Process: Anjali Shinde on 'Radiating'
Betsy Podsiadlo | 8/31/2023
Anjali Shinde is a flutist and interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. This month we caught up with Anjali about how she chooses to practice her art outside of institutional boundaries and her philosophy moving forward in her career.
“I kind of realized I wasn’t going to be doing the regular thing,” Anjali shared as we began to discuss her decision to leave graduate school. She went on to say that it felt like the logical next step after finishing her Bachelor’s degree but that in truth, she wanted to find a group of musicians to collaborate with and a masters program seemed like the right place to do that at the time. After a few semesters of grad school, feeling the frustration of institutional promises not upheld, Anjali reflected and realized that she wasn’t getting what she wanted out of her program and made the decision to leave.
After leaving school, Anjali felt nervous to continue her artistic practice on her own.
“Structure is something that’s really useful and important to me, I was really nervous to not be in school,”
When asked about the difference between working on assignments for school as opposed to focusing on her independent projects, Anjali recalled that while it felt more productive sometimes to be in school, due to the expectations of the program, she never felt like she had time to focus on the things that she actually was interested in pursuing.
“School always gave me something arbitrary to be pushing for,” she shared.
While leaving school definitely offered more time for Anjali to focus on the exact things that interested and excited her, finding community and collaborators still proves to be challenging. She shared that over time she came to understand that meeting people requires a bit more effort than people are accustomed to in university settings.
“We’re so used to dorm life, you don’t have to have any effort, you don’t have to try. Really, you have to be a little bit vulnerable and a bit forward”
Anjali shared that this search for collaborators often collides with her search for inspiration offering that “you just kind of have to talk to people and you also have to actively look for things to inspire you. I think that’s a big shift from student to post-grad life, playing an active role in finding inspiration.”
With less arbitrary work, more time to focus, and a strategy for finding collaborators and inspiration, Anjali reassessed her approach to making a career as a flutist noting that perhaps the constant push that is modeled in academia is not truly conducive to a fulfilling and successful artistic career.
“I think a lot about the concept of radiating as opposed to pushing,” Anjali cited a tenet of flute pedagogy as she described her current approach to advancing her career. She shared that while you could use all of your air and push sound straight across a room, like a laser beam, thinking about your air and sound radiating from your instrument in all directions and moving where it needs to can create a more beautiful tone. In reflection, Anjali also finds the practice of radiating outward and sharing her art more freely allows her the ability to trust herself to find what’s right for her and her career.
This fall, Anjali will begin participating in Ensemble Connect, a 2 year fellowship program through Carnegie Hall for preeminent young professional musicians. Anjali plans to continue her practice of radiating while also detaching herself from any expectations of what this experience could lead to.
“I’m not really holding on to any specific goal with it anymore [...] I don’t think it’s that helpful or a good of a use of my time to put out a lot of specific expectations.”
Instead, Anjali is choosing to be present, to soak up what she can, and to joyfully continue to make music.
Be sure to follow Anjali on instagram @anjaliflute
Stream Everwild EP to hear Anjali’s beautiful flute playing, some songs she co-wrote, and to view the album art she created!