Charu Suri: When I started out, a lot of doors were slammed in my face

Grammy-nominated pianist and composer Charu Suri sees her recent nomination not just as a personal milestone, but as a larger victory for Indian music in the global jazz conversation. “When I started out, a lot of doors were slammed in my face,” she says. “People asked what raga jazz even was, and why it mattered.” The nomination, she believes, validates years of pushing against boundaries; proof that genres can be transcended, borders erased, and new musical languages embraced. “It feels like my journey of breaking ceilings has been recognized by my peers. Ultimately, it’s the victory of music itself.” India has been central to that journey. Trained initially in Western classical music, Chopin, Mozart, the European canon, Charu once approached Indian ragas as an obligation to heritage rather than a living, creative force. That changed when she entered the jazz world. “That’s when I truly connected with them,” she says, finding ways to fold Indian classical traditions into a contemporary global sound. Today, India represents for her not just culture, but philosophy; ideas of tolerance, karma and preservation that have deeply shaped her musical and personal values. Known for her distinctive “raga jazz” sensibility, Suri draws from some of the world’s oldest musical traditions, adapting 7,000-year-old ragas for modern jazz audiences. The influence is both conscious and intuitive. “The energies of these ragas are beautiful and healing,” she says. Her latest album, Shayan, is built entirely around evening ragas, designed to help listeners sleep better. Her work draws from both Hindustani and Carnatic traditions, creating music that feels ancient and new at once. Suri’s curiosity extends beyond the concert stage. A longtime admirer of Bollywood music, she has expressed a strong desire to score films. That ambition is already taking shape: last year, she composed music for her first short film, directed by Emmy- and Oscar-winning filmmaker Hemal Trivedi. “I’m excited to get more involved in that space,” she says. For first-time listeners, Suri describes her music as a lyrical blend of Western classical, jazz and Indian traditions—accessible, expressive and rooted in history while speaking a modern language. Looking ahead, she is eager to explore monsoon ragas, which she finds especially evocative, and is already sketching ideas for a new album, Bossa Raga, blending bossa nova with Indian classical forms. As her Grammy nomination suggests, Suri’s genre-defying path is resonating far beyond borders.