Alec Cooper

I am a sitar player, teacher, composer and researcher living in Edinburgh. I grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I started learning guitar as a teenager. I then moved to Boston to pursue a BA in music composition at Berklee College of Music, followed by a Master’s degree in musicology at the University of Surrey.

While composing chamber pieces and studying the works of Stravinsky, Bartok and others, I became increasingly attracted to the spontaneous – and somewhat liberating – quality of musical improvisation, especially as approached in the context North Indian classical music. I eventually decided to change my career focus by studying Indian sitar and singing with gurus Debashish Sanyal and Ashish Jaiswal from Varanasi, while carrying out a PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Edinburgh (completed in 2018).

During my PhD, I explored how Indian classical music affects human consciousness - particularly for performers. If you're interested in this topic, check out my YouTube channel where I've uploaded a 50-minute video essay summarising my thoughts and findings relating to this question.

I currently perform across Scotland and the UK, both classical Hindustani music and fusion music. I also co-direct ‘theSitarProject’, a community group promoting Indian music in Scotland. In this role, I have had the special chance to teach sitar to over 300 students. I received the Kala Ratna award by ‘Milapfest’ for my contribution to the Indian arts scene in the UK.