Chandrika Tandon

BIOGRAPHY

Chandrika Tandon is a globally recognized business leader and Grammy-nominated artist. As The New York Times wrote, Tandon traveled an “unlikely path to become an internationally recognized Indian singer.” Her stated mission is to elevate human happiness through music and education – working on the dual prongs of emotional and economic well-being.

Tandon’s mission to foster emotional well-being is focused on emanating love, joy, and transcendence through her music and artistry. At the height of her business career, she reevaluated her life and definitions of success – and reformulated her business life to intentionally include music, service, and meditation. She sought out masters for their teachings, devoting herself to hours of exacting classical training, all with no particular goal in mind except to learn and find the light.

Tandon has already released four albums under her non profit label Soul Chants Music: Shivoham — The Quest, Soul Mantra, Soul March, and Soul Call, which was nominated for a Contemporary World Music Grammy alongside greats like Sergio Mendes and Béla Fleck. In this music, which has an international following, she draws on ancient Vedic chants that have a sound healing impact and melds it with Indian classical music. Her fourth album Shivoham — The Quest, is an oratorio describing her own path to finding the light and was premiered to a sold-out audience at the Kennedy Center in 2021.

Her newest, Ammu’s Treasures, is a simple gift expressing intergenerational love. It is meant to be a monumental sharing of music between families, with a global focus. Ammu’s Treasures presents songs in multiple languages, from French to Sanskrit chants that adults are familiar with, and visual animations to help all ages feel the love, light, laughter that is Tandon’s mantra.

Tandon has performed for thousands globally. She sang the opening invocation of historic World Culture Festivals at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, in New Delhi, and just recently at the National Mall in Washington, DC for hundreds of thousands of audience members and global viewers. In addition, she has performed at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine for an interfaith 9/11 memorial, Global Peace and Wellness initiatives all over the United States and internationally.

For many years, Tandon conducted senior community choirs in Queens, New York, creating choral melodies of ancient Sanskrit verses. She will continue her mission to perform with families and children to share a musical hug with the world. Her upcoming Children’s Hope Benefit Gala performance will be alongside the globally awarded and acclaimed Young People’s Chorus of New York.

A major contributor to the Lincoln Center of Performing Arts, Tandon served on the Board for several years and chaired the Center’s Global Council. She served on the President’s Advisory Council at Berklee College of Music and was also the founder of the Berklee Tandon Global clinics, which bring world class faculty to underrepresented countries.

Her economic well-being efforts are focused on higher education – in particular STEM – where she brings to bear her considerable business experience as one of the earliest partners of McKinsey & Company and Founder and Chair of her own advisory firm.

Tandon has received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the BCA Leadership Award from Americans for the Arts, and was inducted into the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She chairs the Board of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, named after her family’s generous gift. She is a Trustee of New York University and NYU Langone Health. She is a Harold Acton Fellow at NYU and a Sterling Fellow at Yale, where she serves on the President's Council on International Activities. In addition, personally and through her foundation, Tandon has supported multiple arts, education, and community building efforts for the last three decades.

She has been profiled on radio, tv, and in print, including NBC’s The Brave Ones series, by Aziz Haniffa for The Trailblazers, the New York Times, and Broadway World.