Born in Allahabad India, Rita Sahai was accepted at the age of nine as a disciple of renowned vocalist, Pandit Rama Shankar Mishra who groomed her in the romantic Benares Gharana style. After coming to the United States Rita continued her studies under the world famous sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan where she trained in the Seni Allaudin Gharana style known for its creativity and purity of ragas. Impressed by her talent and passion towards music, Khan Sahib gave her the title “Gayan Alankar” (Jewel of Music). Rita, an acclaimed composer and performer, tours extensively throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and India. She is also in demand at recording studios at home and abroad where she graciously lends her voice to many diverse musical projects including laying down vocal trax for Grammy Award winning blue grass artist Bella Fleck and performing on Alonzo Kings Sacred Texts, a CD of international music that won the Isadora Duncan award for music excellence. She has produced several CDs of her own, one of which, Rangamalika, was considered for a Grammy nomination in 2003. In the two decades that she has been in the United States, Rita has served as an ambassador of India’s rich musical heritage. Through workshops and lectures she has reached out to the larger non-Indian community and educated them in the intricacies of Hindustani music. She conducts classes all over the Bay Area, from Sacramento and Berkeley to Fremont and San Jose. Her students come from varied cultural and musical backgrounds. Rita’s Western students discover a universal appeal and depth of emotion when singing classical ragas, and Rita’s classes are a way of reconnecting to the art and culture of their mother country for her Indo-American students.