ganavya

A childhood with musical pilgrimages in India, and further arts education in the USA has contributed to Ganavya Doraiswamy’s place as a significant voice in spiritual jazz – a sub-genre of American jazz in the 1960s.

Born in New York and raised in Tamil Nadu in southern India, Doraiswamy learned Harikatha (word of God), a living tradition of song and poetry on spirituality and mythology. In the USA, she found jazz as a space for improvisation. The result is music inspired by south Indian storytelling traditions, with poetry over jazz and ambient, with the New York Times describing 'the singer whose work feels like prayer…with listeners hanging onto her every word'.

The critically acclaimed album Daughter of a Temple was featured in The Guardian’s top global albums, and the song Pasayadan from the newest album Nilam featured in Obama’s 2025 top list. Ganavya recently released music with Sam Amidon, featured at the Festival last year with Frode Haltli Avant Folk.

At the Bergen International Festival, ganavya performs in a trio in the Peer Gynt hall – in a concert that encourages deep listening.

ganavya. Photo: Carlos Cruz

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