Reena Esmail's "Zeher" for String Quartet

Reena Esmail's "Zeher" for String Quartet
Indian-American woman composer Reena Esmail (born 1983) works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces.
Esmail holds a bachelors degree in composition from The Juilliard School, and a masters degree from the Yale School of Music. Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis and Martin Bresnick, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She has won numerous awards, including the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (with forthcoming publication of a work by C.F. Peters) and two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. She is currently a PostResidential doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Music.
Esmail was a recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru grant for the 2011-2012 year and studied Hindustani vocal music in New Delhi, India. She was selected as a 2011 INK Fellow to speak about her work at the INK Conference (in association with TED) in Jaipur, with additional speaking engagements in Chennai, Delhi and Goa. For the 2010-11 season, she was the conductor and arranger for Yale’s Hindi a cappella group, Sur et Veritaal. Esmail’s doctoral thesis, entitled "Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practies in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians" explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers.
Esmail’s life and music was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series "Now Hear This," as well as "Frame of Mind," a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Recorded Live March 25, 2024 and posted with permission from the composer
Members of The Harlem Chamber Players
Violinists - Claire Chan and Ashley Horne
Violist - William Frampton
Cellist - Wayne Smith
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The Harlem Chamber Players Inc., is an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high-caliber, affordable, accessible live classical music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. For more info about The Harlem Chamber Players and all our past activities, please visit our website at:
harlemchamberp...
Liz Player, Founder, Executive and Artistic Director
Contact: [e-mail]