About

Apoorva Joshi is a fifth year PhD student at Thayer School of Engineering, working on understanding the nanoscale thermal transport in complex materials. She was raised in the cultural city of Mysore, India which had a distinct influence on her artistic life.  She started learning Bharatanatyam and Kathak at the age of 20. She finished her Bharatanatyam rangapravesha in 2025. She continues to learn Hindustani music and Bharatanatyam.
She co-founded Sadhana with her friends to ensure there was a place on campus where could all meet and talk and share our respective artistic journeys. Outside of her lab, she enjoys, cooking, hiking not so rough trails, and solving detective board games. 

Favourite Raga: Kapi, Kaafi, Anandabhairavi, Desh. 

Avinash Maddela is an electric guitarist with a deep passion for Carnatic music and its expressive possibilities on a contemporary instrument. He has been learning Carnatic music under  Shri Shylu Ravindran for the past six years, developing his understanding of raga, melody, and improvisation while exploring how the nuances of the Carnatic tradition can be brought to the electric guitar.

A major inspiration in his musical journey is legendary guitarist R. Prasanna, whose ability to preserve the depth and authenticity of Carnatic music while expressing it through the electric guitar profoundly shaped Avinash’s approach to the instrument. Prasanna’s playing inspired him to pursue Carnatic music more seriously and continues to motivate his practice and musical exploration.

Avinash is especially drawn to the emotional character of ragas such as Abheri and Reethigowlai, and he hopes to continue developing his voice through raga alapana, improvisation, and eventually his own compositions. For him, playing Carnatic music on the electric guitar is a meeting point between tradition and personal expression.