Learn with SIMA

A rigorous path.
A living practice.

Students grow through repertoire, technique, listening, scholarship, improvisation, and performance—within a close relationship with their teachers and musical community.

Guru Arijit Mahalanabis and Akhil Jobanputra discussing the characteristics of a rāga at SIMA’s New Student Orientation

The curriculum

Three stages of musical growth

A graded path through Hindustani music, developed through years of teaching and close observation of how students mature.

I

Saṅgīt Praveśikā

A six-level course from musical fundamentals to performance proficiency. Students integrate rāga, tāla, composition, technique, literature, and improvisation through Khayāl, Dhrupad, and allied forms.

Capstone · Public recital

II

Saṅgīt Mādhyamik

Deeper study of musical structure and artistic freedom through improvisation, composition, language, and introductory research.

Capstone · Recital and research paper

III

Saṅgīt Pāṅḍitya

Advanced work in repertoire, history, technique, sight-reading, improvisation, pedagogy, epistemology, and original research across major forms and genres.

Capstone · Concert and book-length research

Teaching at SIMA

Learning through close attention.

SIMA’s teaching brings students together in an intimate setting where listening, demonstration, discussion, and collective practice are woven into the study of music.

Arijit Mahalanabis teaching students seated together in a musical learning circle
Arijit Mahalanabis demonstrating an instrument during an intimate group lesson
Arijit Mahalanabis seated with an instrument during a group teaching session

Learning in practice

Knowledge becomes music.

Study moves continually between attentive listening, disciplined practice, intellectual inquiry, and public performance.

Rishi Bhattacharyya studying the esraj during his Saṅgīt Praveśikā recital
Rishi Bhattacharyya’s Saṅgīt Praveśikā: technique, repertoire, and an individual musical voice.
Carnatic and Hindustani musicians performing together at Raag Samvādam
Raag Samvādam brings distinct traditions into attentive musical conversation.

What we teach

Voice, instruments, theory, and the relationships between them.

Instruction is offered in voice, theory, sitar, surbahar, esraj, bansuri, harmonium, tabla, and pakhawaj. Advanced instrumentalists may also study Hindustani music on their own instrument. Cross-training is central to SIMA’s pedagogy: musical understanding grows through contact with more than one form, genre, or instrument.

Ask about learning with SIMA ↗