The artist
After a year of working in the Ethereum public goods space, I'm back to pursuing music full time and it feels like coming home! Hailing from a family of musicians, I began learning Hindustani Classical Music (vocals and the Harmonium) since the age of 5 from my grandmother, my first guru. I have since continued my training. I post videos of my practice sessions, along with covers of Bollywood songs and folk music covering India's vast cultural & lingual diversity. With Devcon coming to the city I was born in, performing there would bring it all full circle, where my two worlds meet! Folk cover (in Saraiki/Punjabi): https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeH2qVqzkaJ/?obrf=MTRqYnplcGRhazB5eg== Hindustani Classical: https://x.com/NidhiHarihar/status/2105352473594700232?s=20 Bollywood: https://x.com/NidhiHarihar/status/2035386401571946600?s=20 You can also find my covers on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nidiyia
The set
I'd love to take the Devcon audience on a 30-minute journey across India. 10 folk songs in 10 languages. Ever since Devcon was announced to be in India, I've been covering one song from every state. You can follow my 'Songs of India' thread here: https://x.com/NidhiHarihar/status/2110363828064288940?s=20 The performance will grow out of this project Before each song, I will share a line or two about the message it conveys & the region it comes from, then sing a 2.5 minute version of it. The set is about what India and Ethereum have in common. Ethereum is by far the most OPEN and welcoming community I've been lucky enough to be part of and that openness comes from the diversity of its people: we're from different geographies, cultures, religions and languages. Ethereum is a mini globe and so is India, home to 121 major languages and over 19,500 dialects! That diversity lives in our music, where every state, town and village has its own language and its own sound. Ten songs can't capture all of India's musical diversity, but I'd love for the Ethereum community to go home knowing that Ethereum, like India, can't be defined by a single metric. Pluralism is our strength, and it unites rather than divides! And where better to experience that than through the music of India, in India?
What moves them
India's pluralism & diversity. Hindustani classical music, the tradition I am trained in, was shaped over centuries by diverse faiths & communities. My music is proud of that heritage & celebrates it!