Varun Rangaswamy is an improviser, composer, scholar, bassoonist, and Karnāṭak vocalist. Their self-reflexive approach to music-making has been praised for “creating a mesmerizing circular dialect” (I Care If You Listen). Their work, which has been performed across North America and Europe, focuses on the interstices between different identities within a single body. He engages with the instability of cultural processes—like the formation and reconfiguration of identity—by deconstructing normative cultural associations between sonic, visual, and spiritual signifiers. To achieve this, Rangaswamy performs transformations of musical practice through physical experimentation with instrumental convention and relocation of the body in musical action. Rangaswamy helped conceive and establish the San Diego Emerging Composers Concert, in which he has participated as composer, performer, and recruiter. This annual concert series gives performance opportunities to undergraduate composers based in the San Diego/Ensenada/Tijuana area. Additionally, Rangaswamy is currently a board member for San Diego New Music, an organization dedicated to performances and commissions of both well-known, living composers as well as emerging ones. Rangaswamy was originally trained in Karnāṭak music. He studies vocal performance with B. Balasubrahmaniam and mridanga performance with Rajna Swaminathan. An avid bassoon player and improviser, he has also studied bassoon performance with San Diego Symphony principal bassoonist Valentin Martchev and later with George Sakakeeny at the Eastman School of Music. Rangaswamy has earned an M.A. from UC San Diego and a B.M. from the Eastman School of Music, both in composition. Present and former mentors include Marcos Balter, Fay Victor, Chinary Ung, Anthony Davis, King Britt, Chaya Czernowin, Anaar Desai-Stephens, Robert Morris, Matthew Barber, and David Liptak.

Eli Berman (voice), Bonita Oliver (voice), Lydia Windsor Brindamour (guitar)

Opener by Eli Berman

REINHERITANCE by Varun Rangaswamy:
To Ornette (w/ Lydia Windsor Brindamour
Noise improv (Lydia Windsor Brindamour)  
To M.S. - raga kalyani (w/ Eli Berman) 
Improv (Bonita Oliver) 
To Aretha - alterity in reverence (w/ Bonita Oliver)

Varun's Website- varunrangaswamy.com, instagram- @vrang26;

Eli's Website- elibermanmusic.com, instagram- @_eliberman_; Lydia's Website- lydiawindsorbrindamour.com, instagram- @lydia_winsor_brindamour; Bonita's Website- bonitaoliver.com