ABOUT
Vocalist. Composer.
Multi-dimensional artist.
Surabhee Arjunwadkar holds a BA in Music and Dance from Bennington College. Born in Pittsburgh, US and brought up in Pune, India, her work is a continual exploration of the conflict of the self in relation to tradition(s), body, culture and language.
Trained in Western classical bel canto singing, her light soprano voice is well-suited to sing Baroque and Early music. Her repertoire includes works by Bach, Mozart, Handel, Villa-Lobos and Meredith Monk. She has worked with Kerry Ryer-Parke, Virginia Kelsey (Roomful of Teeth) and Tom Bogdan.
Surabhee released her debut album, Visiting Daughter, on January 19, 2026, a set of original vocal and piano compositions (which were played by renowned composer, Allen Shawn). This 22-minute album defyes genres, does not find rest in comfort and traverses across continents, languages, and cultures.
A polyglot, Surabhee speaks four languages (Marathi, English, Hindi Spanish) and loves to sing in many more including but not limited to Italian, French, Latin, Turkish, Greek, German, Sanskrit, Telugu, and Bosnian. In August 2025, she was comissioned to perform a concert at the newly renovated Hoosick Falls Opera House in upstate NY where the last person to play before her was Sonny Davis Jr. In November 2024, she performed Turkish and Ottoman music with Joseph Alpar and friends at the Bennington Museum and Skidmore College, NY.
Trained in Bharatanatyam from age 7 to 18, Surabhee’s movement work finds its roots in the grammar and vocabulary of Bharatanatyam. A seeker of alternative and experimental language and a practitioner of Iyengar yoga, her pursuit is to find movement which is full, intentional, pleasurable, and rigorous.
Her recent performance-work includes an original evening-length performance as her senior thesis (a prelude to moving) set to French jazz composer Chassol’s album ‘Indiamore.’ a prelude to moving was performed in November 2024 at Bennington College, VT.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Performance to me is risk-taking.
To put myself in positions I would not otherwise.
There is an innocent vulgarity to my work, a curiosity about sensuality in the body, possibilities of the body.
What is taboo? And how can I use that in my performance?
My work is an investigation of the body’s need to be seen at its vulnerable.
Breath connected to energy.
श्वास (breath) = विश्वास (trust).
I do not pigeon-hole myself in definitions.
I am resisting the way things are done.