Pawan Benjamin + Sameer Gupta

Spiral Music presents acoustic music every Wednesday evening at the base of the Museum’s spiral staircase. Artists who specialize in music from the Himalayas and South Asia are invited to forge a connection between their music and the art in the galleries.

About the Musicians

Pawan Benjamin (bansuri) is a saxophonist, flutist, and composer. He started his musical training at a young age in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2006, he enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music, where he plunged headfirst into the diverse music scene of New York City, performing and recording with musicians from around the globe and across genres, including jazz, hip-hop, Nepali folk music, and Indian Classical music. Pawan has collaborated with artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Ranjit Barot, Taufiq Qureshi, Rez Abbasi, Mike Stern, Candido Camero, Bill T. Jones, and many others. He has performed in venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rose Theater, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center, the National Center of Performing Arts in Mumbai, Goa International Jazz Festival, and many others. Pawan is an active member of Brooklyn Raga Massive.

Sameer Gupta (tabla) is one of the few percussionists representing the traditions of both American jazz on drumset and Indian classical music on tabla. He has performed at Lincoln Center, Birla Auditorium Kolkata, SFJAZZ, Nehru Centre London, the Museum of Modern Art, and Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. His love of tabla brought him to the great maestro Anindo Chatterjee, of whom he is now a dedicated disciple, though his first few years were spent under the guidance of Ustad Zakir Hussain. Sameer is also a co-founder and artistic director of the nonprofit collective Brooklyn Raga Massive.