Beyond

‘Beyond’

“Beyond” features original songs of Oak’s Guru, Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande reimagined for a hindustani vocalist and a string quartet.

“Beyond” was recorded at Allegro Recordings in Burbank, CA with Grammy-award winner Matthew Snyder serving as recording engineer. The works were reimagined for Western classical string quartet and Hindustani vocals by Reena Esmail along with the Shastra workshop alumni Shane Scott Cook, Kara Ford, Anton Ariki Sten, and Akshaya Tucker. This summer intensive program in Los Angeles, CA teaches composers how to work with Hindustani music and musicians.

“This album has been years in the making,” said Oak. “Three years ago, Reena (Esmail) and I sketched out the idea for this album over dinner. We were in the early stages of planning for Shastra’s Summer Intensive program in Los Angeles and were preparing to take our “Raga Meets Symphony” workshop to Mumbai and Delhi. We realized that there were no better composers to arrange these beautiful works than our own Shastra alumni.”