Ria Modak

Ria Modak is a guitarist and composer from New York. She is a PhD student at Brown University, where she studies the history of jazz in India, and is a recent graduate of the dual degree program between Harvard College and the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Vijay Lyer, Esperanza Spalding, Eliot Fisk, and Jérôme Mouffe. Her playing has been recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, the Long Island Classical Guitar Society, the New York Guitar Seminar, and Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society, and she appeared on NPR’s From The Top in 2018 and 2020. She has performed with Paquito D’Rivera, Ali Sethi, Claire Chase, Isheeta Chakrvarty and other musicians both in the United States and India at venues ranging from Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall to the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. As a composer, she is inspired by her training in Hindustani music and flamenco, and has been commissioned by the Harvard Office for the Arts, the Harvard Composers’ Association, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and Winter JazzFest as part of Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa’s M3 Fellowship.