This semester I will be teaching a new course How Music Shapes Cities: Varanasi to NYC at Ahmedabad University. Students will learn about global musical genres and how their geography shapes them. The course will encourage students to consider how music influences the identity of a city including its architecture, social life and economy. Students are exposed to the roots and progression of different genres of music, from Western and Indian classical, folk, hip hop to blues, country, jazz and popular. The course examines how music shapes cities and in turn is influenced by them. While students explore the local origins of musical genres, from their origin to the present they will also look at how music transcends geographical borders and cultural boundaries.

Here is a short introduction video that I share with my students at the beginning of the semester.