Bhoomija’s Gayathri Krishna On Bringing Indian Music & Performance to A Global Audience

Summary: (http://kamlashow.com/podcast/wp-content/uploads/Gayathri-Krishna-150x150.jpg)Gayathri Krishna wants to bring Indian classical music and performing arts to folks around the world. "We are 50 events old," Gayathri points out. In less than a year she has brought performers to different cities in India, and travelled to China, Australia and the USA. Passion, vision and ambition is what drove her to found Bhoomija Trust (https://www.facebook.com/bhoomijatrust), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in Bangalore. Bhoomija is a year old. Bringing Indian music and performance arts to a global audience sounds like a simple project. But, binging predictable, sustained programming to a global audience in their hometown is a challenging project. Perhaps, this is where her training in Information Tehcnology (IT) comes in handy. Gayathri has has over 20 years of experience working with a diverse set of clients. She was part of the early team at i-flex Solutions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-flex_Solutions), which was acquired (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oracle-pays-108-billion-to-boost-stake-in-indias-i-flex)by Oracle for close to a billion dollars. It was at i-flex Solutions that she cut her teeth working with an international customer base, and this is where she made some money that is fueling her current project -Bhoomija. She also got hands-on experience in developing sustained, predictable programs at Rangashankara (http://www.rangashankara.org/home/rangatest/), the well-known performing arts venue in Bangalore. She spent a few years as the head of programming at  Rangashankara, and helped create a predictable calendar for its audience. Passion, vision and ambition is what drove her to found Bhoomija Trust (https://www.facebook.com/bhoomijatrust), a non-profit organization based in Bangalore. "We are 50 events old," Gayathri points out and the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) is just a year old. We met with Gayathri in Palo Alto, CA. She was here with the Indian classical singer Bombay Jayashr (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TTOjz0zpKQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUg24IW2af8JjGE-DCbkPG0g)i, who had just performed at New York's Carnegie Hall and was gearing up for a performance in Silicon Valley. Jayashri is an Oscar nominated artist, who sang the opening song in Ang Lee's Oscar winning film Life of Pi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nL1qTFSgcg&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL5-MJ__3JKHY0YZgo1ZsXwhBd2mkvUtkd). In this interview Gayathri talks about how got involved in the music and performing arts and her plans for Bhoomija. And yes, she still works in the IT industry. She works for IBM during the day and all her spare time is devoted to working with her team at Bhoomija