Recordings
The Lion of Maurya is a piece written for full orchestra that depicts a snapshot from Indian history. It follows the story of an violent and bloodthirsty Indian king named Ashoka in the 3rd century, BCE, who ruled over the Mauryan Empire. The piece depicts a moment in which Ashoka realizes his wrongdoings, and has a massive moment of transformation where he converts to Buddhism, and becomes one of the most successful pacifist kings in history. The Lion of Maurya was written for the Greenwood Music Camp Senior Orchestra, and was performed on August 3rd, 2025 in Cummington, MA
Ruhan Iyer's second piano trio is an arrangement of a work by Iyer for Piano, Cello, Indian Classical voice, violin, and percussion. It explores an excerpt from a poetry collection called "Gitanjali", by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.
"Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls"
Piano Trio II "Where the Mind is Without Fear" explores a mixing of modal perspectives, with much of the piece set to the Carnatic Ragam Vagadheeswari, and the rest using the half whole octatonic scale.
Piano Trio II “Where the Mind is Without Fear” was premiered at Greenwood Music Camp on August 1st 2025.
Where the Mind is Without Fear is a piece by Ruhan Iyer commissioned by Newton Cultural Alliance for Piano, Cello, Carnatic Violin, Carnatic Voice, and Mridangam. It is written about an excerpt from Rabindranath Tagore's "Gitanjali".
"Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls"
This piece embraces two similar but quite distinct modes: the half whole octatonic scale, as well as the Carnatic Raga Vagadheeswari. The piece alternates between sections highlighting the Octatonic scale in the Cello and Piano and sections set to Vagadheeswari highlighting the Carnatic musicians. Over the course of the piece the two distinct sound worlds slowly amalgamate, resulting in an offspring of both music styles.
The piece also features a round robin style improv section in between a reoccurring phrase, inspired by a feature of Carnatic Music called Kalpana Swaras.
Performed on April 6th, 2025, at Nathaniel Allen Center for the Arts, Newton MA.