Chicago-born Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. She holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music, and spent 2011-12 in India on a Fulbright-Nehru scholarship, studying Hindustani (North Indian) music. 

Esmail is currently Artist in Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She is also Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting music traditions of India and the West.

In 2020, Esmail set Pablo Neruda's Sonnet XVII for soprano and piano. In 2023 trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden commissioned her for an extended version for trumpet and orchestra. 

Neruda's sonnet is a love poem describing a unique love, with no "I" or "you", only "us

Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
Wordpros@mindspring.com
www.wordprosmusic.com