GINGGER SHANKAR

Gingger Shankar is an artist who draws from her rich Indian musical heritage as a member of India’s most famous music family, and a long-standing relationship with activism starting with her great grandfather’s legacy as Gandhi’s writer for his underground newspaper. She continues these traditions in her work as a musician, the world’s only female double violinist, and filmmaker.

Born into a family of musicians, she began touring at an early age: by the age of 14, she was performing at Madison Square Garden. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a soprano in Osvaldo Golijov’s opera “Ainadamar” and later performed it at Carnegie Hall. 

She has worked with top artists, producers, and film composers including The Smashing Pumpkins, Saul Williams, Trent Reznor, Peter Gabriel, Steve Vai, Katy Perry, Mike Nichols, Meryl Streep, RocNation, Marilyn Manson, Brian Wilson, and James Newton Howard and scored numerous film and television projects including The Passion of the Christ, Charlie Wilson’s War, And She Could Be Next, and the CNN film We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World and, most recently, produced the hit “Rozi” by Pakistani rapper Eva B. featured in Disney’s Ms. Marvel. 

She was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s ‘25 New Faces to Watch’ and produced 2018 Sundance Film Festival selection Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock and Himalaya Song - named one of “10 Best Music Films at Sundance” by Rolling Stone - and is on the Artist Advisory Board for the Sundance Film Festival and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. 

She is a frequent speaker for TED, UNESCO, and the Nobel Prize Summit and recently launched Little Indian Girl, a women, LGBTQIA2S+, and globally Indigenous-led storytelling collective spotlighting women who embody revolution through art.

Upcoming projects include Promises of Our Grandmothers, a feature documentary chronicling a women and Indigenous-led resistance camp’s fight against the Line 3 pipeline, and Nari: The Women Behind A Music Revolution, the unsung story of the women of the Shankar family - her mother and grandmother - two extraordinary artists who helped bring Indian music to the West in the 1970s with Ravi Shankar and George Harrison. As a musician, she has worked with The Smashing Pumpkins, Trent Reznor, Katy Perry, and Meryl Streep, and has scored numerous film and television projects including The Passion of the Christ, Charlie Wilson’s War, And She Could Be Next, and more.

CHARLOTTE QAMANIQ

Charlotte Qamaniq is a North Baffin Inuk performance artist, actor, and contemporary and traditional throat singer hailing from Iglulik, Nunavut. Her practice encompasses acting and katajjaq (Inuit throatsinging), skills with which she has over twenty years experience and a history performing nationally and internationally. Much of her practice centers on the relationship between Inuit, the Canadian government, and general populace, examining the loss of parts of Inuit cultural heritage and the subsequent struggle by Inuit to regain independence in colonial institutions.

Qamaniq co-created the group Silla with Pitsiulak in 2005. The duo’s blend of traditional and contemporary katajjaq has been described as rhythmic, tonal and hypnotizing. Their debut album, Tumivut (2007), was nominated for Best Female Cultural Recording at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards, Best Album at the Native American Music Awards and Best Rap/Hip Hop CD at the Indigenous Music Awards. Pitsiulak and Qamaniq joined with DJ Rise Ashen in 2015 under the new name of Silla and Rise, adding electronic dance beats to their katajjaq sound. Their first album together, Debut (2016), was nominated for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the 2017 Juno Awards, and their second album Galactic Gala (2019) was nominated for World Music Album of the Year at the 2020 Junos. The third album Silarjuaq (released in 2020) won the Stingray Rising Stars Award in 2018 and two Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards in 2021 for Best Video of the Year and Inuit Group of the Year. In 2022 Qamaniq co-created another katajjaq group, Iva and Angu, with Kathleen Ivaluarjuk Merritt. Their first album together, Katajjausiit (2022), was nominated for Traditional Indigenous Artist Album of the Year at the 2023 Junos. 

In addition to the records produced with these groups, Qamaniq has also been featured on records by other artists, collaborating on the song “Black Leather” (2019) with Norway’s Eurovision finalists Keiino, working with Ottawa duo Twin Flames on multiple songs for their records Omen (2020) and Signal Fire (2017) and collaborating as part of Silla with Greenlandic singer Uyarakq on the single Amaroqk (2023). She made her stage debut in Qaggiavuut’s touring production of Kiviuq Returns (2018), and the following year took the stage as part of circus act Artcirq with the touring production of Unikkaaqtuat (2019). In 2023 she played one of the lead roles in sculptural theatre piece Qaumma, directed by Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, and that same year she also appeared in her first TV role, a musical part on season four of True Detective: Night Country.