Falu’s Bollywood Orchestra

Falu returns to the Rubin for a performance combining the timeless elegance of Bollywood’s golden age music with a modern, inventive style.

Artist Biography

Falu (aka Falguni Shah) is highly acclaimed for her formidable, Indian classically-shaped vocal talent. In early 2015 she was named one of the top twenty most influential global Indian women in India’s Economic Times.

She was trained rigorously in the Jaipur musical tradition and in the Benares [singing?] style of Thumrie, honing her talent for up to sixteen hours a day. She later continued studying under the late sarangi/vocal master Ustad Sultan Khan, and continues to study with the legendary Smt. Kishori Amonkar.

Falu has participated in a series of high-profile collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Wyclef Jean, Philip Glass, Ricky Martin, Blues Traveler, and A. R. Rahman. She was appointed Carnegie Hall’s ambassador of Indian music in 2006 and has performed there numerous times.

She performed for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House for their first state dinner in Nov 2009 and also was the featured performer at the Time 100 Gala in 2009.
Falu and her eponymous band have put out two albums of original and traditional music (Falu in 2007 and Foras Road in 2013). Their songs and live performances have aired on FOX TV, National Geographic TV, and NPR, and have been described by the New York Times as “East and West, ancient and modern,” by Billboard as “ethereal and transcendent,” and by Vogue as “a rare brand of timeless elegance.”