Apoorva Jayaraman and Shweta Prachande give a talk that reflects on the practice of art (through the lens of the Indian classical dance form, Bharatanatyam) under the challenges brought by a global pandemic and explores the questions of how students of art can continue to incorporate the same rigor, values, and ethics employed in the studio with the transition to the online medium, and what principles of self-practice are needed to make artistic pursuits most productive despite the pandemic, the limited time and numerous demands of college careers, the sheer distance between Stanford and home studios, and beyond.

I was fortunate enough to be an alumni guest, and discuss with Apoorva and Shweta the importance of osmosis, embodiment, and learning across artistic disciplines, and how we might be able to scale and translate this sensation outside of the artistic world.

I was fortunate enough to be a guest lecturer at Hinsdale South High School in Illinois for 100+ band students via Zoom. My lecture was on my compositional inspirations, among which is the “Coltrane Circle”. Interwoven throughout this lecture was my own personal journey from a high school band student to the composer/soprano I am now.