These are the hard working people that make Ethno India happen!

THE ETHNO INDIA TEAM

GUNEET KAUR

PROJECT MANAGER

Guneet Kaur is a digital video content creator by the day, and a musician all day, everyday! She believes in the goodness of art to bring meaningful changes in people's lives. 
As a musician, she dons several hats: a teacher, a performer, a storyteller, and a music therapist. She believes that, when nothing else works, art alone has the power to heal a broken world. 
Through her music, she wants to spread the message of love. "Because..", in her words, "..in a world constructed to promote hatred, love is a revolutionary act".

DURGESH KANWAL

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Durgesh, always with a bright smile, has participated in eleven Ethno events across countries like India, Estonia, Flanders, and Germany. His warm and friendly nature has earned him many friends along the way. A dedicated percussionist specializing in Tabla and Darbuka, Durgesh holds a master's degree in music. He has delved into both teaching and performing. Additionally, he indulges in crafting musical instruments during his leisure time, constantly exploring new musical avenues.​

YASHDEEP KHARE

Yashdeep joined the Ethno team as a volunteer for the 2016 edition. A whiz at finance and merchandising, he is also an avid djembe player and soloist with the Sunshine Ensemble.

Hailing from Madhya Pradesh, his folks are now settled in the central Indian town of Bhopal.

AKILA JAYARAMAN

Akila Jayaraman is the former Head of Planning at Essence Digital. She has worked in the corporate sector for over 15 years across many industries. Akila is passionate and highly committed to whatever she sets her mind to. She plays the darbuka and has recently participated in Ethno New Zealand. Akila is the newest member of the Ethno India team.

SHIVANI DASS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Always a keen observer of life around her, Shivani has trained under accomplished photographers and also earned a degree from the prestigious Light and Life Academy (LLA) Ooty in 2009. Since then she has participated in two international foundry photography workshops and held her first solo exhibition in April 2010, Sanjeevani in a Spectrum. Her 2nd solo exhibition was held in 2013, entitled Violet Dreams. Her Book project I Often Think of Those I left Behind (2014) was on Chin refugees living in New Delhi. Her forte is food/travel/portraits & short documentaries. She is also a gifted djembé player. 

ARTISTIC LEADERS 2023

Here are the exceptional musicians who will be leading the musical aspects of Ethno India 2023!

GREGOR SCHULENBURG

Karoliine-Lisette Kõiv

WIND

Introducing the multifaceted flutist, interpreter, and performer, Gregor Schulenburg! With a remarkable presence both nationally and internationally.

Gregor's musical journey has graced prestigious festivals including Salzburger Festspiele, Edinburgh Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and Holland Festival. From baroque to contemporary, his repertoire is characterized by an astonishing diversity, includind a passion for improvisation and diverse ethnic and folk music. Gregor's involvement extends to ensembles like MAM, Ensemble Extrakte, and Ensemble Modern.

​Additionally, his commitment to community and folk music led him to spearhead ethnocamps and collaborate with notable organizations. His vision to make music accessible to anyone led him to become a community musician and pass on his passion to others.

Violin, Vocal, Guitar

Introducing our Artistic Mentor Karoliine-Lisette Kõiv, a dynamic musician seamlessly blending folk and jazz. With a folk foundation from Heino Eller Tartu Music College and ongoing jazz violin studies at the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, music is her essence. Starting with violin and singing, she later embraced guitar and ukulele, crafting a unique musical identity.

Karoliine's compositions fuse singer-songwriter reflections with folk rhythms. Her music is a vessel of stories, as she believes the essence of music lies in its messages. Her songs and arrangements can be heard in her own ensemble Tidi&bande, folk-jazz and dark chamber music duo Traat, and in world music trio SaJaKa.

Karoliine's Ethno journey began in 2012 in ETHNO Estonia, and in over a decade, she's evolved into a leader, volunteer, and participant and has travelled to many ETHNOs around the world. 

Her deep connection with Ethno inspired her musical path. Karoliine's music resonates beyond sound—it's a journey of the heart and soul.

​Charu Hariharan, born in Kerala, India, is a versatile percussionist with a deep-rooted passion for South Indian Classical music. Her journey began as a singer under the guidance of her mother, renowned singer Dr B Arundhathi. But Charu's passion for rhythm led her to master the Mridangam under her guru Mannarkoil Balaji, becoming the first female recipient of the CCRT scholarship for this instrument. She started touring internationally from the age of 17 and has collaborated with artists worldwide. Some of her notable associations include RRR with Oscar winner MM Keeravani, Firdaus Orchestra by AR Rahman, ‘O Shakuntala’ by Pt Debashish Bhattacharya, ‘Women of Rhythm’ etc. Charu also works as a composer and session artist for movies and documentaries. A psychologist by education, Charu chose to follow her passion and is making waves in the music world. She was a participant at Ethno Sweden 2010 and was a part of the ‘Ethno on the Road’. She is a member of ‘Varldens Band’ consisting of 13 musicians across the globe who met at Ethno. The band, found in 2012, has travelled all around Europe performing over 200 concerts.

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ARTISTIC LEADERS 2020

These are the fantastic musicians who will lead the musical side of things at Ethno India 2020!

PIETER LENAERTS

BASS/CHORDS

Pieter Lenaerts is a double bassist and composer from Belgium. Pieter started playing the piano when he was 9 years old. At the age of 18 he picked up the double bass and after a few years of training he became a professional musician on that instrument. For the last 20 years Pieter has been a freelance double bassist in a wide variety of musical genres. We could say that this part of his life as a musician started with the very first Ethno that didn’t take place on Swedish territory: Flanders Ethno 1999 (later on named as “Ethno Flanders”). Pieter attended his first Ethno there and became an addicted ‘ethnoite’; in the years to follow, quite soon as an artistic leader and for some years also as one of the Flanders Ethno organisers.

Pieter has been a veteran at many Ethnos across the world, initially as a participant and also as Artistic Leader.
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He is an experienced double bass teacher and, a regular freelancer in classical orchestras, baroque orchestras and occasionally also other genres like jazz and tango, opening up the musical horizon to a wide variety of styles. In the last 10 years Pieter’s musical interests and activities shifted more and more to contemporary music and free improvisation, but also to Indian classical music, a constantly growing creative interest since his first visit to India in 2007, after which he kept visiting this country from time to time, counting 6 travels to India over the years and a 7th time coming up in 2020, for the 4th edition of Ethno India.

NENAD KOVAČIĆ

PERCUSSION

Nenad is a member of various bands in Croatia, as percussionist, with whom he has released seven albums in last eight years and actively performs across world. In 2016 Nenad’s band Sevdah Takht Damira Imamovica has joined into Glitterbeat records family – one of the best world music labels in the world. He also works as a full time composer of theater and film music. He has composed music for over 20 plays and documentary films.
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One of his biggest interests in music is traditional music. He is an expert in West African music having learnt by through traveling and playing with masters of Djembe music in Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso (Mamady Keita, Famoudou Konate, Sega Sidibe and Zoumana Dembele).
Since 2008. he is leading west african rhythm workshops in Zagreb (Croatia). He has been a regular at Ethnos across the world since 2006, as a participant and also as an artistic leader (Ethno Denmark 2012, 2013, Ethno Croatia 2015, Ethno India 2016, Ethno France 2019). Also he’s been attending Ethnofonik course in Paris 2014. Since 2015 he has worked as a Coordinator of Ethno Croatia.

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GREGOR SCHULENBURG

WIND

Gregor Schulenburg is a versatile flutist, interpreter and performer in solo and chamber music both at home and abroad. He performed at festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, the Edinburgh
Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Holland Festival.

His repertoire spans from baroque to contemporary and experimental music and he has a great interest in improvisation and in the extensive variety of ethnic music. In this context he is a sought after duduk and kyotaku player.

He is a member of the ensembles MAM. Manufaktur für aktuelle Musik, Ensemble Extrakte and guest musician of Ensemble Modern.

As an interpreter he worked together with various composers, like Helmut Lachenmann, George Aphergis, Simon Steen-Andersen and has performed in numerous first performances.

Since 2017 Gregor Schulenburg is project manager of the developing further education ETHNOLeader, carried out by Jeunesses Musicales in Germany and he became recently an assistant trainer of the NGO Musicians without Borders.

ETHNO INDIA WISHES TO THANK

PROJECT DIRECTOR (2014-2019): SUCHET MALHOTRA
PROJECT COORDINATOR (2014-2018): Dr AMIT SINGH
GRAPHIC DESIGNER (2014-2019): NETRA SHYAM
PROJECT COORDINATOR (2018-2020): ANANT RAINA

ETHNO DOCTORs: DR BANDANA MALHOTRA (2014, 2016 editions) & Dr ANOOP VELAYUDHAN (2018 edition)

Delhi – What To See And Do: Document prepared by Dr Bandana Malhotra, Supriya Puri and Anant Raina
Cultural DOs and DON'Ts: Document prepared by Dr Bandana Malhotra

Volunteers at Ethno India: Rani Kaur, Makrand Sanon, Vikram Mittal, Tanya Luther, Joshua Leeds, Aarti Gupta, Pallavi Chaturvedi, Bandeep Singh, Baahu Singh, Ishan Sindhwani, Bhargavi Gupta, Aditya Bhagavatula and Supriya Puri.

People who have lent their gear to the project: Lionel Dentan, Vikram Badhwar, Yogyata Khullar, Rakesh Mathur, Vipul.