Of Notes and Modernity
By Sharon Simonson
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., FREMONT and SAN JOSE, Calif.—Sriram Emani has no home in Cambridge, Mass., where his two-year-old company IndianRaga is based—or anywhere else for that matter. He travels so much he doesn’t need one. Emani must move fast. He is trying to ignite a global revolution.
From the sparks of the most-promising Indian and Western musicians he can find, the Mumbai-born, MIT-educated entrepreneur is re-inventing Indian classical music for a mass audience. With an emphasis on education in the classic art, his digital-media startup nurtures young talent with peer-to-peer and collaborative learning. At the same time, Emani is searching for ways to distill an ancient art’s hours-long presentation into minutes of 21st-century sound, making the music relevant ...