Shas­tri Boodan

Sherisse Khan, a 24-year-old vo­cal­ist, in­stru­men­tal­ist, and cul­tur­al ad­vo­cate, is re­shap­ing T&T’s mu­si­cal land­scape—one root­ed in rich tra­di­tion yet tuned to the pulse of a new gen­er­a­tion.

Khan is trained in vo­cals, vi­o­lin, key­board, and the tan­pu­ra—a rare In­di­an clas­si­cal drone in­stru­ment—and her jour­ney is as much about pre­serv­ing her­itage as it is about forg­ing new cul­tur­al path­ways.

“My mu­sic has be­come more than a ca­reer,” she says. “It’s a mis­sion—one of pas­sion, per­se­ver­ance, pur­pose, and cul­tur­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.”

Her for­mal train­ing be­gan in 2009 at the Shiv Sangeet School of Mu­sic, and over the past 16 years she has built a ca­reer ground­ed in In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic while ex­per­i­ment­ing with mod­ern modes of ex­pres­sion to en­gage younger au­di­ences.

“What start­ed as a per­son­al pas­sion has trans­formed in­to ad­vo­ca­cy,” she ex­plains. “Mu­sic al­lows me to pre­serve iden­ti­ty, share sto­ries, and build cul­tur­al bridges. When I per­form or men­tor, I want young peo­ple to see that tra­di­tion can be rel­e­vant—even ex­cit­ing—es­pe­cial­ly when they see some­one like me play­ing a tan­pu­ra live on stage.”

The tan­pu­ra, rarely seen in Caribbean per­for­mances, is not on­ly sym­bol­ic of tra­di­tion but, for Khan, serves as an ed­u­ca­tion­al tool—con­nect­ing lis­ten­ers with the foun­da­tion­al sounds of In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic.

She has graced stages at na­tion­al fes­ti­vals, spir­i­tu­al gath­er­ings, and ma­jor cul­tur­al events, of­ten per­form­ing along­side some of T&T’s most re­spect­ed tal­ents. But for Khan, the mag­ic lies in con­nec­tion.

“Mu­sic bridges di­vides—across age, eth­nic­i­ty, and be­lief. It re­minds us of our shared hu­man­i­ty and col­lec­tive beau­ty.”

Her lead­er­ship off­stage is just as in­spir­ing. Khan served three terms as Pres­i­dent of the UWI In­di­an Cul­tur­al So­ci­ety (UWI ICS), first as­sum­ing the role in 2019 af­ter win­ning the Miss Bol­ly­wood UWI ti­tle. Un­der her lead­er­ship, the So­ci­ety launched char­i­ta­ble dri­ves, host­ed cul­tur­al show­cas­es, and pro­duced vir­tu­al events that reached au­di­ences across the Caribbean.

“That work led to UWI recog­nis­ing us with an award for Cul­tur­al Im­pact,” she re­calls. “But my aim was al­ways the same: to pre­serve and pro­mote our cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty in ways that speak to both tra­di­tion and mod­ern life.”

A grad­u­ate in bio­chem­istry and phar­ma­cy from UWI (Class of 2025), Khan con­tin­ues to bal­ance the sci­en­tif­ic with the artis­tic. She co-di­rects Ana­hat, a mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion com­pa­ny of­fer­ing train­ing in vo­cals and in­stru­ments to stu­dents of all ages. In 2024, Ana­hat ex­pand­ed its reach by launch­ing its own record­ing stu­dio.

“Ana­hat isn’t just a ven­ture—it’s a vi­sion root­ed in pas­sion and pur­pose. We’re com­mit­ted to push­ing the bound­aries of what In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic can be in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The stu­dio’s first ma­jor re­lease, “Aaj San­wariya,” was a break­out suc­cess—earn­ing a spot on a lo­cal ra­dio sta­tion’s Top 10 for sev­er­al weeks, and lat­er named among the Top 50 Songs of 2024.

“It proved that clas­si­cal tra­di­tions can still res­onate pow­er­ful­ly with mod­ern au­di­ences—if they’re shared au­then­ti­cal­ly.”

Among her proud­est ca­reer mo­ments is her ap­pear­ance at Ravi Be­yond 2024, a sold-out con­cert at the Cen­tre of Ex­cel­lence. Shar­ing the stage with gi­ants like Ravi B, Kes the Band, Raghav, and Ju­naid Ma­lik, Khan opened the show to a rap­tur­ous re­sponse.

“That per­for­mance was sur­re­al,” she says. “It felt like a pass­ing of the torch—a young mu­si­cian step­ping in­to the space of sea­soned icons. It con­firmed for me that there’s room for tra­di­tion in the fu­ture of mu­sic.”

Her re­cent ap­pear­ances al­so in­clude per­for­mances at na­tion­al events host­ed by promi­nent per­son­al­i­ties like TV host Ian Al­leyne and the Of­fice of the Om­buds­man.

“These mo­ments af­firm that tra­di­tion­al mu­sic still holds sa­cred space in na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tions.”

Be­yond mu­sic, Khan al­so mod­els for Ra­jen­dra Sa­hadeosingh De­signs, a fash­ion house renowned for its blend of In­di­an, Caribbean, and West­ern styles.

“Mod­el­ling for a de­sign­er who shares my vi­sion of cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion is an ho­n­our,” she says. “It al­lows me to cel­e­brate her­itage through both sound and style.”

Look­ing ahead, Khan is com­mit­ted to us­ing mu­sic as a tool for ed­u­ca­tion, em­pow­er­ment, and cul­tur­al con­nec­tion—es­pe­cial­ly among young peo­ple.

“I grew up in a cul­tur­al mo­sa­ic—where Bol­ly­wood met so­ca, chut­ney danced with ca­lyp­so, and raa­gas echoed be­side steel­pan rhythms. Mu­sic is how I nav­i­gate it all. It’s how I re­mem­ber, and how I in­no­vate.”

Her as­pi­ra­tions are both lo­cal and glob­al.

“I want to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go on big­ger stages, shar­ing our cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty with the world. Whether through stage, screen, or stu­dio, I aim to cre­ate ex­pe­ri­ences that move peo­ple and ho­n­our the lega­cy we in­her­it.”

In every per­for­mance, Sherisse Khan car­ries not just melodies, but the echoes of her an­ces­tors—and the hopes of a new gen­er­a­tion ready to lis­ten.