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Rajna Swaminathan

Rajna Swaminathan is an acclaimed mrudangam (South Indian percussion) artist and composer. She is a protégé of mrudangam maestro Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, and tours regularly with several renowned Indian classical musicians, most notably her mentor, vocalist T.M. Krishna. Rajna is one of only a handful of women who play the mrudangam professionally. She has performed in several prestigious venues and festivals, including the Smithsonian (D.C.), Kennedy Center (D.C.), Asia Society (NYC), Lincoln Center (NYC), Walker Art Center (MN), Music Academy (Chennai), Shanmukhananda Hall (Mumbai) and The Esplanade (Singapore). Rajna also regularly gives workshops on the South Indian rhythmic perspective, most notably at the Banff International Jazz and Creative Music Workshop and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Rajna holds degrees in Anthropology and French from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Music (Creative Practice & Critical Inquiry) at Harvard University.

Since 2011, she has been studying and collaborating with eminent musicians in New York's jazz and creative music scene, performing extensively in various projects led by Vijay Iyer, Amir ElSaffar, María Grand, and Ganavya Doraiswamy. Culling from her experience incorporating the experimental methods of creative music into her artistic practice, Rajna formed the ensemble RAJAS, which collectively explores new textural and improvisational horizons at the nexus of multiple musical perspectives. The ensemble has performed at prominent venues such as the Lincoln Center Atrium, The Jazz Gallery, The Met Breuer, and Alwan for the Arts. Rajna's debut album as leader of RAJAS, Of Agency and Abstraction, will be released in the spring of 2019. The album features Rajna (mrudangam, voice), along with Miles Okazaki (guitar), Anjna Swaminathan (violin), Stephan Crump (bass), María Grand (tenor saxophone), and guest artists Ganavya Doraiswamy (vocal) and Amir ElSaffar (trumpet). Rajna's most recent project, Mangal, emerges from her dissertation research, and is a foray into creating a novel and dynamic notational discourse that attends to diverse aesthetic and ethical priorities in improvised music.

Rajna is active as a composer-performer for dance and theatre works. Most notably, she has toured widely with the acclaimed Ragamala Dance (Minneapolis) as well as with bharatanatyam dancer Mythili Prakash. Rajna has also collaborated with playwright/actress Anu Yadav, scoring her solo show, Meena's Dream (in collaboration with Anjna Swaminathan and Sam McCormally). This music was released as a soundtrack album, The Worry Machine (2015). In 2017, Rajna and Anu premiered Storytellers, a performance that combines music (performed by RAJAS) with potent spoken narratives (written/performed by Anu) dealing with the experience of racism, sexism, colonial trauma, and diasporic identity.

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Album Review

Amir ElSaffar River of Sound Orchestra: The Other Shore

Read "The Other Shore" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Secondo disco per la Rivers of Sound Orchestra, ensemble creato nel 2015 da Amir ElSaffar con il preciso intento di esplorare in modo originale le culture musicali delle sue origini. ElSaffar è infatti nato negli Stati Uniti da madre statunitense e padre di origini irachene; avvicinatosi precocemente alla musica, ha coltivato quella jazzistica dalla discoteca paterna e quella classica dalle frequentazioni della madre; musicista dalle collaborazioni di altissimo livello--tra gli altri Cecil Taylor e Vijay Iyer--solo da adulto si è ...

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Weekend Extra: Meet The Mrudangam

Weekend Extra: Meet The Mrudangam

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

There may be a longshot chance that you are unfamiliar with the mrudangam. It is a South Indian percussion instrument that Rajna Swaminathan has introduced into American music since she became a part of the New York City jazz community in 2011. She is a protégé of the renowned mrudangam maestro, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and tours with him and other Indian musicians. She also collaborates with prominent jazz artists based in New York, including the influential pianist Vijay Iyer, himself ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Other Shore

OutNote Records
2021

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Of Earth And Sky

Self Produced
2016

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Videos

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