Congratulations @kayapress for the official launch of #kulharbooks at The Friday Gallery last night
This is Sadubas, in front of the epic photographic work of Iraqi artist Halim Al-Kirim currently on display The Friday Gallery @thefriday.gallery 🙏🏽
Photo by @mubarakjafery
“Hal Al-Kirim’s work explores the fierce power of mythic beauty across time and culture - a force of spiritual and sensual nourishment that gives birth to hope. This is not gentle softness, but the electric vibrancy of untamed beauty that tears at our flesh, pierces our gaze, and stands in defiance of injustice with proud hands on hips.”
Special thanks to @neelanjanab and @missmitch for inviting us to perform 🌹
This happened! Reena Esmail’s @reenaesmail “This Love Between Us” was presented in its full glory by over 125 musicians of the orchestras and choirs at @uncgsom@uncg_orchestras@uncgchoirs ❤️
It was a joy to share the stage with my dear friend John Stephens on sitar. I’m so grateful to Carole Ott @carolejeanott and Gavin Douglass @gavinduncandouglas for bringing me and this extraordinary music to North Carolina.
I’m so glad my family in Greensboro could attend!
The deeply moving 40 minute oratorio is spiritual, unifying, emotional, energetic, introspective, and profoundly moving. This is the second time I’ve performed the entire oratorio, and it always uplifts me. Can anything be more sublime than to be surrounded by this many cellos, strings, the choir, and wind instruments? Can the message that we need to avoid division, and come together through kindness and compassion be any more relevant?
Thank you to Chris Tebbit @chris_tebbit for many of these pictures and video. #uncg #choir #orchestra
Moments from last night’s Raga Kaushi Kanada performed by Visionary States at Walt Disney Concert Hall ❤️
We presented two midnight ragas as an energetic balm to close the 12 hour concert series Noon to Midnight curated by @ellenreidmusic and @dubfrosty and presented by @laphil and @pstinla
It was a joy to share the stage with @aakashflute@sitarrajib qnd my son Kailash (was way past his bedtime!), who triggered field recordings from nature via #ableton during our set.
Thank you @ameet3000 for the capture! #n2m #raga #indianclassical
On this Day of SCupport, join @uscedu@uscthornton in strengthening the musical futures of our extraordinary students, faculty and staff. Your contributions, in any amount, are an immeasurable force for good, made possible by you and by the strength of the Trojan Family.
The power of this community is what elevates USC Thornton to where it stands today. Without your collective support, our success would not be where it is now.
Today, we invite you to join that legacy. When you give to Thornton, you’re expanding the possibilities for what’s next and what we can achieve together. Give today through our link-in-the-bio!
#dayofscupport
Day of SCupport @uscedu is this week! On Wednesday April 29, the Trojan Family is coming together to create momentum for what matters most. When you give to @uscthornton , you’re laying the foundation for our students’ musical futures, strengthened by groundbreaking programs guided by world-class faculty that make each day extraordinary for our students.
For legendary keyboardist and Popular Music @uscthorntonpopularmusic faculty member @greg_phillinganes_live , it means giving back to the next generation of culture-defining artists: “I benefited greatly from arts programs. They actually contributed to my musical and personal foundation. I want to pass on my knowledge and insight with these uniquely and immensely gifted, talented students.”
Gifts in any amount are immeasurably powerful contributions to ensure the future ahead is bright for our students, faculty and staff. Give today by following our link-in-the-bio, and help us write Thornton’s next chapter!
#dayofscupport #usc
Thank you to the wonderful community of students, staff, and faculty connected thru @aaspathways and @csunapida for inviting me to speak about the healing power of tabla ❤️ Yesterday’s Healing Ragas: Sound, Breath, and Transformation in Indian Classical Music workshop was a joyful journey into how sound can restore balance and presence. We explored the foundations of tala (rhythmic cycles) shape emotion, focus, and inner calm.
Through live demonstration, guided listening, and reflection, participants experienced how breath, melody, and repetition can regulate the nervous system and create grounding. We also touched on the deeper contemplative traditions of Indian classical music, discovering its timeless power to bring clarity, connection, and joy 🙏🏽 special thanks to @simmymak108 for curating this new series focused on South Asian arts and more. Teentaal!
Big love to @iderrickskye (fellow @calarts alum!) on the world premiere of @gilgamesh_theopera 🔥
Experiencing this felt like stepping through a portal—into a story so ancient it rewires how you see everything that came after. You feel it in Star Wars, in Shakespeare, in Game of Thrones… even in the uncertainty of the times we’re living through now.
What makes this opera so powerful is how it holds worlds together: Assyrian maqam, microtonality, chant, and Western orchestral language—not blended, but coexisting in tension, like the story itself.
And the musicians of Bridge to Everywhere @bridgetoeverywhere who brought it to life in the most epic way.
My hope is that his opera is seen by many everyone! @assyrianartsinstitute@cerritoscenterperformingarts
Hi friends ☀️ We are very excited to announce the first event of our South Asian American Experiences Series—Healing Ragas: Sound, Breath, and Transformation in Indian Classical Music.
Come to examine how of raga and tala impacts one’s mental, emotional, and physical being through a guided listening experience—and more!
We hope to see you there ✨
Congratulations to @neelanjanab for the launch of Kulhar Books, the new south Asian imprint of @kayapress ❤️ Community building around books is so rad! Special thanks to @nitasha101 for bringing so many great people together.
From behind the stage — a view I rarely get to share.
Looking out at the audience from this angle, you feel the scale differently… the quiet before a phrase lands, the collective breath, the way sound travels forward and comes back to you.
On screen: the grandeur of Mughal-e-Azam and the splendor of the Taj Mahal reimagined through animation. On stage: @sitarrajib playing sitar on a @sadubas track on, live, in real time.
Cinema, memory, architecture, and raga — all meeting in one frame.
Thank you @bpeich for the capture | @regenttheaterla
Deep love and gratitude to my amazing mom, Saroj @saroj.sukhadia ❤️
While my dad gave me a direct connection to music, it was my mom who opened my imagination to aesthetics. Her exquisite saris — the floral fabrics she carried from India as an immigrant — were my first cinema.
Before I understood Bollywood analytically, I understood color, sheen, and movement. I learned early that fabric could command a room.
Through tabla, film, and those early memories of cloth and color, I’ve come to see how deeply music, fabric, and storytelling intertwine in Bollywood. You hear emotion. You see emotion. You feel emotion. And often, it’s printed on fabric.
Thank you to the Bowers Museum @bowersmuseum for inviting @sadubas to remix Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution. Video by @goldiezaldivar
#cinema #bollywood
As the audience watches Umrao Jaan meet her lover, Sadubas enters with a live score—tabla and electronics threading the emotion of the scene.
The image refracts to Jodhaa Akbar (2008), where Jodhaa encounters her lover Akbar the Great. Now we’re inside the emotional interior—where patterns, textiles, and architecture carry longing and meaning. Fabric is no longer decoration; it becomes memory, power, desire.
Thank you to the @bowersmuseum for inviting us to remix the exhibition Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution 🌹 video captured by @bpeich
