Second Wednesday Webinar Series
November 11, 2026:
South Asian American Collegiate Music and Dance
Introduction & Registration | About the Panelists
Introduction & Registration
Over the past quarter century, hundreds of competitive South Asian a cappella and dance groups have popped up on college campuses across the U.S. However, few who are not participating in these groups know about these really important developments. In this webinar, panelists will introduce these traditions, talk about what it is like to participate in these groups and regional/national competitions, and the slow emergence of post-collegiate groups.
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 11, 2026, 7-8pm ET / 4-5pm PT
Register here!
The Panelists
Elizabeth Ipe is an accomplished vocalist and musician with extensive training in both Carnatic and Western vocal. She began her Carnatic training at age five and incorporated Western vocal training during middle school. During high school, she won first place at the Flowers TV USA Sing N Win competition, earning the prestigious title “Golden Voice.” She also notably served as a soloist in the Maryland All State, NAfME All-Eastern, and NAfME All-National Choruses.
While pursuing a degree in Computer Science at the University of Maryland, Ipe was a prominent member of UMD Anokha, a premier South Asian a cappella ensemble. Serving as Music Director the year following the group’s national win, she led the ensemble to rank at every competition they attended. Her individual contributions were recognized with four awards for Most Outstanding Soloist in a Non-South Asian Song and two awards for Most Outstanding Arrangement. Beyond her ensemble work, she has released several professional studio recordings. Currently, she is a software engineer at Microsoft in the Greater Seattle Area.
Poonam Vaidya is the Executive Director of The SAPAN Institute, a DMV-based organization founded in 2007 to promote South Asian performance art through dance, music, and theater. She began her dance journey in 1998 when her mother enrolled her in ballet and has not stopped dancing since. Prior to joining The SAPAN Institute, Poonam competed on Texas Nach Baliye, a co-ed Bollywood Fusion dance team at the University of Texas at Austin and trained with the Bollywood company Naach Houston. In her day job, Poonam is a Senior Product Manager at Publicis Sapient and resides in Arlington, VA.
Joshua S. Duchan, Ph.D., is an ethnomusicologist specializing in American popular music. His publications include the books Powerful Voices: The Musical and Social World of Collegiate A Cappella (2012), Billy Joel: America’s Piano Man (2017), and “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: Billy Joel and Popular Music Studies (2020), as well as several journal articles on a cappella, Billy Joel, and (most recently) depictions of newsies in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American sheet music. He is Professor of Music and Associate Chair of the Department of Music at Wayne State University, where he teaches courses in music history, world music, music research, and popular music studies.
