A work of art a lifetime in the making, this month INseries presents artistic director Timothy Nelson’s The Song of Sakuntala, with music composed by him and texts by Sarojini Naidu Rabindranath Tagore and Vidyapati. Although there are multiple adaptations of the source material, which comes from the beginning of the Mahabarata, Nelson’s production promises to be both unique and a creation born from the love of art. “I’ve read the play for probably the past 35 years over and over again, but I’ve never actually seen it performed,” said Nelson. “Originally we had imagined it as a fully-staged production that would involve bharatanatyam dancers and the choreographer that we worked with for Poppea.”
However, it wasn’t always so. “When I wrote the piece, I didn’t imagine that it would be performed,” Nelson continued. “It was something I wanted to do at a very difficult time in my life to prove that I could do something difficult. Then I set it on a shelf and let it collect dust.” Then, as is wont to happen, fate intervened. “it just happened to fit into this season, because we’re doing a season of premieres,” said Nelson, referring to their stellar lineup this season of St. John the Baptist, The Delta King’s Blues, and Passion Plays. “ In terms of size and scale, it fits, but also in terms of the way it blends different musical and cultural traditions, it seemed to fit.”
And indeed, this piece may be the most interesting blend of musical and cultural traditions of INseries’ 2025-2026 season, as it combines Indian classical music with baroque and modern Western classical music. “Musically and instrumentally speaking, but also the way it’s composed, it’s a reflection of me as a musician,” said Nelson, “which is originally very much in the modern composition practice of the late 20th century. My original degree is in composition, and then I became a baroque person. With the way I write for the violin and the inclusion of the viola da gamba, It has a sound-world that is in conversation with Baroque performance practice, and then my other passion that most people don’t and wouldn’t know is for Indian classical music. So you have baroque classical music, modern classical music, and Indian classical music all blended together, which is a reflection of the things I love in the world.”
Not just a reflection of what he loves in the world, but also of what is possible with an open and humble artistic mind. “I keep trying to be as open to new ways of making the art,” Nelson said. “I’m always more interested in the way we make it than in what it actually turns out to be. I hope that what it turns out to be is meaningful, but only because it was made in a way that is authentic and collaborative and affirming and life-giving. With this piece, I really tried to learn what makes Indian classical music so complex and so amazing and so dazzling in a way that was unfamiliar to me as a Western classical musician. And then to communicate that in the score in a way that feels humble but also honest and authentic. We have just eight of us that sit in my living room for 4-8 hours and just kind of learn from each other. It’s a very collaborative space where we are making the piece together and figuring out how to realize the score, trying to bring it to life. It’s almost like I’m learning the piece for the first time.”
Part of that feeling comes from the tradition of Indian classical music itself and how it gets created. “So much about Indian performance practice is improvisational,” said Nelson. “It’s hard for a Western composer to let go and just say, “This is what I wrote, now what can we do and how can we even make it better than what I originally imagined?” That has been a beautiful experience, particularly with those places where I’ve highlighted the sitar and the tabla,” adding that improvising allows those instruments to show their full range and capability even outside of what he wrote in the score.
That improvisation, along with having the score realized, has been Nelson’s favorite part of the production process. Referring to how he wrote the piece and then put it away for a long time, he said, “I never got to hear it, and so actually hearing the human voice sing some of these things and have them manifest in sound is really powerful for me. I have to wipe away tears because I never expected to actually hear this music done. And then the nerd part of me—I’m just a pig in mud sitting in the rehearsal room with the tabla and the sitar. They’re actually riffing on things I wrote.”
As far as what audiences can expect, The Song of Sakuntala will not be a traditional, fully-staged opera. “At a certain point, we decided to lean into the way it was originally intended,” Nelson said, “which was to be like an evening of Indian classical music, where everyone is sat on rugs in the center of the stage, and performs this long single piece over the course of the evening that happens over a single drone, almost a more meditative experience. We’re calling it an illuminated concert because it will have lights that help us navigate the scenes and the places of the thing.” Speaking to why he thinks audiences should come see the show, Nelson added, “The artistry of all the individual musicians is phenomenal. It is a really different approach to storytelling and music. Each act begins with a narration of the action, and you get that same story again, but from the emotional experience of the characters. It was accidental, but it became a unique way of storytelling. It’s similar to how Britten organized Turn of the Screw.If everything works out between the plan and the way the universe gives us happy accidents, it should be a really beautiful, moving experience that’s not like a concert or opera, but is this other new, beautiful thing we are creating.”
The Song of Sakuntala plays June 6-14 in Washington, D.C. and June 19-21 in Baltimore. Tickets available at inseries.org.
Maggie Ramsey
June 2, 2026
INseries Artistic Director Timothy Nelson on The Song of Sakuntala
A work of art a lifetime in the making, this month INseries presents artistic director Timothy Nelson’s The Song of Sakuntala, with music composed by him and texts by Sarojini Naidu Rabindranath Tagore and Vidyapati. Although there are multiple adaptations of the source material, which comes from the beginning of the Mahabarata, Nelson’s production promises to be both unique and a creation born from the love of art. “I’ve read the play for probably the past 35 years over and over again, but I’ve never actually seen it performed,” said Nelson. “Originally we had imagined it as a fully-staged production that would involve bharatanatyam dancers and the choreographer that we worked with for Poppea.”
However, it wasn’t always so. “When I wrote the piece, I didn’t imagine that it would be performed,” Nelson continued. “It was something I wanted to do at a very difficult time in my life to prove that I could do something difficult. Then I set it on a shelf and let it collect dust.” Then, as is wont to happen, fate intervened. “it just happened to fit into this season, because we’re doing a season of premieres,” said Nelson, referring to their stellar lineup this season of St. John the Baptist, The Delta King’s Blues, and Passion Plays. “ In terms of size and scale, it fits, but also in terms of the way it blends different musical and cultural traditions, it seemed to fit.”
And indeed, this piece may be the most interesting blend of musical and cultural traditions of INseries’ 2025-2026 season, as it combines Indian classical music with baroque and modern Western classical music. “Musically and instrumentally speaking, but also the way it’s composed, it’s a reflection of me as a musician,” said Nelson, “which is originally very much in the modern composition practice of the late 20th century. My original degree is in composition, and then I became a baroque person. With the way I write for the violin and the inclusion of the viola da gamba, It has a sound-world that is in conversation with Baroque performance practice, and then my other passion that most people don’t and wouldn’t know is for Indian classical music. So you have baroque classical music, modern classical music, and Indian classical music all blended together, which is a reflection of the things I love in the world.”
Not just a reflection of what he loves in the world, but also of what is possible with an open and humble artistic mind. “I keep trying to be as open to new ways of making the art,” Nelson said. “I’m always more interested in the way we make it than in what it actually turns out to be. I hope that what it turns out to be is meaningful, but only because it was made in a way that is authentic and collaborative and affirming and life-giving. With this piece, I really tried to learn what makes Indian classical music so complex and so amazing and so dazzling in a way that was unfamiliar to me as a Western classical musician. And then to communicate that in the score in a way that feels humble but also honest and authentic. We have just eight of us that sit in my living room for 4-8 hours and just kind of learn from each other. It’s a very collaborative space where we are making the piece together and figuring out how to realize the score, trying to bring it to life. It’s almost like I’m learning the piece for the first time.”
Part of that feeling comes from the tradition of Indian classical music itself and how it gets created. “So much about Indian performance practice is improvisational,” said Nelson. “It’s hard for a Western composer to let go and just say, “This is what I wrote, now what can we do and how can we even make it better than what I originally imagined?” That has been a beautiful experience, particularly with those places where I’ve highlighted the sitar and the tabla,” adding that improvising allows those instruments to show their full range and capability even outside of what he wrote in the score.
That improvisation, along with having the score realized, has been Nelson’s favorite part of the production process. Referring to how he wrote the piece and then put it away for a long time, he said, “I never got to hear it, and so actually hearing the human voice sing some of these things and have them manifest in sound is really powerful for me. I have to wipe away tears because I never expected to actually hear this music done. And then the nerd part of me—I’m just a pig in mud sitting in the rehearsal room with the tabla and the sitar. They’re actually riffing on things I wrote.”
As far as what audiences can expect, The Song of Sakuntala will not be a traditional, fully-staged opera. “At a certain point, we decided to lean into the way it was originally intended,” Nelson said, “which was to be like an evening of Indian classical music, where everyone is sat on rugs in the center of the stage, and performs this long single piece over the course of the evening that happens over a single drone, almost a more meditative experience. We’re calling it an illuminated concert because it will have lights that help us navigate the scenes and the places of the thing.” Speaking to why he thinks audiences should come see the show, Nelson added, “The artistry of all the individual musicians is phenomenal. It is a really different approach to storytelling and music. Each act begins with a narration of the action, and you get that same story again, but from the emotional experience of the characters. It was accidental, but it became a unique way of storytelling. It’s similar to how Britten organized Turn of the Screw.If everything works out between the plan and the way the universe gives us happy accidents, it should be a really beautiful, moving experience that’s not like a concert or opera, but is this other new, beautiful thing we are creating.”
The Song of Sakuntala plays June 6-14 in Washington, D.C. and June 19-21 in Baltimore. Tickets available at inseries.org.
Maggie Ramsey
June 2, 2026