Today we’d like to introduce you to Harshitha Krishnan.
Hi Harshitha, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started singing completely on accident. It was my first couple of weeks of school in Lagos, Nigeria and there was a music competition and no one had explained to 5-year-old me that you shouldn’t sing along with the contestants from the crowd. But I did and happened to be sitting near the judges, who I am told were quite entertained by the whole thing. They saw my mum and I later in the afternoon and made it a point to tell my mother that I could sing.
The rest is really a whirlwind. I started taking voice lessons at 6 and continued on till 18, competing in tons of competitions along the way and dipping my toes into professional work as well. At 18, I moved to India and just happened to fall in with a crowd of up-and-coming musicians at school, in a community choir and at concerts. We went on to collaborate, tour, record and after a year, it became increasingly clear to me that music was my path. One of these musicians told me about Berklee College of Music in Boston and after one sleepless night of falling down the Berklee rabbit-hole, I was sold. I knew that’d be my next destination.
In 2013, I left everything I knew behind and moved to Boston, MA to study at THE Berklee and no other plan really. Over the past 10 years here, I’ve had the incredible opportunity of collaborating and performing with some of the greatest musicians in the world. I’m fortunate enough to have connections in almost all the major music cities in the States and to be making every kind of music imaginable….I have had and continue to have a really exciting path!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth? What’s that?! I don’t know a single person who has had a smooth road to where they are, no matter the industry/field. I think the biggest challenge for me has been my identity.
As a third culture kid who has basically been a sponge to everything around me, I’ve never been “enough” of anything and have always been “too much” of something.
Never Nigerian enough, never Indian enough, certainly not American enough. But although people find it hard to categorise me in order to consume my art or to know how too interact with me, I no longer see this as a challenge. At some point, I realised that if I flip the table, this amorphous identity that I possess can be an incredible strength. My mere existence pushes people to think outside/beyond the constructs and stereotypes that they’ve been conditioned to believe. Every challenge is like one side of a coin, and the flip side is a strength.
As a woman, I get told I’m “too loud”, “too bossy”, “too confrontational”, “too aggressive”, “take up too much space”. But really, far too often, women are expected to be submissive, soft nurturing and mother-like. Anything outside of that is seen as undesirable. What if I’m just being confident, clear, assertive, authentic and setting boundaries? Those are all words I associate with healthy professional behaviour and none of those words speak about my artistry and the quality of work I bring to the room. So here again, I see this as a challenge for others, not for me. I do not desire to work with folks who want me to me anything other than who I am. My honesty and sincerity are strengths.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I like to think my specialty is versatility. I’ve sung Avant Garde compositions, African dance music, Balkan choral music, Bollywood, Jazz standards, and European pop…..I love it all and I think I’m very good at doing them all. I would never want to choose any one of these things because I love the challenge of digging into new things, studying them, learning them and performing them. The variety excites me most! I am probably most well-known as one of the lead vocalists of the Berklee Indian Ensemble. We perform Contemporary Indian Music with influences of jazz, prog rock, metal, etc. Our debut album ‘Shuruaat’ was just nominated for a Grammy for Best Global Music Album, and we’re currently on a US tour performing in 15 cities across the country.
I’m also the vocalist of the Yotam Ishay Chamber Group performing compositions that marry European Classical with Jazz, Soul and Gospel, and Middle-Eastern music. We’re currently working on our 2nd studio album. My solo project is also in the works and I’m thoroughly enjoying the process of discovering who I am right now and what I want to say through my music.
I do all this while also being a Professor of Voice, Harmony and Ensembles at Berklee College of Music, Boston.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think what has gotten me furthest in my life so far are the words “Just try”. I may be terrified of failing or even continuously failing at something, but I just tell myself to try. Trying involves putting in some effort. It means action. And that’s all one can really hope for from themselves. Now, I am still convincing myself to try some things, but I’ll get there when I’m ready because I know I need to just try!
Contact Info:
- Website: harshithakrishnan.com
- Instagram: @harshistar
- Facebook: facebook.com/HarshithaKrishnanMusic
Image Credits
Shashin No Samurai Nikita Sampath
