Biography 

Silvia Nakkach M.A., MMT, (aka. Saraswati Devi), is a Grammy® nominated composer, an interdisciplinary vocal artist, educator, author, academic consultant, and a former clinical psychologist. She served as an Assistant Professor of Music and Sound in Healing in the Department of Integrative Health Studies at CIIS. She is the Founding Director of the Vox Mundi School of Sound and the Voice and the International Yoga of the Voice Training Certificate. She served as the curriculum designer and faculty of the Integrative Sound Institute at the New York Open Center. She was the creator, director, and core instructor of the Sound, Voice, and Music in the Healing Arts Certificate at CIIS. Her research and interests lie in the intersection of embodied improvisation, poetic melodicism, and deep listening. In addition to her composition awards and commissions in experimental music and sound design, she has released 16 CD albums. Nakkach studied North Indian classical music under the direction of the late maestro Ali Akbar Khan for more than 30 years and continues teaching and performing the art of the chant of Dhrupad under the direction of Dr. Ritwik Sanyal and her raga sangeet guru Pt. Uday Bhawalkar. She is a contributing author of various books including Music and the Human Process, Music in Human Adaptation, The Transpersonal Consciousness, Music Therapy at the End of Life, and Proceedings of the Yoga and Psyche Conference. Her latest book is Free Your Voice (Sounds True, 2012). 

Education 

MFA, Music and the Art of Composition, Mills College, Oakland
M.A. Clinical Psychology. National University (UNBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina