Swati Kanitkar
President
An IT project manager by day and singer by night, Swati is a renowned singer based in the DC Metro area. Trained under the tutelage of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, she has been an established musician for over 30 years. A finalist in the internationally popular SaReGaMa USA singing competition show in 1999, she has since collaborated with numerous renowned musicians and has performed in a variety of genres ranging from filmi (Indian popular music) to ghazal (semi-classical), Indian classical, and fusion. Recognized for her visibility in Indian-American music culture, she been invited by and performed for the Embassy of India on four separate occasions. More information on Swati’s music can be found on her Facebook artist page here.
Swati was inspired to found Musikala in 2023 in hopes of raising the profile on the talents of the Indian musical community in the United States and encouraging music education through facilitation of discussions and idea exchanges.
Soumya Chakraverty
Secretary
Soumya balances the challenges of maintaining two different professional careers, one that of a management consultant and the other that of an Indian classical musician. Based in the DC Metro area, Soumya is an established player of the Sarod, a north Indian stringed instrument. He is an established performer and music teacher, and excels both as a soloist as well as in ensembles with other musicians. He has performed extensively throughout the US, India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico in front of packed audiences. In addition to pure Hindustani, he has collaborated with world music genres such as Carnatic (south Indian), flamenco, and jazz and Latin. His concert and interview at the Library of Congress have gone into the archives of this prestigious institution. A few years ago, he collaborated on a production piece with the US Navy Band. More information about Soumya’s musical background can be found on his website here.
Soumya has been the visionary and founding member of Musikala. Along with Swati Kanitkar, he helped Musikala to produce major concerts such as Pancham Swar: A Tribute to R. D. Burman in 2023, the DC Annual Memorial Day Concert and Ghalib to Gulzar: A Journey of Ghazals in 2024. His passion for music and vision led him to work with Swati and Tej to elevate Musikala from just an informal musical band to a non-profit organization dedicated to being a platform for the appreciation and education of South Asian music in the greater Washington DC metro area and beyond.
Tej Kanitkar
Treasurer
Tej is a computer science graduate and cloud solutions architect who also happens to be an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, owing to his descendancy from a lineage of artistic minds. With over a decade now of professional music performance experience, Tej has accompanied and collaborated with multiple renowned artists including Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Paudwal, Ali Pervez Mehdi, and many more as a bassist, guitarist, and pianist. More information on Tej’s music can be found on his YouTube channel here.
Tej helps facilitate the logistics of and produce Musikala events and activities, and manages the organization’s backend admistrative activities including the Musikala website, social media accounts, and financial accounts.
Musikala 