Tamil Nadu meets South Africa at the Grammys

An Indian-origin American vocalist and entrepreneur, Chandrika Tandon. Has won the Grammy Award for the album Triveni in the Best New Age, Ambient or Chant album category of the Awards. The event was hosted on Sunday 02 February in Los Angeles.

Chandrika Tandon is a global business leader and the elder sister of former PepsiCO CEO, Indra Nooyi. Tandon jointly won the award alongside her two collaborators – South Africa flautist, WouterKellerman and Japanese cellist, Ero Matsumoto.

Chandrika Tandon (maiden name Krishnamurthy) -who grew up in Chennai, India – won acclaim for her first album called Soul Call (2009) which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2011.

Chandrika hails from a Tamil family in Chennai and grew up in the city where she attended school and college. She went on to study at The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. She then worked for Citibank in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. At age 24 she became the first Indian American to become a partner in the world-famous McKinsey and Company in New York.

In 2004, together with her husband, formed the Krishnamurthy-Tandon Trust which funded numerous charities. In 2004 they donated 100 million US Dollars to the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering.

She is the winner of more than 16 international awards, including Ban-ki Moon’s Women Empowerment Award, the Ellis Island Medal of honour and numerous other awards from prestigious institutions like Yale University and New York University.

Chandrika’s training in Carnatic and Hindustani music inspired her to record her first studio album of her father-in-law’s favourite chants as his 90^th birthday gift. This led to her first album, Soul Call in 2009.