As founder and artistic director of Akshara Music Ensemble, Bala creates original chamber music drawing on the rhythmic and melodic language of Indian classical music while bringing together musicians from Carnatic, Hindustani, Western classical and other contemporary traditions. Akshara has performed at venues including Lincoln Center, BAM, the Kennedy Center, the National Gallery of Art and Symphony Space. Bala’s composition Mohana Blues received the Independent Music Award for Best World Traditional Song.

Education is an equally important part of Bala’s work. He has taught and presented Carnatic music at institutions including The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New York University and Sarah Lawrence College, and has led workshops internationally, including at Escuela de Música El Puente in Buenos Aires and Amor de Dios in Madrid. His workshops and lecture-demonstrations introduce musicians from a wide range of backgrounds to Carnatic approaches to rhythm, improvisation and composition through listening, vocalization, movement and percussion.

Across these different areas of his work, Bala is interested in the same underlying idea: how a deeply rooted musical tradition can remain alive through performance, learning, creation and exchange.