Photography by Melanie Metz
Amirtha Kidambi
Music Residency
Amirtha Kidambi is known for her improvisational vocabulary as a vocalist, utilizing experimental timbral techniques and infusing aesthetics and methodologies from Carnatic music, noise, rock, free jazz and classical avant-gardes. Kidambi is drawn to the subversive, driven by social and political issues of inequity and injustice. She leads the vocal ensemble Lines of Light, is co-founder of a duo with Lea Bertucci, and is the bandleader of Elder Ones. She has received grants from the Jerome Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council, and has been Artist-in-Residence at Bucareli 69, Roulette, and EMPAC. She also teaches at the New School, where she works to decolonize the canon, promoting racial and gender equity.