About Aruṇ

Aruṇ Lūthrā (Hindi: अरुण लूथरा) is a New York-based award-winning
saxophonists and composer, and an exponent of konnakol – the Carnatic music art form of
vocalizing rhythms. As the leader of the Konnakol Jazz Project, he is one of the small group of American musicians of Indian heritage who have continued to explore the possibilities of fusing Black American Music with elements of Indian classical music, as well as drawing
from a wide variety of the many cultures and traditions which he embodies to create a
vibrant new sound and style. Lūthrā has performed the music of his Konnakol Jazz Project across the United States as well as in Japan, the United Kingdom,Europe, Australia, and South America.

Lūthrā has also shared the stage and recorded with many of the greatest Black American
Music, Afro- Cuban, and Brazilian artists, including Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, Kenny Garrett, Mike Stern, Joe Chambers, Charli Persip, Bernard Purdie, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Frankie Valli, Bobby Short, Lew Soloff, and Zé Renato.

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A. of an Indian father and a British mother, Lūthrā began his formal music training in Belgium at the age of nine, studying European classical guitar. He eventually focused on the saxophone as his primary instrument and soon began an active performing and writing career. He earned his Master of Music degree in Jazz Composition from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, C.U.N.Y. Lūthrā has also studied and performed with such notable Hindustani and Carnatic music masters as Trichy Sankaran, Selvaganesh Vinayakram, T.H. Subash Chandran, B.C. Manjunath, Ganesh Kumar, Samir Chatterjee, Karaikudi Subramaniam, Kiran Ahluwalia, Sufi singer Zila Khan, and the iconic 1970’s Indian cross-over star Asha Puthli.