Women Who DrumAn all-women percussion collective bringing rhythm artists from diverse traditions into dialogue, on and off the stage.
Rhythm. Dialogue. Sisterhood.
Creating space for rhythm artists to be seen, heard, and celebrated.
Women Who Drum brings together rhythm artists from diverse musical traditions. The ensemble explores percussion as a space for dialogue, between instruments, cultures and artistic voices, while creating greater visibility for women percussionists.
Our work extends beyond performance into workshops, collaborations, and community-building initiatives.
Collaboration, not hierarchy.
The project brings together musicians from diverse backgrounds to build performances that are fluid and evolving, offered in three formats.
Festival Performance
A full-length stage production for theatre and festival venues, featuring curated collective artists in a complete narrative set.
Curated Events
Flexible ensemble arrangements built for cultural programmes, corporate and private events, and institutional gatherings.
Workshops & Rhythm Gatherings
Interactive sessions exploring rhythm, collaboration and percussion traditions, built around dialogue with the audience.
"She Speaks in Rhythm" premiered at the Mahindra Percussion Festival — rhythm as something melodic, emotional and expressive, not reliant on volume or spectacle. It invites audiences to step out of line and experience percussion not just as rhythm, but as narrative, texture, and lived expression.
On stage, and beyond it.
A running record of where the collective has performed and gathered.
Mahindra Percussion Festival
Women Who Drum presented its latest live set at the Mahindra Percussion Festival, bringing together harp, bass and multiple percussion traditions in a dynamic exploration of rhythm.
WOMI x WWD Community Gathering
In collaboration with Women Of Music India (WoMI), the project hosted a gathering for emerging women percussionists to perform, connect and share ideas.
Serendipity Exchange for the Arts
The project was showcased at Serendipity Exchange, a platform connecting artists and curators from across disciplines.
Corporate Cultural Showcase
Women Who Drum performed a specially curated set demonstrating the ensemble's versatility across performance contexts.
Artists behind the project.
Every session brings together percussionists from different traditions and backgrounds, in arrangements built specifically for that stage, that story.
Swarupa Ananth — Founder, Percussion
Percussionist, composer and producer Swarupa Ananth created Women Who Drum as a platform for women rhythm artists to collaborate, experiment and perform together.
A dynamic young thavil artist carrying forward the powerful South Indian temple percussion tradition.
Rooted in South Indian rhythm and active across contemporary music, bringing dynamic rhythmic textures to the ensemble.
An Iranian percussionist specialising in frame drums and traditional duff, bringing powerful rhythmic textures to the ensemble.
A tabla artist trained in Hindustani classical rhythm, known for her clarity, sensitivity and rhythmic dialogue.
One of India's leading harpists, blending classical technique with contemporary soundscapes.
A bassist active in contemporary and live performance spaces, contributing groove and low-end depth.
A versatile bassist known for her work across contemporary music and collaborative performance projects.
A versatile tabla artist and rhythm arranger moving fluidly between classical foundations and contemporary grooves, from live stages to studio and brand work.
An international drummer and percussionist based between Berlin and India, known for her commanding stage presence and high-energy performances.
Percussion has long been a space where women's voices are underrepresented — on festival lineups, in session credits, in the rooms where rhythm gets made. Women Who Drum exists to change that, one performance, one workshop, one gathering at a time.
Some of the rooms that have taken notice.
The Fourth Edition of Mahindra Percussion Festival
Coverage of the festival Women Who Drum performed at, organised in association with The Hindu and held in Bengaluru.
Read online →Stage Is Hers
As the show celebrates the feminine side of melodic elements, it's a recognition of women's rise in the male-dominated world of percussion — a feature on Women Who Drum by Narendra Kusnur.
Read online →Rhythm and Roots: Mahindra Percussion Festival
A photo essay from the fourth edition of the festival, with reflections from performers including Swarupa Ananth on curation, collaboration and where Indian percussion is headed next.
Read online →Curation Is King
"Percussionists Swarupa Ananth and Charu Hariharan took the lead with thunderous drumwork" — a review calling the Women Who Drum set a deliberate dismantling of what's assumed to be conventionally feminine.
Read online →Turn Up the Tempo, Turn Down the Bias
On Women Who Drum's set at the Mahindra Percussion Festival, and the collective of percussionists — Swarupa Ananth, Charu Hariharan, Nush Lewis, Amirthavarshini Manishankar and Shalini Mohan — behind it.
Live clips, photos, and press.
A growing archive of performance footage and moments from the road.
