ASHISH DHA is a performer-composer, multi-instrumentalist, music teacher, musicological researcher, naad yogi, sound designer and spoken word artist. His specialty is cross-genre experimental music, drawing on elements from myriad styles and traditions from around the world, weaving them into works rooted in his native Hindustaanee classical sensibility. He is greatly in love with raags, which sometimes feature as haunting presences even in songs that aren't traditionally classical. He even creates new raags of his own, laying the foundations for what he calls Hindustaanee 2.0, a reboot of his classical tradition. Many of his pieces not just tickle the senses, but also tease the mind, as they lay emphasis on narrative content that is recognizable to the untrained music layperson – he has coined the term 'sapient music' to describe this new genre, which appeals to the intelligently attentive listener. His pieces thus range from 'Will The Real J. Rumi Please Stand Up', a Persian classical song where the audience has to guess which are genuine and which are imitation Rumi quatrains; to 'Giridhar', a traditional Meera bhajan (devotional song) in Raag Mishra Kaafee, arranged as a symphonic rock piece! His latest passion is 'musical meditations' – energetically-inspired improvisations on hammered dulcimer, piano and voice.
Ashish has given many lecture demonstrations and workshops, in music, sound, spoken word, phonetics, and the physics of music. He has performed around the world, including in Ireland, India, the UK, USA, France, Germany, Italy and Pakistan. His formal training has been in Hindustaanee raagdaaree singing – both Qhayaal and Dhrupad genres – in India, from the age of 10. He is currently under the tutelage of world-renowned dhrupad maestro, Padmashri Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar. After getting an MFA degree in Sound Design from the California Institute of the Arts, USA, he is now based in Ireland, where he teaches online and in-person at his sound & music center, Naadaalay, in Dublin 9.

GREET MEERT: tanpura

Samples and videos