“Music is about energy. It’s about vibe. It’s about connection and family and freedom. It cannot flourish with hostility in the room or in your heart. That spark you feel when a vocal chord rings just right; when a mistake you made is suddenly integral to your song; when tears or laughter fill you up as you play… there’s nothing quite like it on the planet.”

Annette Philip is a musician, innovator and influencer. Founder/Director of the Berklee Indian Ensemble, and Indian representative of the award-winning quartet Women of the World, Annette is a seasoned recording and touring artist, composer, pianist, voice-over actor, Emmy-nominated TV personality and bonafied sari enthusiast.

“If you don’t compose, you decompose.”

“Any musical growth would always feed and reflect a personal and spiritual transformation, as well as the other way around. It’s the beauty of the duality of the world. We, as artists, seem to dwell between these two mirrors and in that space, lies our opportunity to create something magical.”

“You want your music to take people on a journey. We’re all storytellers, and every song is another opportunity to tell a story.”

“If we each leverage what we already know and love, we can create and connect more deeply with others around the world. Listening and collaboration serves as the foundation for music, the framework for peace, and the fountain for life.”

As a multi-instrumentalist musician, he has performed a wide range of music across North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East and taught extensively throughout those regions, as well as in his hometown of Boston. As former teacher at the Community Music Center of Boston, he has also been on the faculty at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (Kabul, Afghanistan), GMI and the Music Matters School (Colombo, Sri Lanka). He has also worked with American Voices in US State Department music education programs in Lebanon, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Iraq. He worked for Musicians Without Borders in Palestine and received a Fulbright-Nehru scholarship, conducting research in partnership with Music Basti. He is the Director of Curriculum Development for the Music Action Lab (San Francisco, USA), Curriculum Writer for Empowerment Through Integration (Beirut, Lebanon), and Co-Founder and Director of the online music education platform Teach To Learn. He was formerly the Education and Community Engagement Manager for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and is now the orchestra’s Development Officer.  Derek received his BM in Saxophone Performance from the New England Conservatory.

“By perceiving your body, connecting to your breath and letting your musical instinct just be you will find your treasure, your own voice, that is the most powerful thing. It reveals who you are, and just then you can start spreading your unique message to the world, you.”

Eleonora Bianchini was born in Perugia where she began studying piano at the age of nine and attended the Morlacchi Conservatory of Music from 1999 until 2003. After participating at Umbria Jazz Clinics in the summer of 2002, she won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and made her way into the field of Latin Jazz music. She has performed at numerous international events and also venues in the United States like Carnagie Hall, Queens Park and Lincoln Center, etc. She has also collaborated with artists like Danilo Perez, Rosa Passos, Oscar Stagnaro, Mark Walker, Jamey Haddad etc.

“As a musician, patience and perseverance can be your biggest strengths. Things will hardly work out the way you hope they do but it’s all a part of the process. Keep hustling and enjoy the journey.”

Gaurav Balani is a Bass Player/Composer from New Delhi, India. He’s been permanently playing with the Rock’n’Roll giants – Parikrama for over 9 years. Apart from the various session/sideman duties he has performed over the years, Gaurav is also a part of Padmashree Award Winner, Shubha Mudgal’s pop fusion setup – Koshish and Aditi Singh Sharma’s (Bollywood Playback) Studio Production and touring setup. Although he is mostly self taught, Gaurav briefly studied music in Boston from Bruno Raberg (Bass Faculty head at Berklee College of Music) and in San Francisco with Whitesnake’s Ex-Bassist (2005-2010) – Uriah Duffy. Gaurav frequently freelances as a composer for independent/student films. As of 2016, he has been collaborating with various artists and releasing experimental electronic music under the moniker INALAB. The list of collaborations include Shubha Mudgal, Keshav Dhar, Apeksha Dandekar and Jai Row Kavi to name a few. The band has had 10 single releases so far. Their debut EP, The commons, released earlier this year.

“India has always had a unique music landscape and I’m glad we at TuneCore are able to service local, independent artists with tools created specifically for keeping their global reach and local needs in mind. We aim to be part of the solution and will help democratize the music ecosystem in India while enabling every artist to be heard across borders, without giving up their rights or revenue.”

Heena Kriplani joined Tunecore as head of the India team in January 2020 after 12 years at Gibson Brands, Inc. where she last served as Director of Entertainment Relations, Asia. Heena is committed to enabling success for every Indian musician and believes that TuneCore offers them the tools to navigate their artistic careers. Heena brings 18 years of music industry experience to her role at TuneCore. Before her time at Gibson she was Label Manager at EMI Virgin Music and co-founded Cinnamon, a firm dedicated to sourcing in-film opportunities in Bollywood movies for local and international artists. She was instrumental in establishing the process of sync licensing in the region. Continuing to build relationships, bringing together creators & experts, and driving success stories are what motivates her most. She’s a firm believer in the music community with the artist at its epicentre.⁠⠀

“A new wave of global culture and interdependence is awaiting us as we have reached a new era of consciousness.”

Sitar player and Composer, Hindol Deb started learning the Sitar at the age of five from his father Sri Panchanan Sardar. He also received training from other imminent teachers like Pandit Santosh Bannerji and was later groomed under the tutelage of Pandit Deepak Chowdhury. His deep interest in different sounds and desire to compose and create world music projects led him to finish Masters in Jazz Improvisation from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln. As a dedicated teacher and educator Hindol conducts Sitar lessons and workshops of Indian Classical music, Improvisation, interpretation of Indian music in Western musical context. Among some of the Institutes he has conducted workshops are Hoschule for Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Popakademie Mannheim, Rheinische Music Schule Köln, Arvika, Karlstad and Lund University in Sweden to name a few.

“Be. Be open. Be ready. Be engaged. Be collaborative. Be creative. And most of all have fun. It’s music!”

Jason is a composer, arranger, songwriter, trombonist, guitarist, producer and global educational programs and partnerships developer. Recordings he has performed on include; Dweezil Zappa’s “Via Zammatá’, “Danilo Perez’s “The Panama Suite”; Stephen Webber’s “Stylus Symphony;” and Chris Opperman’s “Chamber Music from Hell” and many more. Jason has co-produced, written and performed on Phil Wilson’s “From the Vault, Vol. 1” and DÚBH’s “Atom Bomb”. As the assistant vice president for global initiatives at Berklee Global Initiatives, Jason works with a range of creative and passionate people from educational, business and government entities; developing opportunities for skilled, talented and motivated performing artists to reach their career goals. Jason engages globally with top performing arts institutions, festivals, artists and students.

“Don’t be afraid to create. Music, like many art forms, is very subjective. You don’t know what people might like but allow yourself to be who you want to be in your art. If you want to make psychedelic folktronica or avant garde jazz rap or experimental Kawai metal, there is a place for you in the universe.”

Mae Mariyam Thomas is presenter, journalist, podcast producer, and audio content/production consultant with over 15 years experience in radio and podcasting. She is currently the founder of podcast production company & consultancy, Maed in India (which is also the name of her indie music podcast).

“These are exciting times in the Music Business. While most are joyriding the numbers game, there remains an unseen  opportunity to build communities, learn, educate and create more dynamically. One just needs to find that one door to begin that  journey.”

Malini Hariharan has over a decade of experience working in a variety of capacities in the music industry in India and abroad. After completing a Masters in Music Business from NYU, she moved back to India and dived straight into the robust Indian music industry working in a number of capacities across disciplines; as a concert programmer at the iconic blueFROG in Mumbai, as a curator for large scale music festivals like Sulafest, Taj Barn Fest, Emerge (Viacom18), in music publishing at Universal Music Publishing India, as the project manager for Enchantation – A Tribal Music project in Arunachal Pradesh and as an A&R rep for Pragnya Music – A label focussing on Indian music traditions. In New York, Malini had the opportunity to work at Sony Music, The Orchard and helped setup the first So Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University with So Percussion, one of the leading percussion ensembles from the US.

In 2016, she joined Horus Music Horus Music a UK based music distribution company to develop their India business. At Horus Music, she handles the entire A&R and business development along with publishing and sync for an eclectic roster with their new wing – Anara Publishing.

“At a time when the creative economy is reimagining itself, it’s important to foster an environment that allows us to share resources with musicians and music professionals, young and experienced alike. Only against the backdrop of a participative community, can we seek to build a music business that’s sustainable, inclusive and just.”

The founder of Artistik License, Manojna works with some of India’s most keenly watched independent musicians, illustrators and creators, helping them protect their interests by way of legal counsel. She consults with the Artists At Risk Connection (ARC) project of Pen America as their Asia Regional representative, is the co-creator of the community based digital tool, Contracts for Creators, as well as the co-founder of Fill in the Blank, a boutique consultancy providing strategic support for new media projects. She is a graduate of the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad and has an LLM in Entertainment, Media and IP Law from the UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles. She is currently based out of Hyderabad.

“I believe that there is no day in an artist’s entire lifetime where we can claim to have known or mastered everything. Each piece of music we listen to or work on adds more meaning to our role as students of music.”

Pavithra Chari is a cross genre vocalist/composer, and recording/performing artist. One half of the contemporary – classical duo Shadow and Light with Anindo Bose, Pavithra has written and released 3 studio albums of original music to critical acclaim. A US dept of state alumna, Pavithra has been a participant at various artist residencies namely Ethno World (Germany, Belgium) – Shri Netar Kapur Scholarship 2015, South Asian Music Residency, and Onebeat USA 2018. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Kala Parishad scholarship for advanced training in Hindustani Music (vocal) 2017. She received the Shri Prakash Chand Surana scholarship for hindustani classical music at the Surana Smriti Samaroh in Jaipur 2020. She was awarded the KCC art fellowship (music) by the Kolkata Centre for Creativity for her study of khayal music for the year 2020-21.

“At this time of crisis we, the artists, have to hold each other’s hand and stand side by side to create a chain. Industry Mentors are helping out in the rightest way in that direction.”

Pritam Ghosal is born into a musical family. Pritam’s first lesson on Sarod started at an early age when he came into contact with Shri Pranab Naha a noted Sarod player in Kolkata. After three years of Taleem, Pritam was very fortunate to have received blessings from the Great Sarod Maestro and Visionary Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan Sahab. In 1995 he accepted Pritam as his disciple. From then, Pritam has been extremely fortunate to be graced by the extensive Taleem and guidance not only towards music but also towards leading a meaningful life, from his Guru. With His blessings Pritam has been also fortunate to have received excellent chance to perform in several music concerts in India and abroad as well.

“I want students to feel that the knowledge received from me is relevant and applicable to them as a practicing musician as soon as they graduate, if not earlier. I am a huge proponent of workflow enhancement. I strive to develop the quickest and/or easiest way to achieve something when using technology tools. There are always multiple ways to do something, but there is only one efficient way. I want technology to be transparent so we remain musicians and not become technicians.”

Rishabh Rajan is a music educator with over 10 years of experience in education, having taught in India, Malaysia and now USA. He is currently a faculty at Berklee College of Music with the Electronic Production & Design Department. Rishabh has also been developing online courses for Ask.Video & macProVideo for the past 8 years and more recently developed a course for Berklee Online which won him a Silver Telly Award in 2020. Rishabh has published a few ebooks on sound design techniques which are available on the Apple iBookStore. Aside from teaching, Rishabh works as a writer for Ask.Audio reviewing hardware/software synthesizers and as a sample library developer for Crypto Cipher.

“Music has been an integral part of human expression of human expression since the dawn of civilization. Entertainment to some and therapy to others, it exists where words are simply not enough.”

A music producer, recording engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur; Rohan was a founding partner at India’s Cotton Press Studio and was one half of the songwriting/production duo Nicholson//LANDS. He has toured both within India and internationally playing his own material as well as a session drummer. He is one of the founding members of the Salvage Audio Collective, a production team operating out of Mumbai’s Island City Studios credited with the much acclaimed and award winning music for movies such as Gully Boy, OTT series such as Yeh Ballet, Guilty on Netflix and many more. Apart from his touring schedule, he has actively been composing, producing, mixing and mastering music for television, film, radio, as well as independent musicians and bands for over a decade.

“To me music is more about feelings..more so the blues. When you play the blues,you have to bare your soul and become emotionally naked. Having said this, always remember that music is bigger than all of us.”

If you hear the blues brewing in any corner of the Indian subcontinent, doubtless you’ll find it’s none other than Rudy and his band Soulmate, concocting their heady potions of Blues, Blues-Rock and Soul. Shillong based Rudy Wallang has been composing, recording and gigging now for the past 39 years. The guitar, to him, is an extension of his being. Rudy, along with his band Soulmate, has been nurturing the much under-rated blues genre in the Indian music scene with some quality music, touring the length & breadth of the country and abroad. Soulmate have also recently released a new album called Give Love.

“Always have a budget, a plan and a clear intention behind what you are doing and why.”

Sarah Elizabeth Chawla co-founded Delhi based online music magazine and events company Wild City in 2011. Over the last 8 years the company has evolved into a brand that champions alternative music culture in the region through events, concerts, parties, workshops, skills development platforms, cultural collaborations and consultancy projects. In 2013 Wild City co-founded Magnetic Fields festival – an annual music and arts festival now going into its 7th year. Growing from a small gathering of 400 guests to 4000 attendees in its last edition, the festival has organically evolved to represent India’s emerging creative community seamlessly marrying this alongside traditional Indian culture.

“With so much great music being created in every corner of the world, it becomes less about how well you can play or what gear you need to have, but rather how honest you are in your music making. I’m deeply inspired by artists who speak their truths, who aren’t afraid to explore the unexplored and spend their careers constantly evolving.”

Shubh Saran is a New York-based guitarist and composer who has performed globally with his band. Having grown up in six different countries, his career has been shaped by a mixture of influences. Shubh’s intricate compositions fuse sounds from modern jazz, neo-soul, and rock with classical and contemporary Indian music. Earlier this year, he released his latest EP Becoming.

“Music to us (Hindustani musicians), is understood as an art-science. In order to become a master, students need guidance in both ilm (Persian for knowledge of theory) and amal (Persian for practical control over the craft).” – Tānsen

Suhail is a Sarangi (Indian bowed instrument) player, vocalist, composer, and a PhD candidate in the department of music at Wesleyan University, USA. He brings together expertise from a performance career that has already extended over 20 years, creative ability, and academic research to find new modes of expression in Hindustani music, contemporary rock fusion, pop, folk, jazz, and experimental music. His ethnographic scholarship draws on personal experience as an eighth-generation musician belonging to a lineage of Hindustani musicians. He situate this musical tradition in a globalized context, to help new audiences connect with the riches of this repertoire. He has been featured on more than fifteen albums and is currently signed to Domino records, U.K. His band Yorkston-Thorne-Khan just released their third album, Navarasa: Nine Emotions. They bring together Sufi devotional songs, Hindustani art music, a jazz groove, the Scottish poet Robert Burns, and the Sufi poet-philosopher Amir Khusrau.

“Jazz includes so many influences and differing elements from musics world wide, that it’s easy to overlook its roots and history. In order to try and find your own space and voice within this music in the present, it’s beneficial to know where the music came from and how it developed throughout the Twentieth Century and beyond”

Tomos is a musician based in Cardiff, Wales, UK. He specialises in traversing the breaks and the cracks between musics and genres. Primarily a ‘jazz’ musician he leads his Welsh folk/jazz sextet Burum, which plays modern jazz interpretations of Welsh folk melodies, as well as Khamira (alongside GMI’s Aditya Balani) – a band comprising of Welsh and Indian musicians that plays original improvised world music.

Tomos has a wide raging knowledge of jazz, it’s history and social significance and his enthusiasm and passion for the music was recently rewarded with a jazz show on BBC Radio Cymru (Welsh language radio) where he introduced new jazz, Welsh jazz as well as the masters to a new audience in Wales.

“Specificity is gold. It’s our greatest investment in ourselves – because we get direction, clarity and a fierceness that no external force can dislodge from within us. Specificity needs to be part of our practice and it’s the one thing that helped turn my life around.”

Vasundhara Vee is a Soul Singer, Studio Sessions Artist and Live Performer based out of India. She currently works with her band MERKABA that comprises Sanjay Divecha, Gino Banks, Sheldon D’Silva and Rohan Rajadhyaksha.

Vasundhara also trains professional singers and actors in voice optimization, performance and vocal longevity. Her book Big Dreams, Bold Choices : Handbook for emerging professional musicians in India raked Top 5 on Amazon and aims to help every growing musician design a good professional debut that can actually translate into a long-lasting career.

“Make music so good, the business of music will sound easy.”

Vijay founded OKListen 8 years back, as a platform which could serve as a meaningful & legitimate way for independent musicians to monetise their music. Today they distribute music to all leading streaming services and also play a pivotal role in helping in curation and editorial to help discovery for over 3500 musicians.

Vijay has over 24 years of experience in areas of Internet, Mobile, Retail and Digital. He has held leadership positions with various startups like Quikr, Baazee, Synqua Games and also at large corporates like Mahindra, Raymond & INOX.