Aruna Sharma – Faculty Spotlight
Professor Aruna Sharma, of Stony Brook’s Asian American studies department, recently hosted a signing event for her new book, “Raga - Swar Prabhav: Creation of Compositions in Popular Ragas.”
Prior to writing her book, Aruna received her PhD in Indian Classical Music (ragas are a synonym for Indian Classical Music , a traditional style of Indian music that involves a rapid time-signature. She has been composing music since she was six years old. “It’s all about destiny,” Aruna stated, “I never thought I would leave India and come here to teach.”
The Hindustani genre (Indian classical music) has been gaining popularity in the United States, which has presented Aruna with opportunities to teach and flourish. One of Aruna’s main focuses is to make Hindustani music more popular with a younger generation and those unfamiliar with the genre. With this motive and some determination, Aruna sent an application for a research fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. After being awarded the fellowship, Aruna traveled back to India for a year to research, test and compose songs that she hoped might make the genre more popular.
Aruna spent an entire year in Indian libraries under the guidance of Maestro Ali KHan, searching for information to use for her music. She met with Indian university students and formed groups with which she could conduct her own “musical experiments.” She would compose songs and then give performances, seeking feedback from these students. She had the opportunity to spend time, learning Thumri, from Mrs. Girija Devi, a famous Thumri singer. It was this feedback that assisted her in making changes to some key elements of her music which she believed would appeal more to her target audience.
While diligently working towards her goal, she discovered that only about two or three other authors had found ways to make Indian music more attractive to certain groups. Aruna was the first to compose and perform all of the compositions on her own, while the other authors received assistance from colleagues and students. She has become an innovator in this field of research and performance.
After completing her yearlong fellowship in India, Aruna returned to the United States to continue working on her book. She repeated the same process with students at Stony Brook University to further her research. Once her book was published, it was lauded by students and leaders in Indian Studies, both in the United States and in India, as very beneficial to those learning Indian music and others who appreciate Indian classical music.
Aruna regards her time spent in India working on the fellowship as “one of the best years of my life.” She is content that she was able to use her knowledge to broaden the appeal of traditional Indian music genres to American students.
Aruna said she is thankful to her mentor Amjad ALi, Mrs Sudha, Srivastava, and other scholars and students, both at Stony Brook and in India, have been in helping her with her mission. Currently, she is working on another book which will contain songs from Indian genres transcribed in Western musical notation. This will make studying and understanding these songs easier for Western students.
“If I had the opportunity to do it again, I definitely would.” Aruna explained. “Music is basically my life.”
