Sushma Soma is an award-winning Carnatic vocalist based in Singapore and Chennai, India.

Recognised as one of the passionate “youths driving positive change through their actions” (Today Paper, Singapore, November 2020) and one of the ’10 women leaders in music’ in Singapore (Hear65, Singapore, March 2021), Sushma was awarded the prestigious Young Artist Award, the highest honour for young arts practitioners in Singapore, by The National Arts Council, Singapore, in December 2020.

Sushma started her Carnatic music training at the age of 4. After receiving her formative training at Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society, Sushma moved to Chennai to started learning under Lalita Sivakumar and now trains under RK Shriramkumar, one of the leading Carnatic musicians and musicologists of today.

Sushma has performed solo and in collaborations in various cities and venues across the world over the last decade including London, Luxembourg, Brussels, San Diego, Los Angeles, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore just to name a few. Her notable collaborations include her recent performance with Bharata Natyam exponent Mythili Prakash which premiered at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany at the Reflektor festival curated by Anoushka Shankar. Sushma was the vocalist and one of the co-composers on the production.

Sushma’s debut album ‘Sa’, released in March 2020 featured many global artists including award winning American vocalist and composer Aditya Prakash and BBC presenter and London based sarod composer Soumik Datta.

Apart from her capacity as a performer, Sushma also explores her role as a writer, researcher and educator. Her archival work with the National Archives of Singapore was given special mention at the Singapore Parliament in March 2019.

Sushma is passionate about raising awareness about environment and sustainability. Her upcoming album, Home, created with Aditya Prakash, marries her Carnatic sensibilities with her passion to raise awareness for the environment. One of the tracks in the album, ‘Nature’, was featured in the BBC EarthShot awards.

Sushma is also a certified Chartered Accountant in Singapore.