BIOGRAPHY
Bindu Subramaniam is an entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, and educator. She is the co-founder and CEO of SaPa and the lead vocalist of SubraMania and the Thayir Sadam Project.
Her mission through SaPa has been to build the ecosystem to make music education a meaningful part of children’s lives. Through SaPa centres (and online) and the SaPa in Schools program, they work with over 30,000 children across a variety of backgrounds and circumstances.
Bindu has been described as a “Bangalore woman educating children differently” by Femina and a “third-generation prodigy” by the Hindustan Times.
As an artist, Bindu has traveled the world, performing solo, with her family, with her bands, and with orchestras, for audiences of up to 500,000 people. Bindu first performed on stage in Norway when she was 12 - with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and global soloists, for a composition called Astral Symphony, written by her father, Dr. L Subramaniam. In 2011 she released her first solo album, Surrender. She won a GiMA for best fusion album (with Dr. L. Subramaniam) and honorable mentions at the 16th and 17th billboard world song contest. Bindu was also a finalist at the Unisong international songwriting contest and appeared on Verve Magazine’s list of 12 gen-next achievers.
In 2013, Bindu started the fusion band SubraMania with her brother Ambi Subramaniam. SubraMania has performed live in many cities across India and toured in seven European countries. The band has collaborated with Hubert Laws, Oystein Baadsvik, Lesle Lewis, and Bollywood composer Aadesh Srivastav. SubraMania’s music has been described as a “mammoth success” by the Asian Age, and their performance at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2018 was described as “one of the major highlights” of the festival by Firstpost.
In 2018, Bindu and Ambi collaborated with Carnatic fusion artist Mahesh Raghvan and mridangist Akshay Anantapadmanabhan to create The Thayir Sadam Project, an experimental blend of Indian classical and digital music. They have collaborated with a number of prominent artists including Smt. Aruna Sairam, Carnatic vocalist duo Ranjani-Gayathri, and the Trichur Brothers. Releases of the Thayir Sadam project have millions of views across social media channels.
Bindu has delivered multiple TEDx talks, has a regular column with The New Indian Express, and writes for the Economic Times HR, The Hindu, Education World, and other outlets. Bindu is the President of the Stanford Seed Transformation Network South Asia, the Vice-Chair of the All India Management Association’s Young Leaders Council, and a Steering Committee member of the Australia-India Youth DIalogue.
She has been named an icon of South India 2021-22 by Femina magazine and won the 2022 Women Who Lead National Award for CEO of the Year – Art & Music. In 2021, Bindu was named among GQ’s 25 most influential young Indians, BusinessWorld 40 under 40, BusinessWorld Disrupt top women achievers, AdGully’s top women disruptors, and the Indian Achiever’s Club’s 40 under 40.
She has a PhD in Music Education, an MPhil, a master’s certificate in songwriting and music business, a
diploma in Montessori education, BaLLB, LLM and completed the Stanford Seed Transformation Program.
“Bangalore woman educating children differently”
by Femina