Vocals and Multi-Instrumentalist | b. late 1980s or early 1990s

ganavya, full name Ganavya Doraiswamy, was born in New York to an American father and a Tamil mother, moved to Chennai with her mother and brother after her parents separated, and spent her childhood on South India's pilgrimage trails, learning harikathā storytelling and training formally in Carnatic music and bharatanatyam. She returned to the United States as a teenager, earned undergraduate degrees at Broward Community College and Florida International University, and was recommended to Harvard by Quincy Jones. Graduate degrees followed at Berklee College of Music, UCLA and Harvard. She is a practising Nichiren Buddhist who draws on Carnatic music, devotional poetry, jazz, ambient electronics and folk music as equal tributaries. Her debut album "Aikyam: Onnu" (2018) translated jazz standards into Tamil alongside devotional abhangs. Her second album "like the sky I've been too quiet" (Native Rebel, 2024), co-produced by Shabaka Hutchings and featuring Floating Points, Carlos Niño, Tom Herbert and Leafcutter John, blended Carnatic vocal tradition with ambient and electronic textures. Barack Obama included it on his public listening list. "Daughter of a Temple" (LEITER, 2024), released on Nils Frahm's label, and "Nilam" (2025) extended the catalogue rapidly. She co-founded the We Have Voice Collective, has collaborated extensively with theatre director Peter Sellars, and appeared at SAULT's 2023 London debut. ganavya remains active and California-based.