciation of Carnatic compositions, enjoying Hindustani music, Hindi film songs and listening to Western classical music, as a layman. Having spent most of his life in the Middle East, Gokul is also fascinated by Arabic music, and is now trying to learn more about this school of music as well. Gokul's non-musical interests span mathematics, computer science, languages and linguistics, world history and international relations.

Siddarth Chandrasekaran: Co-President

Siddarth Chandrasekaran is a junior in Eliot House studying Computer Science and Philosphy. He has learned Carnatic (vocal) music for several years. He is from Chennai, India, and goes back dutifully to the December Music Season every year. His favorite artists include TM Krishna, KV Narayanaswamy, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Joshua Radin, John McLaughlin, The Decemberists, Ingrid Michaelson, Abhishek Raghuram, and Maharajapuram Santhanam.

Daniel Haldar: Events Manager

Daniel is currently a sophomore in Kirkland House concentrating in Chemistry. Since the age of five, Daniel has been trained on classical piano in the Western tradition; more recently, Daniel has received formal instruction in classical composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Although Daniel's training is primarily Western, he developed a deep interest in South Asian music at a young age and has since then studied the fundamentals of Hindustani classical theory. Within the arena of South Asian music, Daniel's interests range from kheyal to bhajans to Bollywood, and some of his favorite artists include Lata Mangeshkar, Ustad Rashid Khan, and A.R. Rahman. When he's not at Sangeet events, Daniel is usually found studying organic chemistry, singing at the piano, or YouTubing clips from classic '60s Hindi films.

Nur Nasreen Ibrahim: Outreach Chair

Nur Ibrahim is a sophomore at Winthrop House, concentrating in Literature. She has been trained in classical South Asian vocals. She especially enjoys Sufi mystical music, rock (Noori! Coke Studio!) and Bollywood songs along with U2, Coldplay, The Beatles, the occasional musicals and of course Disney songs. She firmly believes that The Lion King was the best part of the nineties. When not involved with Harvard Sangeet, she loves to read, watch movies, draw and wait for the next board meeting.

Trisha Pasricha: Board Member at Large

Trisha is a pre-med Senior in Quincy House, concentrating in VES film production. She has been trained in Hindustani Classical voice for 10 years, and is looking forward to a fantastic year with Harvard Sangeet. When not at Sangeet events, Trisha spends her time listening to Mohammed Rafi and wikipedia-ing obscure facts about old Hindi film songs.

Madhura Narawane: Board Member at Large

Madhura Narawane is a sophomore in Pforzheimer house. She loves Hindustani classsical music as well as all sorts of Indian fusion music. Kailash Kher, Shankar Mahadevan and A. R. Rahman are some of her favourite contemporary musicians.

Sonali Tatapudy: Board Member at Large

Sonali is a junior in Winthrop House. She is planning to concentrate in Neurobiology, and her other academic interests include religious studies, Spanish, anthropology, and psychology. Though she was never formally trained in music, the arts have been the cornerstone of her life. She enjoys listening to and informally singing along to all types of music and loves being surrounded by music. Within South Asian music, her interests include Carnatic, Oldies, modern Bollywood music, bhajans, and regional music.

Alumni

Ameya Velingker

Vasanthi Sridhar

Samir Rao

Vaidya Ganesh Rajagopalan ("G")

Aneesh Kulkarni

Ramya Parthasarathy

Vikas Mouli

Gowri Aragam

Amit Patel

Ellora Derenoncourt

Harvard Advisors:

Dr. Richard Wolf

Dr. Richard Wolf is a professor of ethnomusicology at Harvard University’s Music Department, specializing in veena and mridangam, among his other varied interests. Professor Wolf has done has done extensive fieldwork in South Asia over the years and has cross-disciplinary interests in linguistics, religion, and anthropology. It is Sangeet’s good fortune that he is at Harvard during our years here, and we are incredibly grateful to Professor Wolf for his ready availability, thoughtful ideas, insightful advice and unconditional support and enthusiasm. Sangeet, and the South Asian musical cause are greatly indebted to him.

Dr. Sindhu Revuluri

Profesor Revuluri received her PhD in musicology from Princeton University in 2007, where she also taught for one year. Her research interests include exoticism and modernism in fin-de-siecle France, contemporary Indian music and film, trends in global pop music, and post-colonial approaches to music history. She is currently working on a study of the relationship between empire and modernist musical thought in France, as well as a project on popular musical expression in south India. She joined the Harvard faculty in 2007, and Sangeet is glad to have her on board already as an advisor.