Berklee College of Music Archives

Shreya Pujari is a vocalist, educator, and music industry professional specializing in folk music, jazz, and global traditions. She graduated from Berklee College of Music with a BM in Mediterranean music and contemporary writing and production, after beginning her studies in jazz voice at Fullerton College in Los Angeles. Her work centers on preserving and promoting traditional music through performance, education, and cross-cultural collaborations. Her multicultural education and fieldwork experience, including a six-month residency in Valencia, Spain, studying flamenco and Mediterranean music, inform her diverse musical approach and research interests.

Shreya has led several initiatives aimed at celebrating and sustaining global folk traditions. In 2024, she coordinated and directed the first Assamese Youth Orchestra in the U.S., commissioning new arrangements of Assamese folk songs and premiering the ensemble in Nashville. She has received a U.S. Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition for her work preserving Assamese cultural identity among first-generation youth in America. She is an active performer in the San Francisco music scene, known for curating eclectic, multilingual sets that introduce global folk traditions to American audiences.

Shreya’s Fulbright-Nehru research project is centering on the music of underrepresented communities, especially within her Assamese heritage. Her study is documenting the indigenous musical traditions of the Mising and Rabha tribes of Assam, India. Through immersive fieldwork, she is studying Mising and Rabha musical structures, performance practices, and cultural contexts. The focus of the project is on ethical preservation through consent-based storytelling and community partnership, aiming to give agency to cultural knowledge holders while also highlighting the global relevance of Assam’s musical landscape. Her research is expected to result in a multimedia documentary and supplemental educational resources aimed at preserving these traditions and increasing their visibility within the global academic community. Overall, backed by her background in folk music, ethnomusicology, and marketing, Shreya is attempting to showcase underrepresented traditions and foster cross-cultural understanding through global platforms such as festivals, film, and media.

Mr. Calvin McCormack is a musician, audio engineer, and computer programmer from Baltimore, MD. He completed his undergraduate degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Michigan, where he focused on the intersection of jazz improvisation and non-western musical idioms. During this time, he spent two months in Mysuru studying the Saraswathi Veena. He is also a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he received his master’s degree in Music Production, Technology, and Innovation, with an emphasis on the use of bio-sensors and accessible interfaces in musical instrument design. As part of his thesis at Berklee, Mr. McCormack developed software that uses electroencephalogram (EEG) brainwave signals to control digital music generation and sound design. Since 2018, Mr. McCormack has been working with CED Society, a Dehradun-based non-profit dedicated to supporting women in the Himalayan border region. Together with CED Society, Mr. McCormack has helped launch the Sound of Soul Recording Studio and Music Institute, a nonprofit music education center and recording studio designed to empower disadvantaged and disabled women through music education, production skills, and creative expression. Mr. McCormack has also worked as an active musician, music instructor, author of music teaching materials, assistant at a digital fabrication lab, and spent two years as an assistant engineer at Radio Active Productions recording studio in Austin, TX.

Traditional musical instruments have been developed and refined over centuries, but digital instruments are a relatively new technology with great potential for innovation. Mr. McCormack’s Fulbright-Nehru project aims to design, develop, and test digital musical instruments that have been created specifically for people with disabilities in remote areas of northern India. The project is using bio-sensors, low-cost computers, and digital fabrication tools to create accessible musical instruments and is studying their efficacy in rural areas, resulting in an enhanced understanding of the design and production of affordable and accessible creative tools.