Ganavya’s Musical, Meditative Reimagining Of Marathi Prayer Earns Obama Nod
India-West News Desk
LOS ANGELES, CA – Former President Barack Obama’s year end culture list has given a global spotlight to Ganavya Doraiswamy, placing the artist at the center of one of music’s most watched endorsements.
“As 2025 comes to a close, I’m continuing a tradition that I started during my time in the White House: sharing my annual lists of favorite books, movies, and music. I hope you find something new to enjoy — and please send any recommendations for me to check out!” Obama wrote while unveiling his favorites.
Among the songs he highlighted this year was “Pasayadan” by Ganavya, a meditative reimagining of a traditional Marathi prayer. The pick situates her alongside some of the world’s biggest names, including Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga and introduces a wide audience to an artist whose work often lives at the intersection of devotion, experiment, and community.
Born in 1991, Ganavya Doraiswamy is a Tamil Nadu born, New York raised and California based vocalist, composer, and multidisciplinary artist. Her music draws deeply from South Indian classical and folk traditions while engaging jazz, experimental forms, and contemporary production. Her voice has been described as both lullaby and lightning bolt, carrying prayer like intimacy alongside improvisational daring.
Ganavya’s path to music was unconventional. She was homeschooled for parts of her childhood to prioritize arts training, then earned undergraduate degrees in theater and psychology from Florida International University at the age of 19.
She briefly worked as a rehabilitation counselor at the Everglades Correctional Institution in Florida before turning fully to music, completing a graduate degree at Berklee College of Music. After graduating, she taught South Asian music at Berklee Valencia.
Ganavya holds a graduate degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA and a PhD in creative practice and critical inquiry from Harvard University. At Harvard, she helped lead the Songwrights Apothecary Lab, an experimental music research space founded by Esperanza Spalding. Her dissertation committee included Spalding and Claire Chase, with theater director Peter Sellars also among her advisors. She is also a co founder of the We Have Voice Collective.
Her recorded output reflects the same breadth. In 2015, she recorded ‘Aikyam Onnu,’ translating jazz standards and abhangs into Tamil. The album was released in 2018. 2024 saw the release of ‘Daughter of a Temple’, recorded during a week long gathering at the Moores Opera House with more than 40 musicians including Esperanza Spalding, Wayne Shorter, Vijay Iyer, Shabaka Hutchings, and Rasika Shekar. The album went on to be named BBC 6 Music’s Best Album of the Year and one of The Guardian’s best albums of the year.
Her most recent album, ‘Nilam,’ released in 2025, features vocals in Tamil, English, and Old Marathi. A track from that album, “Pasayadan,” is the song that caught Obama’s attention. Nilam was also named Songlines Album of the Year.
Ganavya has appeared as a solo vocalist on multiple Grammy award winning projects and penned and performed the first Tamil lyrics to win a Latin Grammy, for Residente’s Antes Que El Mundo Se Acabe. Her long running collaboration with Peter Sellars recently led to the co-creation of an opera titled Nine Jewelled Deer.
