TARA VENKATESAN

ABOUT TARA

Dr. Tara Venkatesan is an Indian soprano and cognitive scientist who researches the impact of music and technology on our brains and behaviour. She has a B.S. in Cognitive Science from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University. Her research has been published in peer reviewed journals and has been featured in The New York Times, Health Magazine, and The Economic Times. She is currently the Principal Cognitive Scientist at Universal Music Group where she researchers the impact of music on wellbeing.

As a soloist with a ‘crystalline soprano’ (Broadway World), she has performed with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, with the American Baroque Orchestra, for the Dalai Lama and the Presidents of India and Austria, at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and as recording artist for Walt Disney. She has an MMus in Vocal Performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama where she was a Sir Howard Stringer Scholar. She was nominated for the 2023 Offies for Best Opera Performance.

Opera and oratorio highlights include: Clori in L’Egisto, Peri in Das Paradies und die Peri, Cassandra in La Didone, Sandman in Hansel and Gretel, Flore in Céphale et Procris, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Mensajera in Loyola, soprano soloist in Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Rameau’s Quam Dilecta, and Handel’s Messiah.