Zahara (Annette Philip)
Zahara is a Grammy- and Emmy-nominated musician, educator, and arts entrepreneur. A versatile vocalist with roots in Kerala, India, she is known as a visionary who delivers on big dreams. Zahara is a seasoned recording and touring artist, producer, composer-arranger, pianist, voice-over actor, public speaker, and bona fide sari connoisseur. She served as a judge on the PBS American televised choral contest, Sing That Thing! on WGBH, winning several national/international awards as a musical impresario and thought leader.
The first Indian musician invited to join the faculty at Berklee College of Music, Zahara is the founder/director of the Grammy- nominated Berklee Indian Ensemble, a viral phenomenon with over 300 million views renowned for its global Indian sound. The ensemble's debut album, Shuruaat featured 98 musicians from 39 countries, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Global Music Album in 2023. From the ensemble grew an institute, Berklee India Exchange (BIX), of which Zahara is executive and artistic director. BIX focuses on education, innovation, and community—a creative ecosystem producing high-profile concerts, international tours, global workshops, classroom-to-career pathways, scholarships, mentorship programs, and original content.
Over the last two decades, Zahara has performed with several Grammy-winning legends, including A. R. Rahman, Bill Whelan, Nona Hendryx, Angélique Kidjo, Buster Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Ysaye Barnwell, and Zakir Hussain, besides collaborations with music icons Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Ghoshal, Clinton Cerejo, Vijay Prakash, Jonita Gandhi, Haricharan, Ranjit Barot, Ghatam Giridhar Udupa, Stewart Copeland, Ricky Kej, and the Jazz Urbane, to name a few.
Creating community through art and dialogue are at the core of Zahara's life work. In 2003, she founded Artistes Unlimited (AU) in New Delhi, India, a performing arts collective promoting collaboration among Delhi musicians. With a vast repertoire of jazz, rock, funk, a cappella, gospel, Indian/Western classical, Sufi, and folk music, AU became one of India's largest and most diverse youth platforms for musicians with a rotation of 250-plus artists.
Today, Zahara takes this mission to a global level through the internationally acclaimed award-winning vocal quartet, Women of the World, disruptors in the a cappella world, singing in 37 languages and counting. The singers represent Japan, Italy, India, and the US via Haiti, and are committed to exposing audiences to world cultures through song.
In all she does, including her songwriting duo, Tigs & Nettles, and her online reflection series, "keeping it light," Zahara's message of self-love, resilience, and kindness is the foundation.