Ritika Ganguly
Ritika Ganguly, Ph.D., is a Minneapolis-based composer and anthropologist born and raised in New Delhi, India. She has trained in genres within Bengali music and contemporary Indian musical theater. She is committed to vocabulary-building of South Asian folk music in the Twin Cities and her work often comments on western stereotypes of South Asian musical genres and practices. Ritika’s emerging experimental work in sound art explores the socially constructed boundaries between sound, noise, and music; how the shape of sound can be made visible; and how / where we can begin to use sound to see the act of silencing.
When not composing or consulting, she can be found coaching her students in voice culture, ear-training, deep listening, and expressive vocalizing. Her vocal, compositional, and coaching work push us to rely less on music notation and theory, and more on audiative practices that deepen our aptitude to hear and express. Ritika was recently commissioned by the Minnesota Opera to compose a mini opera in Bengali/Bangla. She is a 2021 McKnight Composers Fellow at the American Composers Forum, and her body of work has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, MRAC, Red Eye Theater, Cedar Cultural Center, Minnesota State Arts Board, among many others. She is a loose, long-leaf tea enthusiast and has an impulse to connect with people over cha (tea).
Residency/Fellowship
2023 McKnight Artist Residency Fellow
Website
Location
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
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