MUMBAI: Indian-American global business leader and musician Chandrika Tandon won a Grammy on Sunday for Triveni, an album that blends ancient chants with world music, at the 67th Grammy Awards. The 71-year-old artist secured the prestigious award in the Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album category for her seven-track meditative journey, which she describes as a path to “inner healing.”
Tandon collaborated with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman and Japanese cellist Eru Matsumoto to reinterpret age-old Vedic chants in Triveni, an album named after the confluence of three rivers and symbolic of their three distinct musical styles. While accepting the award in Los Angeles, she said, “Music is love, music ignites the light within all of us, and, even in our darkest days, music spreads joy and laughter.”
Raised in a traditional middle-class home in Chennai, Tandon grew up surrounded by music alongside her younger sister, Indra Nooyi. Their family was deeply rooted in the teachings of the Samaveda, with Vedic chants and Carnatic music forming an integral part of their upbringing. While Indra Nooyi went on to lead PepsiCo for 12 years as CEO and became one of the world’s 50 most powerful businesswomen, Tandon carved her own path as a trailblazer in business. She became the first Indian-American woman partner at McKinsey and later founded New York-based Tandon Capital Associates, a firm focused on restructuring institutions. A graduate of IIM Ahmedabad, Tandon has also made a mark as a philanthropist.
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In 2015, she and her husband Ranjan donated $100 million to the New York School of Engineering, which now bears the Tandon name. Now, with a Grammy to her credit, her impact extends beyond business and philanthropy to the global music scene.
