Sruti Sarathy

Violinist, Vocalist

Palo Alto, United States

One of a handful of full-time practitioners of Carnatic music from the South Asian diaspora, Sruti Sarathy is a South-Asian American violinist, improviser, storyteller, vocalist and composer. Her compositions reflect minority Desi identities and political priorities, bringing out the voice of the Indian violin in a contemporary and imaginative way. A frequent collaborator with dance and theater artists, she is currently working on a songwriting project that brings together Carnatic music, theater, poetry, digital art and soundscapes, and addresses issues of immigration, displacement, transnational identity and the forging of new cultural connections. She has also partnered with The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action to collect oral narratives from local communities and turn these stories into songs. These songs center marginalized identities and experiences and are stories of resistance to oppression often unknown in South Asian history. Sruti’s groundbreaking experiments with the Carnatic form has been supported by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Fulbright, and the Creative Work Fund.