GOVERNANCE

Akhil Jobanputra | President

Born and raised in Vancouver, Akhil Jobanputra started his journey in the Indian classical vocal form known as khayāl at the age of three. He is currently under the tutelage of Gurus Dr. Pandit Arun Dravid and Pandit Arijit Mahalanabis. As a performer, Akhil has been featured in various venues and events across Canada, the United States, India, and the United Kingdom. As an educator, Akhil has taught a number of students to enrich Vancouver’s South Asian traditional arts and culture ecosystem. He was recently featured in the Canadian South Asian Youth Conference, and his paper “My Identity, My Music” was published by Simon Fraser University Library. At the age of twelve, Akhil founded the Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver (ICMSV) with the goal of bringing communities together and promoting various local events. Since then, he has curated a series of initiatives and events geared at increasing awareness, accessibility, and education around Indian classical music.

​Avinash Maniram | Vice-President, Secretary

Avinash has been on the ICMSV Board since January 2019 and is currently serving as Vice-President and Secretary. He currently chairs the Funding and Governance Committee. Professionally, Avinash is an actuarial consultant specializing in group benefits. For over 20 years, he has worked with boards of trustees in the management of benefit programs covering unionized members throughout a variety of industrial sectors. He is also an avid musician and fan of Indian classical music with formal classical training in tabla. His passion for music spans several genres and he has performed throughout Canada as a percussionist, guitarist and keyboard player with a number of bands and ensembles.  In addition to classical music, his current field of interest lies devotional music and in the Bhojpuri folk music traditions of the Caribbean. Within ICMSV, Avinash works closely with Akhil on the technical aspects of event programming and on ensuring that the quality of ICMSV events matches the calibre and skill of the artists that are showcased.

Hriday Buddhdev | Treasurer

Hriday is a 2nd year BSc student at the University of British Columbia, majoring in Computer Science, and a web-development intern at Celayix. He started learning Tabla at the age of 4 with Parthasarathi Mukherjee of Banaras Gharana. Over the last 13 years, he has learned in the Punjab Gharana with Jaspal Randhawa, Sunny Matharu, and Amritpal Singh. Now, Hriday is taking taleem in the Lucknow Gharana from Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri at Ali Akbar College of Music (AACM). Connecting rhythm with melody has always been a passion of his, which led to his initiation in Sarod by late. Dr. Thomas Hunter at UBC. For the last 8 years, Hriday has continued his taleem with Ustad Alam Khan, the son of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, at AACM. He is a twice awardee for the Ali Akbar Khan Scholarship for the Advanced Instrumental Class. He has presented a lec-dem on Maihar Gharana Sarod for the Vocal Eyes Project at ISF. Between 2021-2022 at ICMSV, Hriday has contributed as the financial coordinator, helping to develop the “Friends of ICMSV” audience loyalty initiative. He is excited to serve as the treasurer and advance the ICMSV mandate for the future of thriving art-forms in BC. 

Alka Tandan | ​Director-at-Large

Alka joined the ICMSV Board in January 2019. She has transitioned from Director-at-Large to Treasurer, and co-chairs the Marketing Committee. Outside of ICMSV, Alka is a seasoned customer experience and customer insight professional, working with a range of clients from start-ups to F100 brand. Drawing on an eclectic range of analytic techniques and business models, she has helped companies harness customer focused approaches and technologies to drive usage, growth, retention, and revenue. Alka first became involved with ICMSV to improve her record of attendance at events. She became more engaged as she discovered the mix of musical expression and education, in order to broaden the audience for these classical forms.​

Utkarsha Kale | Director-at-Large

Utkarsha received her foundational training in North Indian Classical Music from my first guru Asawari Aserkar for over 10 years starting from 2002. She is fortunate to have been able to learn from Pt. Vijay Koparkar from 2017-2018 following her primary training. At present, she is receiving advanced training in the Gwalior style from Aparna Gurav since 2019 and in the Agra style and Dhrupad genre from Pt. Arijit Mahalanabis since 2022. She has a Diploma in Natyasangeet from Vidyadhar Gokhale Sangeet Natya Pratishthan, along with Sangeet Visharad with First Class distinction from Akhil Bharatiya Gandharv Mahavidyalay Mandal. Recent performances include Ashta Prahar (Society for Indian Music and Arts), Sadhana/Tarana (Pratibha Arts), and she was featured in our very first Sahabhāva which was virtual.

Aneri Nanavaty | Director-at-Large

​Aneri joined the ICMSV board at the end of 2023, as a Director-at-Large. As a young first-generation immigrant, Aneri grew up with multicultural artistic and musical influences, including Indian classical music. She has been acting on stage since the age of 6, training and performing in many theatre styles, including improv, black box, and musical. Along with theatre, she trained briefly in both Indian classical vocal (khayal) and jazz vocal styles. Professionally, Aneri has a background in health policy, working across several health systems in various capacities, including corporate strategy, clinical education and policymaking. She has now resumed her Indian classical vocal training under Akhil’s tutelage.