13 Tracks that Inspired the Berklee Indian Ensembles Grammy-Nominated Debut Fresh off a Grammy nomination for Shuruaat, the ensemble members share their stories and build a playlist of their musical influences.
By
John Mirisola
December 9, 2022
The most amazing thing about BIE is that it's like a large energy ball that absorbs all music that comes its way, says Dhruv Goel B.M. '15, vocalist and composer for the Berklee Indian Ensemble (BIE). That stylistic fluidity is on full display in the ensemble's Grammy-nominated debut album, Shuruaat, where songs seamlessly incorporate influences and instruments that span the globe and draw from all corners of the musical world-from California to Bangladesh, from prog-rock guitars to Carnatic vocal techniques. It's a porousness that reflects the inclusive spirit of the ensemble, which draws its expansive sound from a truly global collective of players, all united by their deep friendship and an interest in Indian musical forms, but each bringing their own personality and style to the mix.
The Unlikely Origins of Shuruaat
Learn the story behind this uncommon album, and dive deep into the lore behind every song in this track-by-track video feature.
As the group transitioned from a student ensemble in the early 2010s to the 12-member professional touring outfit it is today (students still have access to the ensemble's academic successor, the South Asian Ensemble), this distinctive blend of influences has helped define the Berklee Indian Ensemble sound, even as the band continues exploring new sonic terrain. So on the heels of its Grammy nomination, what better way to dig deeper into the ensemble's aesthetic than to hear what its members were listening to as they made Shuruaat?
Below, meet each member, learn about their path to the Berklee Indian Ensemble, and listen to the tracks that influenced their contributions to Shuruaat at the end of the article.
Yogev Gabay
Image by Ariel Efron
Yogev Gabay B.M. '16 (Israel)-Drums Could you describe your musical background? I started playing drums at the age of 8, and stopped two years in, after my teacher died. Picked it up again in high school, and started playing in local cover bands as well as in the citys youth brass orchestra, which is where I learned how to read music. Spent my army service in the army band and joined the Rimon School of Music (a Berklee global partner school) later on. Three years after that I came to Berklee and the rest is history. Or on Spotify.
How did you first come to the Berklee Indian Ensemble, and what kept you involved with the group? I've been deeply interested in Indian rhythms forever, but sadly couldn't find anything about it in Israel. When I came to Berklee, I got involved in a bunch of Berklee video sessions and was invited to play with a visiting Indian percussionist. Met Annette [Philip] there, sent my audition videos, got accepted, never left.
Besides the music being very challenging, new, and exciting, I really really got attached to the people involved, who are some of my best friends today. Also, the attention to detail that goes into literally everything this group does is something that resonates with me in the highest levels.
Whats your favorite song on Shuruaat? Oh boy. Who do you love more, mom or dad?
My top two, I'd say, are Sundari Pennae and Unnai Kaanadhu Naan. Unnai feels like the most stripped down traditional sounding Indian song, and I selfishly love my role there. I play these small Indian bells throughout the whole song; it's great. And Sundari, it's Sundari. I love the group effort that went into it and the prog element we've added, and I feel like that's the direction we're going more and more, which is great.
Whats one piece of music that has inspired your approach to playing in this ensemble? Listening to Snarky Puppy, specifically the Ground Up album, really taught me a lot about how to navigate and approach being a drummer in a large ensemble in addition to how to play when there is a lot of percussion involved. You can find a good example for this on the track Binky, especially the ending.
Yoel Genin
Image courtesy of the artist
Yoel Genin (a.k.a. Shwesmo) B.M. '16 (Israel)-Guitar, Buzuki Could you describe your musical background? I started learning piano and music when I was 6. I've been composing music since I can remember myself. Discovered the guitar at 12 and never left it. Got into prog-metal music very early on as a teenager, and as my passion for music grew rapidly I felt that it was going to be what I do for life. I studied at Rimon School of Music for two years, and was lucky enough to be able to attend Berklee for another two years and complete my degree in jazz composition, where I also went back to more Middle Eastern roots of music, as well as progressed deeper into the jazz fusion world. Nowadays I've shifted gears a bit, combining my influences into the context of electronic bass music. Also grateful to come full circle and be faculty at Berklee.
How did you first come to the Berklee Indian Ensemble, and what kept you involved with the group? Yogev [Gabay], who was the drummer for the ensemble at the time, told me I had to join him there because it's amazing. I did. And he was right.
It opened up a door for me to explore a new style of music I wasn't familiar with and at the same time have enough room to contribute my own musical ideas, and be myself stylistically (hence, buzuki, a greek instrument in Indian music). Above all, the Indian ensemble always felt like a big family that cared and enjoyed each other no matter what.
Whats your favorite song on Shuruaat? It's a hard choice, but probably has to be Dua. I actually didn't take part in recording it at all; it was completely new to me. Its such a
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
13 Tracks that Inspired the Berklee Indian Ensembles Grammy-Nominated Debut Fresh off a Grammy nomination for Shuruaat, the ensemble members share their stories and build a playlist of their musical influences.
