Ganavya

Ganavya Doraiswamy is a vocalist and multidisciplinary artist associated with experimental jazz, avant-jazz, free jazz and vocal music. She is New York-born and raised in Tamil Nadu, and is based between Los Angeles and Valencia.

Background and practice

She works as a soundsmith and wordsmith, and her creative practice includes improvisation, scholarship, dance and multi-instrumental performance. Her approach is shaped by what she describes as an inner library of “spi/ritual” blueprints, drawn from a network of collaborators across generations.

Much of her childhood is spent on the pilgrimage trail, where she learns harikathā, the storytelling form, and sings poetry that critiques hierarchical social structures. Her work is grounded in ideas of fluidity, nonlinearity and singularity.

Education

Ganavya carries degrees in theatre from Broward Community College and psychology from Florida International University. She also holds graduate degrees in Contemporary Performance from Berklee College of Music, ethnomusicology from UCLA, and Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry from Harvard.

Collective work

She is a co-founder of the We Have Voice Collective, which is non-hierarchical in structure. As both an educator and a student, she focuses on liberative techniques and on questions of power, healing and who is empowered or made unwell.