Amirtha Kidambi

Amirtha Kidambi is heavily invested in decolonization and deconstruction of borders physical, mental and musical” (NPR, 2024). Spanning free jazz, punk, noise, and Indian devotional music, Kidambi crafts subversive sounds challenging hegemony. Based in New York City-Lenapehoking, Kidambi is an improviser and composer focused on critical intervention, responding to our fraught times, in collaboration with potent musicians including Luke Stewart, Angel & Demons with Darius Jones, Neti-Neti with Matt Evans, Moor Mother, Mary Halvorson, William Parker, Matana Roberts. She is also the composer for the anti-colonial films of Suneil Sanzgiri, exhibited at Brooklyn Museum, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Blackstar Fest. Leading the protest ensemble Elder Ones which recently released its incendiary third album New Monuments on We Jazz, her work garners critical acclaim from the New York Times, NPR, Wire Magazine, Fader, The Quietus, Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily and Downbeat.

Kidambi has toured extensively in North America, Europe and Latin America at venues and festivals including Big Ears, Lincoln Center, Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, Kennedy Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Rewire, Unsound, Moers, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Suoni per il Popolo (Montreal), Skaņu Mežs (Latvia), Jazz em Agosto, OutFest (Portugal), SESC (Brazil), CNA (Colombia) and Berlin Jazzfest. Kidambi has received grants and residencies from Pioneer Works (Working Artist Fellowship, Residency), EMPAC, Bucareli 69 (CDMX), Mid-Atlantic Arts, NYFA and Jerome Foundation. An educator, activist, and co-founder of South Asian Artists in Diaspora, Musicians Against Police Brutality and Amplify Palestine, Kidambi organizes with several artist-activist collectives. As a scholar and educator with degrees from Columbia and CUNY, she has taught and engaged in decolonizing curriculum at Brooklyn College, Bennington College and The New School and has given workshops and lectures at NYU, Harvard, Oberlin, Wesleyan University, UC Irvine, Bennington College, UC Santa Cruz, the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, and KM Conservatory (India).

Kidambi is a Working Artist Fellow. The Working Artist Fellowship is part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s The Artist Impact Initiative.