Machine Project

Srinivas Reddy and Sameer Gupta are a dynamic young sitar and tabla duo dedicated to preserving the Hindustani classical music tradition of North India. We are honored to have them present an evening of classical ragas supplemented by a discussion on the development of raga, how to listen to the music, and their creative approach to learning classical north Indian music.

Monday March 31, 2008 7:00pm FREE

About the Artists

Srinivas Reddy – Sitar

Srinivas began his musical training as a guitarist and composer. At an early age he performed and recorded with several jazz and rock bands throughout the New England area. In 1998 he graduated from Brown University with a BA in South Asian Studies and completed his senior project entitled NaadaSat, a multi-instrumental ensemble piece that reflected his growing interest in South Asian philosophy and music.

Upon moving to San Francisco in 1998 Srinivas had a life-changing experience when he met his guru and mentor Sri Partha Chatterjee, a direct disciple of the late sitar maestro Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Since then Srinivas has dedicated himself to Indian classical music and rigorously trained with his teacher in the traditional guru-shishya style. Under the strict guidance of his guru he continues to imbibe and practice the subtleties of the Hindustani musical tradition.

Srinivas is a professional concert sitarist and has given numerous recitals in the US and India. He has two self-published albums to his credit: GITA (1999) and Sitar & Tabla (2001). Srinivas is also an experienced teacher and educator. His continued interest in Indian literature and culture prompted him to complete an MA in South Asian Studies from UC Berkeley where taught several college level courses on both South Asian literature and music.

After nine years of study and performance in the San Francisco Bay Area, Srinivas has recently relocated to New England where he plans to establish a center for South Asian music, art and literature. He can be reached at sitarsrini@gmail.com.

Sameer Gupta- Tabla

Founder of the critically acclaimed SF based Improvised Jazz Ensemble The Supplicants, Sameer has becoming a remarkable musical talent. His influences range from Elvin Jones and Tony Williams to Ustad Allah Rakha. He has had the pleasure to play with many great musicians including Marc Cary, Grachan Moncur III, Victor Goines, Vincent Gardner, Sekou Sundiata, Sonny Simmons, Marcus Shelby, Calvin Keys, Richard Howell, Dayna Stephens, and Julian Lage.

Sameer’s artistic work today is an attempt to build bridges. In some cases, such as the Carnatic Jazz group, vidyA, the bridge is plainly between American Jazz, and South Indian Classical music. In Kosmic Renaissance, the bridge is large, covering musical genres like electronic music, hiphop, avant-jazz, and world music. Marc Cary’s Focus Trio, bridges cultures from Native American, modern day D.C. GoGo, to Asia and Africa. The Supplicants, reveals a bridge not as obvious but strongly felt in how building pure improvisations results in the consciousness of an entire audience being elevated. This is creating a bridge between separated people when they witness the beauty that can result from collective creativity built from trust and support. When people see The Supplicants create beautiful pieces as if from thin air, and when they understand the significance of its true spontaneity, their own spirit is lifted and possibly changed for the better in the process, which can be the most important work of all.