Kartik Seshadri performs for UCSD’s Wednesdays@7 for his yearly recital. Nitin Mitta accompanies on Tabla: November 17, 2021

Raga : Rasa ~ My Center’s three day musical intensive was a hugely rewarding experience. We had three days of music that ran from August 17 to the 19th, 2012. The woody acoustics (with the Pacific Ocean back drop) of the Parish Hall was a prefect setting for teaching and making music. The opening day featured a short performance leading to a talk on Indian Classical Music and Improvisation. I am always gratified by the warm reception to discussions and Q&A’s from the audience. My feeling is that we need to have more and more by way of education and engagement with the community at large.

June 16, 2012: had a lovely musical dialogue with wonderful Pipa player Wu Mann at the Museum of Making Music in Oceanside, California. We shared several ideas about our respective traditions (India and China), two ancient cultures that have shaped their musical language with great care. What excites me about these exchanges are not only the meeting points of these great musical worlds but the contrasts in ways musical ideas are treated making each of them distinctly unique. Such interactions always prod questions in me about the very ideas centered around “fusion” (the new going term for collaboration): a further affirmation that there is a greater need to be even more responsible in ways traditions are nurtured and the end result is not one that suffers from dilution.

Songlines Magazine, March 2012 ~ I am deeply touched that Songlines Magazine has nominated my latest album Sublime Raga(s) as Top of the World 10 albums! It is particularly heart-warming for me that an Indian Classical Music album has been given its dues in its own “classical” right. I feel there needs to be more and more recognition for musical cultures such as India that emanate from the rigors of training, discipline and a gigantic tradition and history!

June 2011 – ITC/SRA  ~ I have been selected as the Artist of the Month by the prestigious ITC/SRA (Sangeeth Research Academy), Kolkata, for June 2011. I am deeply honored with this recognition by one of the most important institutions for Indian Classical Music that blends the traditional Gurukul system with the Institutional setting and has produced some incredible talents in the field of Hindustani Music!

Am happy to revisit the Orion project Philip Glass a reprise 2010-11 beginning October 2010. The first set of performances are a part of the prestigious bicentennial celebrations of the Cervantino Festival in Guajuanato/Leon, Mexico and two performances at the Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

Following our hugely successful 2004 – 2005 tour, the excellent KPBS American Masters documentary has just released a wonderful documentary on the composer: “A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts.” I am featured in both a performance and interview. Hicks (who also directed  “Shine” and “Snow Falling on Cedars”) shot much of the video himself in between our tours and greenrooms. The imagery is superb, and the eclectic interviews include Woody Allen, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Chuck Close and Martin Scorsese.