The New Directions in Indian Classical Music group will present four new works in an ensemble of Voice (Gautam Tejas Ganeshan) + Mridangam Barrel Drum (Anantha R. Krishnan) + Tanpura Drone Lutes (Deepa Preeti Natarajan). The group's repertoire of original compositions is based on the krithi song form of South Indian classical (Carnatic) music. Each new work presented will honor this traditional mode of thematic development, while exploring unprecedented long-forms. The effect is to deliver to a general audience the beauty and compositional complexity of South Indian classical music, which has struggled to attain wider appeal with its focus on vocal repertoire in regional languages.

Gautam Tejas Ganeshan was commissioned in 2009 by the San Francisco Foundation to create new music for the New Directions group exploring the ecstatic edge of contemporary Indian classical music. With an all-acoustic, chamber-music focus, rooted in the Sangati Center's intimate aesthetic (SF's Indian classical music art-house), the group performs Gautam's compositions emphasizing a nuanced, melismatic vocal style accompanied by virtuosic improvised percussion. As a vocalist, Gautam accesses the angular outer reaches of Carnatic vocal melody, and mridangist Anantha R. Krishnan contributes an unflinching, intelligent intensity on the mridangam, South India's barrel-drum with a sophisticated technique and powerful repertoire. The group was featured in the 2009 SF International Arts Festival at the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason (SF) - one review quotes Cambodian classical dancer Prumsodun Ok as saying "Gautam is just a stunning performer [...] There's something raw and immediate about the music." Gautam has guest-lectured on Carnatic (South Indian classical) music for the Music of India courses at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and has conducted workshops on singing and the aesthetics of Indian classical music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at the Asian Art Museum (SF). He is the founder and director of the Sangati Community Center for South Asian Music.

Anantha R. Krishnan is the grandson and disciple of the renowned mridangam artist and 2007 "Sangeetha Kalanidhi" award recipient Palghat R. Raghu. The mridangam is a two-headed barrel drum with a sophisticated repertoire and technique, and is the principal percussion instrument of Carnatic music. The Sangeetha Kalanidhi award, conferred by the Music Academy of Chennai, India, is a lifetime achievement award, and is considered the highest honor in Carnatic music.

Anantha R. Krishnan made his concert debut accompanying violinist T. N. Krishnan, himself the recipient in 1992 of one of India's highest civilian awards in the arts, the Padma Bhushan. Since then, Anantha has accompanied the finest artists among an entire generation of Carnatic music in India and around the world. The Music Academy of Chennai awarded Anantha its prize for Best Mridangam Artist for three years consecutively between 1998 - 2001, a first for a mridangam artist under the age of twenty. After a break of six years, Anantha returned to the Music Academy in 2007 and was again awarded this prize.

Sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.