SONGS FOR MANY LIVES: A CARNATIC DIASPORA SONGBOOK
Artwork by Syama Kuver
In this project, Carnatic music takes root in a context close to home: our lives as immigrants in the Bay Area, California. We celebrate South Asian immigrant life, in its diversity, radicality and richness.
UPCOMING SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT - SEP 19, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON
Saturday, September 19, 4 pm
Student Center South Theater, University of Houston Main Campus
4455 University Drive, Houston, TX 77204
Free with RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/Songs-for-Many-Lives-Houston
Classical Arts Society and the University of Houston College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, with support from the Houston Tamil Studies Chair, present Sruti Sarathy and Roopa Mahadevan's "Songs for Many Lives," a multimedia musical experience inspired by the rich history of South Asians in America. Follow the journey of the earliest immigrants, celebrate a trailblazing Desi wedding in Berkeley, learn about resistance movements--all through original Carnatic songs and documentary storytelling.
The production combines documentary film, original music in various Indian languages, theater, and oral history to explore the "long history of [South Asian] migration in surprising and soulful ways" (SF Chronicle).
The evocative, uplifting songs are composed in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, and English.
Featuring stellar live musicians Vishaal Sapuram, Rohan Krishnamurthy, and special guest, master of Indo-Romani-Texan music, Oliver Rajamani! Performance to be followed by a talkback. RSVP to register (free): https://tinyurl.com/Songs-for-Many-Lives-Houston
Songs for Many Lives creates new Carnatic compositions inspired by stories of South Asian immigration to North America. These songs reflect not only the successes and struggles, but also the myriad ways - some more visible than others - by which South Asian immigrants have made a new home, re-invented traditions, and fought for better lives for their communities. Compositions are in the langauges Tamil, Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, English, Bengali, and presented with documentary video and devised stage movement.
Learn more about the ARTIST TEAM and featured COMMUNITY VOICES
Two men sitting in San Francisco, CA in 1910 | Source: SAADA.org
San Francisco, CA in the early 1900s. | Source: SAADA.org
Carnatic songs beautifully express deep personal devotion and speak of the inner spiritual journey. Can our rich music, so effective at invoking contemplative and emotional states of mind, also articulate values of friendship, resistance to oppression, justice, plurality, and more? Can the music speak to the themes of our diasporic lives and immigrant communities?
“Tillāna pāḍuvōmē, nalla kālam ini mel malarumē /
Nyāyamum mittiramum azhaippōm inda rāgam pāḍiyē”
Erika Oba, Sruti Sarathy, and Roopa Mahadevan performing at premiere in Mountain View, Oct 2025 | Photo by Hari Iyer
Roopa Mahadevan, Vishaal Sapuram, Sruti Sarathy, Rohan Krishnamurthy, and Erika Oba performing live in San Francisco, Nov 2025 | Photo by Hari Iyer
Creators & Supporters
Songs for Many Lives is led by violinist Sruti Sarathy and vocalist Roopa Mahadevan. The project began with a grant from the Creative Work Fund, through which they began working with Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA) to learn more about the organizing history of South Asians in the Bay Area, and the issues that drive their ongoing advocacy work.
Work-in-Progress show at Emory University, April 2024
Q&A led by moderator Preeti Sekhar of ASATA at work-in-progress show in San Francisco, October 2024.
After three successful work-in-progress showings in Chicago (Kalapriya), Atlanta (Emory University), and San Francisco, Songs for Many Lives officially premiered through three sold-out shows in the Bay Area, California in Fall 2025 - Pear Theater in Mountain View and Creativity Theater in San Francisco. The premiere performance was supported by the Zellerbach Family Foundation.
An album of the compositions is forthcoming in Fall 2026!
Get Involved
📨 Join our mailing list
🫙 Donate to our project!
🗓️ Book us to do a performance in your community
Help Connect Us
Any South Asian American figures or stories we should consider including in our project? Are you a filmmaker, photographer, or other visual artist interested in collaborating with us? Are you a South Asian archivist/historian or scholar of South Asian immigration?
Please email songsformanylives@gmail.com. We’d love to work with you!
Sruti & Roopa in San Francisco, CA
“Let’s sing a tillana, let’s sing this sweet raga
so that better times may flower from now,
so that we can welcome justness and friendship.”
• • •
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