Sing A Lullaby

Sleep Songs Across Cultures

Gurupriya Atreya and Vedanth Bharadwaj conducted a year-long online workshop series called “Sing A Lullaby” at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The duo collected, researched and shared 52 lullabies in 38 languages from across India and the world. Over the year, the community of lullaby-ers grew to encourage over 450 people from different parts of the globe to come together into this oasis of warmth and comfort during stressful times, especially when even sleep became elusive.

Lullabies are believed to be the oldest genre in music known to us. The soothing songs carry with it centuries of quiet love that descends at the end of a long day, as mothers, fathers and caregivers sing to their children, while themselves slipping into its relaxing breath. And contained within a lullaby’s simple lyrics and melodies, are emotions, stories, age-old wisdom and beautiful imageries from nature. Lullabies from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sri Lanka, Mali, Tonga, Trinidad, Spain, Lithuania, Albania and from several other parts of the world showed us one thing – that love, language and music truly transcend all boundaries. Even a Zoom call window.

Gurupriya and Vedanth also invited guest artists, often speaking the lullaby’s native tongue, to help participants truly appreciate the nuance inherent in words, and the layers inherent in its music. Artists such as Sikkil C Gurucharan, Radhika Sood Nayak, The Ghosts, Ananth Menon, Shruthi Veena Vishwanath, Caitlin & Pierre Flasse, Cheryl Teh, Shilpa Mudbi, Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, MD Pallavi eagerly joined them in this journey. The workshop series also featured folk musicians such as Mir Basu Khan and Mir Abdul Jabbar from Rajasthan, and helped raise resources for their basic needs through the community of lullaby-ers during the financially debilitating period of the global lockdown.

Perhaps one of their most cherished collaborations was with children in the autism- spectrum from Chennai’s V-Excel Educational Trust, who wrote an original lullaby for them, that was then set to tune by Gurupriya and Vedanth and shared with the community of lullaby-ers. The children also reminded Gurupriya and Vedanth to keep their promise of producing and releasing all the lullabies into the world. The duo has released five so far and are currently working on the production of the rest of the album.

Amna Bibi - in collaboration with Khatija Rahman

kaNNe en kaNmaNiye

Niza Niza Re

Silent Night - Stille Nacht

Cradle Song.- Sleep Baby Sleep

Gurupriya and Vedanth have started taking these lullabies to a larger cross-section of people through live concerts and workshops. After their successful start in Bengaluru, they will be performing and teaching in the cities of Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Mumbai, with a planned tour in Europe as well. They hope to take it to spaces where it can be used as a tool to build community, cultivate harmony and embrace healing.

Vedanth Bharadwaj is a multifaceted musician who dabbles in several genres of music. He sings the time bending lyrics written by mystic poets from Bhakti, Sufi and Folk traditions while accompanying himself on the Guitar and Banjo. He started his journey in Indian Classical music at the age of 4, went on to learn Western Classical Music and is currently a disciple of Sri Ramamoorthy Rao. Vedanth composes music for dance, theatre, Indian and Foreign feature films, ads, documentaries, albums and is a much sought after sound designer.

After scoring music for the blockbuster Tamil feature film "Aruvi" he debuted in Hollywood as music composer for the musical "His Father's Voice”. Vedanth loves working with children, and is one of the directors of the Chennai Children's Choir, a choir of children from economically challenged backgrounds. They represented India at the Serenade Choral Festival, Kennedy Centre, Washington DC. Vedanth hopes to spread love and peace in this world through his music.

Gurupriya Atreya is a singer and arts curator. Trained in Indian classical music since her childhood, she is currently a disciple of Ustaad Faiyaz Khan. She strives to delve deeper into understanding the world of Bhakti Poetry, Thumris, Ghazals and Khayal Gayaki. Gurupriya lends her voice to singing playback for films, ads and voice overs.

To restore the glory of Chamber Music, she launched The Living Room Kutcheri. Her home has had a loyal audience base over the last 5 years, having hosted a variety of performances in music, dance, theatre, and storytelling. GoUNESCO featured her home in their heritage documentary series. They now host performances in Bangalore and Bombay. She is currently studying ‘Arts practices for Inclusion' through which she exposes varied art forms to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Gurupriya dreams of bringing communities and cultures together, holding each other to form an inclusive society.