Join us for a brief conversation with Mentor Artist, Dr. Rohan Krishnamurthy, Carnatic percussionist and educator from the Bay Area. Rohan will discuss his journey as an artist, focusing on his creative process particularly with his trio, The Alaya Project, which combines Carnatic music with elements of Jazz and Funk. We will be celebrating The Alaya Project's 50th show, which is upcoming on November 10th at SF Jazz. Vani serves as an Associate at Harvard University's Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asian Institute, overseeing efforts to increase the University's engagement with South Asian Performing Arts. She also serves as a Trustee on Women@NJPAC and the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, offering her expertise on strategies to increase audience engagement through new educational and programming endeavors. She has worked with a number of major arts organizations in the past, including Lincoln Center, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian, and World Music Institute. Vani has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard University, and started her professional life at The Boston Consulting Group. As a U.S. Fulbright Awardee, she is a scholar of Chola temple sculptures in southern India and Devadasi history. While in India, she honed her 15-year study of Bharatha Natyam by training with celebrated experts in the country.

With nearly every corner of the United States represented, administrators of small and large Indian classical arts presenting organizations gathered to discuss their greatest challenges and to share solutions. The conversation centered most on the problem of saturation in major cities: the need to compete for Indian audience's time and attention given the number of Indian classical events occurring at the same time. If you're interested in learning more, take a look at this quick summary of the discussion.

Emerging artists from around the country gathered to hear Sree Srinivasan, an NYC-based expert in digital communications lead them through strategies of telling their own authentic story on various social media platforms. Sree is CEO and Co-founder of Digimentors, a social/digital/AI training and consulting company. He served as Chief Digital Officer of New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Columbia University, where he was also a full-time professor of journalism for over 20 years. To view a recording of the discussion, click here.