Saraswathi Ranganathan

Saraswathi Ranganathan is a Carnatic veena artist, composer, educator and performer based in Chicago, with more than thirty years of performing and teaching behind her. She grew up in Bangalore and learned the veena from her mother, Smt. Shantha Ranganathan, and from Karnataka Kalashree E.P. Alamelu. She holds a Masters in Sanskrit and an MBA from Loyola University of Chicago. She was the first Indian woman and the first veena artist to win a Chicago Music Award in the award's thirty-five-year history, the first veena artist to play as an orchestra member in Disney's Jungle Book production, and the first veena artist to receive a Logan Foundation grant in Chicago. She runs Ensemble of Ragas, her school in Schaumburg, Illinois, teaching Carnatic vocal and veena.