The traditions of Indian and Western classical music—two equally rich and sophisticated traditions—are so different from each other that there have been few attempts over the years to bridge the gap that separates them.  But that is exactly the goal that Reena Esmail, an American composer born to Indian parents, has been pursuing with outstanding success.  Esmail’s music is nourished by her double identity:  she has a doctorate in (Western) composition from Yale and studied Hindustani singing in India.  Yet she aims for more than a synthesis of musical elements.  As she has stated in an interview:

I use my music as a platform to bring people together…who are very unlikely to interact with one another outside of a piece of music that I would create, but that music allows them to really form a bond with each other where then deeper conversations can be had and relationships can be built.

About her composition heard at tonight’s concert, the composer has written:

She Will Transform You is centered around a beautiful poem of Indian-American author Neelanjana Banerjee.  She speaks about the beautiful relationship of an immigrant and her child to their country of origin, and the significant role a child from both cultures has in bridging the divide between them.  As a child of immigrants, I have felt both that distance–of being the ‘other’ in both America and India–and also the resonance of being at home wherever I am. 

The piece moves in and out of a Hindustani raga called Rageshree,which has such a lush resonance about it, and is also harmonically grounded in an unusual way (with the 4th instead of the more common 5th, which makes our ear feel like it’s never quite ‘home’)–so it has both a sense of belonging and distance.  It’s those two feelings–of belonging and distance–and the journey between them, that I wanted to explore in this work.

~ Notes by Peter Laki, copyright 2026