Kamala Sankaram (born 1978)
Kamala Sankaram was born in Orange County, California. She began learning piano as a child but gravitated towards other interests, including musical theater. She has a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the New School for Social Research.
Kamala Sankaram’s music is a delightful mix of influences, including pop, rock, and Indian classical and pop music. She sings, plays accordion, and is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an “operatic Bollywood surf ensemble.”
Since 2012, Kamala Sankaram has composed 11 operas ranging in length from 10 minutes to 90 minutes. Her one-act opera “Taking Up Serpents” was commissioned by the Washington National Opera and will be performed this summer at the Glimmerglass Festival. (I’ll be seeing it today, August 1, 2022.)
This is Kamala Sankaram’s all decisions will be made by consensus, billed as the “world’s first Zoom opera” and performed live on April 25, 2020. Kamala Sankaram is singing the character Linski and composer Joan La Barbara is Stiller:
Kamala Sankaram’s composition 60 Words (2014/2016) is for string quartet or accordion quartet, and begins with the whispered text for the legal justification of military force by the United States military since 9/11:
The composer is on the far right and in the preview image.
The Tree is a haunting 2019 composition for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, flute, and prerecorded testimonies of women: