““You find yourself looking back at the venue’s closed door and you wonder if we were to open it, even just a little bit, would you be able to see Neha’s voice carry its way up the Rockwood steps out into the night sky, literally filling NYC’s Lower East Side with pure joy.” ”
Bio
Neha's music has that nostalgic quality to it, one that will have you feeling like you're sitting in a Parisian street café sipping a glass of champagne. Her arrangements are thoughtful and complex, and her sumptuous powerhouse of a voice will leave you awed at the 5'2 framed young Indian woman. A gifted singer, composer & pianist, Neha’s style can be characterized as a smorgasbord of musical personalities. She cites influences such as Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Otis Redding, Donny Hathaway, Sam Cooke, Dinah Washington, and Carmen MacRae, to name a few. While definitely rooted in jazz, elements of folk, blues, pop and her mother's classical Indian musical background also permeate.
A graduate of Northwestern University with a B.A. in Economics, Neha spent four years working for Google in the Bay Area before leaving to pursue a graduate degree in jazz vocal performance at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Neha has amassed a list of noteworthy credits, as a performer, educator and songwriter. Her performance credits include headlining at the famous off-Broadway show "Sleep No More," performing with her songwriting project Everything Turned to Color at Lincoln Center, and being a recurring guest of Dan Zanes, multi-grammy award winning songwriter and artist. Neha has had the pleasure of debuting works by new music composers including Paula Prestini, Adam Roberts and Alex Weisner. She has also performed works by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang, and most recently, performed in an immersive sonic experience at Rockefeller Center created by avant-garde American composer Sxip Shirey.
A recipient of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest finalist award for her original song 'The Willow Tree,' Neha released her debut album in January 2014, "The Dreamer." She debuted her first record, Life Imagined, with folk/jazz indie band Everything Turned to Color in June 2017, and is currently working on her sophomore record with the trio. She resides in Brooklyn, NY where she has taught on the faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in Park Slope, at the prestigious Brooklyn Youth Chorus and at the Jalopy Theater and Music School in Red Hook.
HAS PERFORMED AT:
NEW YORK CITY: Barbes Brooklyn, Lincoln Center, The Kitano Room, The McKittrick Hotel, Rockwood Music Hall, City Winery, Brooklyn Americana Festival, Google, Radagast Hall, The Flatiron Room, The Charlie Rose Show, National Sawdust, The Stone at The New School, The Ludlow House, Sofar Sounds
NEW YORK STATE: Hurleyville Center for The Arts, The Falcon PENNSYLVANIA: World Cafe Live, Live at 5 in Philadelphia, Ardmore Music Hall MASSACHUSETTS: Club Passim, Plough and Stars, Scullers Jazz Club in Boston; Dreamaway Lodge MAINE: The Barn at Surrey, Blue in Portland; VERMONT: Radio Bean in Burlington CALIFORNIA: The Hotel Cafe in LA; The Lost Church in San Francisco
HAITI: The Alliance Francais in Jacmel FRANCE: Riv 38, Le Peniche Marcounet in Paris
