Rita Sahai Lecturer in Music Director of the Hindustani Vocal Ensemble
After coming to the United States over two decades ago, Rita
Sahai continued her extensive music studies under the world
famous sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who passed away in
2009. Impressed by her talent and passion toward music,
“Khansahib,” as she affectionately called her guru, gave her the
title Gayan Alankar (Jewel of Music).
Sahai, an acclaimed composer, performer, and teacher, tours
throughout the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and India. She is also in
demand at recording studios at home and abroad, where she
graciously lends her voice to many diverse musical projects,
including contributing vocal tracks for Grammy Award-winning
artist Béla Fleck and performing on Alonzo King’s Sacred
Texts, a CD of international music that won the Isadora
Duncan Award for music excellence. She has also collaborated on
several live musical productions with Jennifer Berezan’s “Edge of
Wonder” project.
Sahai has produced several CDs of her own compositions and
has created a Hindustani Choir—the “Vasundhara Choir”—as a
performance platform for her many students, and DVDs have been
produced from two of these performances. In March 2014 Sahai
published a music book of her compositions for Hindustani Choir.
Rita Sahai truly serves as an ambassador of India’s rich musical
heritage. Through workshops and lectures she has reached out to
the larger non-Indian community and educated them in the
intricacies of Hindustani music. She conducts classes all over
the Bay Area, from Sacramento and Berkeley to Fremont and San
Jose. Her students come from varied cultural and musical
backgrounds.
Rita’s Western students discover a universal appeal and depth of
emotion when singing classical ragas, and Rita’s classes are a
way of reconnecting to the art and culture of their mother
country for her Indo-American students. In March 2013 Rita
Sahai was inducted into The Alameda County 2013 Women’s Hall of
Fame and was recognized for her contributions to Culture and Art.
To add the course, please email the instructor, or show up the
first day and obtain the CRN from the instructor.
Learn the basics of Hindustani music theory through group
singing. Students learn five ragas per term through scale
practice, short compositions and improvisation.
Course Information
MUS 148
Meets Mondays, 4:10–6:00 pm, in Room 1152 “Brass” Studio,
Pitzer Center
Rita Sahai was among ten Indian-American achievers to
be honored by the National Federation of Indian American
Associations (NFIA), at its 18th biennial convention, which was
held March 6–8, 2015, in Cerritos, California. The award given to
Sahai was in the category of Liberal and Fine Arts.