Chaitra Gururaja

Trained in classical and semi-classical traditions of South India, Chaitra Gururaja has been the director of the Auburn Indian Music Ensemble since Spring 2018. A native of Bengaluru, India, she started learning Carnatic (South Indian) classical music at the age of six. An empanelled artist for South Indian music in All India Radio (AIR, Bengaluru), she has also been an artist affiliate and the director of the South Indian music ensemble at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Through her cultural entrepreneurial initiative "Sunada Academy of Music and Yoga," she is striving to bring the music of the east to the west to further cross-cultural understanding. She has been training students in South Indian classical music in America for the past 10 years. She has also taught vocal music in the school system in India. She has conducted workshops on yoga for the voice at Emory University and has performed at the Orange Beach Festival of Art, Montgomery School of Music, and Jule Collins Smith Museum concert series.