Shruti De
Sarod
Albany, NY
What drives you to be an artist?
Indian classical music has always been highly regarded as a medium of connection to spiritual world. The devotion expressed in this genre has always driven towards dedicating my life to it. With the language of music you can speak, share values and experiences beyond manmade boundaries.
Born into a family steeped in Indian classical music, Shruti De’s path seemed written long before she touched her first instrument. Named by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan himself—and encouraged by him to take up the sarod—she grew up surrounded by the sounds of her mother’s Rabindrasangeet training and her father’s talim under Sangeetacharya Pt. Radhika Mohan Maitra and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. She began vocal training in early childhood and shifted to the sarod at the age of four, starting her journey with Sri Indrajit Roychowdhury, disciple of Pt. Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Since 2006, she has continued her advanced training under Pandit Samarendra Nath Sikdar of the Senia Shahjahanpur Gharana, a relationship now spanning nearly two decades. Alongside sarod, she studies Hindustani vocal music with Pt. Arijit Mahalanabis.
One of the few women to pursue this demanding, traditionally male-dominated instrument, Shruti has built a performance career that bridges India and the global stage. Her early appearances at the Kolkata International Book Fair, Kalakunj, Ramakrishna Mission, and venues across Varanasi, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Ranchi laid the foundation for an international trajectory. She has served as the Indian ambassador for Ethno USA (2024), composed orchestral works for artists from 13 countries, toured with Ethno USA On the Road, performed at The Cedar and the North Carolina Folk Festival, and given lecture-performances at institutions such as Smith College and Penn State.
A U.S. Department of State OneBeat Fellow and recipient of multiple national scholarships and awards, Shruti is driven by the belief that naad—sound—is a unifying force capable of dissolving boundaries. Her parallel academic life echoes this conviction: she is equally at home in scientific inquiry, with published research exploring the confluence of physics and music.
As a composer and multi-instrumentalist exploring Mohanveena, Dhrupad, jazz and blues idioms, and cross-genre collaborations, Shruti is now envisioning new work that bridges Carnatic and Hindustani aesthetics—including rare explorations such as thillanas on the sarod. She hopes to professionally record these pieces, preserving them as part of her ongoing search for unity, expression, and sonic possibility.
