ganavya | Arts + Literature Laboratory | Madison Contemporary Arts Center

ganavya

Auricle New Music Series presents vocalist and transdisciplinarian ganavya on Tuesday, April 1 at 7:00pm. Tickets $25 general admission or $20 student/ALL Member in advance online. Advance tickets available online at Brown Paper Tickets. General admission at the door $30 for everyone.

Described by Wall Street Journal as “among modern music’s most compelling vocalists,” New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised singer and transdisciplinarian ganavya released her latest album, Daughter of a Temple, in November 2024. The album was recorded at the Moore’s Opera House in Houston, Texas, after ganavya invited friends and associates to join her for “a gathering in and for devotion," inspired by the musico-philosophies of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. The album brings the Hindu tradition of harikatha into the 21st century, and draws upon a vast cast of contributors across multiple disciplines, including esperanza spalding, Vijay Iyer, Shabaka Hutchings, Immanuel Wilkins, Peter Sellars, and Rajna Swaminathan. Daughter of a Temple is an innovative and deeply moving blend of spiritual jazz and South Asian devotional music.

 “No matter the language or the content, ganavya’s voice is a thick ephemera, like smoke as dark as ink, just coming off the fire.” — New York Times  

Tamil Nadu-raised and New York-born critically acclaimed vocalist ganavya lives, learns, and loves fluidly from the nexus of many frameworks and understandings. Hers is a deeply profound and rooted voice.  A multidisciplinary creator, she is a soundsmith and wordsmith. Trained as an improviser, scholar, dancer, and multi-instrumentalist, she maintains an inner library of “spi/ritual” blueprints offered to her by an intergenerational constellation of collaborators, continuously anchoring her practice in pasts, presents and, futures. Much of her childhood was on the pilgrimage trail, learning the storytelling art form of harikathā and singing poetry that critiques hierarchal social structures. She is a co-founder of the non-hierarchical We Have Voice Collective. 

Hers is a life of nonlinearity, and singularity. Despite not not being schooled traditionally as a child, she carries degrees in theatre (Broward Community College) and psychology (F.I.U.), with... Read More

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Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.

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