Bio

Curator | Violinist | Educator

Founder & Artistic Director of District of Raga

As a visionary curator and contemporary violinist, Nistha Raj is a global arts leader for South Asian culture. Born to Punjabi immigrants and raised in Houston, Nistha’s love of music blossomed through all-night music sessions at the temple and her mother’s favorites ranging from Bollywood classics to devotional music. Nistha developed a desire to always be immersed in the power and beauty of transformative, artistic experiences. She is a creative, collaborative, and community-minded change agent for her arts ecosystem. To elevate her artist community, build multicultural coalitions, and provide performance opportunities for kaleidoscopic encounters, she leads District of Raga (DoR).

“Stunningly skilled in western and eastern classical music,” (Washington City Paper), Nistha has negotiated the spaces between Indian and Western classical and contemporary music for over two decades, studying violin intensively in both the U.S. and India. She has gone on to meld tradition with contemporary innovation through work on collaborative classical, jazz, hip-hop, and rock projects, to name a few. Her self-released debut album, “Exit 1”, has been described as “edgy, innovative, and clearly awe-inspiring…Indian fusion at its best” (Inside World Music). Nistha is well-known in the D.C. music scene as the source for South Asian culture as well as for her collaborative work with local Grammy-nominated progressive Hip Hop artist Christylez Bacon. 

While continuing to refine her own creative and artistic vision, Nistha is steadfast in catalyzing pathways for her fellow South Asian artists to gain visibility and build their careers through DoR. Launched in 2017, District of Raga is a DC-based, volunteer-run organization focused on presenting and preserving the performing arts and culture of South Asia. Building community through collaboration with artists, audiences, and organizations, as the director of DoR, Nistha has crafted and co-presented captivating South Asian experiences at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art IlluminAsia Festival, Amp at Strathmore, and The Barns at Wolf Trap. Notably, DoR was selected for the inaugural class of The Kennedy Center’s Culture Caucus, an incubator and residency program for culture makers for only 22 individuals/organizations. Nistha looks forward to expanding her platform of musical dialogue and community between cultures in the future.

Nistha holds a BA in music from the University of Houston and an MA in Arts Management from George Mason University. Nistha is also the founder and owner of Soulfege Music Studio, a multi-teacher studio that offers in-home and online private music lessons throughout the DC Metropolitan Area.