300, School of Arts and Sciences
This interactive lecture will explore a variety of interconnected themes related to the origin, evolution and globalization of Indian classical music, with particular focus on the Hindustani raga music tradition. Drawing on Sanskrit textual sources as well as his lived experience as a classical sitarist, Professor Reddy will highlight notions of interdisciplinarity, innovation, spirituality and modernity within the longue durée of raga music history.
Srinivas Reddy is a scholar, translator and musician. In 1998 he graduated from Brown University with a BA in South Asian Studies and moved to San Francisco where he met his guru Pandit Partha Chatterjee, a direct disciple of the late sitar maestro Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Srinivas dedicated himself to Indian classical music and trained with his teacher in the traditional guru-shishya parampara for twelve years. He also completed his PhD in South Asian Studies at UC Berkeley where he studied classical Sanskrit and Telugu literature. He has published numerous books and articles on India literature, music, and history, and is currently working on a Bloomsbury Anthology of Classical Indian Literature. Srinivas currently teaches at Brown University and IIT Gandhinagar.