World Music Institute to Present Ganavya in September

New York-born and Tamil Nadu-raised singer and transdisciplinarian ganavya will be presented by World Music Institute at First Unitarian Church on Friday, September 26, 2025. Her latest album, Daughter of a Temple (Leiter) was recorded over a week in 2022 at the Moore's Opera House in Houston, Texas, after ganavya reached out to friends and associates to join her in "a gathering in and for devotion." The resulting album, a hypnotic blend of spiritual jazz and South Asian devotional music, features over 30 guest artists from across the jazz and world music disciplines including Esperanza Spalding, Vijay Iyer, Shabaka Hutchings, Immanuel Wilkins, Peter Sellars, Rajna Swaminathan, Charlotte Braithwaite, Chris Sholar, Darian Donovan Thomas, and Bindhumalini Narayanswamy.

The collaboration celebrates community and devotion, capturing the artist's journey from the isolation of living between two cultures to fostering a creative village. With this album, ganavya aims to convey to listeners her belief that connection and love can be achieved through shared experiences - "I want it to make them feel less alone because that's what it did for me. I see it as proof that prayer works and love truly exists."

"No matter the language or the content, Ganavya's voice is a thick ephemera, like smoke as dark as ink, just coming off the fire." - New York Times