Sashwati Mira Sengupta (she/her) is a Bengali-Geordie creative producer, music curator, multi-instrumentalist, and selector. Her musical background includes piano, synthesizers, accordion, the theremin and sitar. She has taught classical piano, performed with bands in various styles ranging from Balkan punk to electro, and more recently she has composed filmed-theatre scores and sound designs featuring the theremin. After moving to Manchester following several years studying and working on the music scene in London, Sashwati started DJing at parties playing vinyl and CDs from across the Balkans, Middle East and South Asia. 

In the past two decades she has curated, produced and contributed to music festival programmes and projects highlighting music by sanctuary seekers and international communities in the UK. Highlights include the flagship Refugee Week music programme in London, Journeys Festival International in Manchester, the Mayor of London’s Eid Festival, Celebrating Sanctuary, the Shrine Afrobeat club nights in Shoreditch with DJs Rita Ray and Max Reinhardt, and Halton Borough of Culture 2021.

Sashwati has studied ethnomusicology at BA Hons and Masters levels at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) in London and the University of Manchester. Her main academic interests lie in global rap cultures, methods of fieldwork and grassroots activism in music. She has hosted three refugee & hip-hop panel discussions at the Tate Modern and at the Gulbenkian, University of Kent. Organisations Sashwati Mira has worked with include ArtReach, Arts La’Olam, Banner Theatre, BBC Radio 3, Community Arts North West, Counterpoints Arts, Music Action International, Manchester Mega Mela and Mukhul and the Ghetto Tigers theatre company.