Rasika Shekar

Known and loved for her endearingly honest voice and soulful playing, Indo-American singer, flautist and composer Rasika Shekar’s music is a vibrant confluence of diverse musical worlds, rooted in Indian classical music. Her distinctive sound as a singer and flautist has led her to an impressive list of collaborations including John McLaughlin, Shankar Mahadevan, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan and many others. Rasika graduated from the Berklee College of Music with a degree in performance and production and has delicately nurtured and crafted her sound that allows her to flow through genres effortlessly. Rasika was born in Dubai. Her family moved to the US when she was 12 and she started studying the bamboo flute, diving deep into the tradition of Carnatic music. It’s while pursuing a degree in chemical engineering, that she discovered Jazz, Latin and RnB, immensely influencing her artistic expression. With inspirations ranging from the likes of Billie Holiday, Mehdi Hassan, Paco De Lucia, Illayaraja, Abida Parveen, her renditions are a fragment of her musings that are often a derivative of her evolving sonic explorations that are central to her artistry.