Vatan Singh Rajan - About

Vatan Singh Rajan

"The ongoing story of Vatan Singh Rajan is itself an invitation: to imagine jazz as unfinished, borderless, and ever-evolving. As new listeners and new musicians step into the current, they will find an art form transformed—and, at its pulsating center, a visionary who proves that the next era will be written by those bold enough to reshape the map as they go."

- Leoni Griffith
All About Jazz

"Rajan stands at the vanguard of 21st century music, not merely as an exceptional composer and performer, but as someone whose visionary research and artistry are shaping its future."

- Frank J. Oteri
International Society for Contemporary Music

"Rajan has established international acclaim for a rare ability to effortlessly transcend tradition and radical innovation."

- Emiko Morimoto
Sankei Shimbun

"From starting out as a self-taught drummer at the age of 8 in New Delhi to now leading bands in New York, Indian jazz multi-instrumentalist Vatan Singh Rajan clearly has the chops."

- Anurag Tagat
Rolling Stone Magazine

"Vatan Singh Rajan is great at making music and playing it."

- Madhusudhan Raman
Rock Street Journal

Short Biography

Vatan Singh Rajan is an Indian drummer, composer and theorist. Raised in an environment with little support for the arts, the primarily self-taught musician has worked on the New York Jazz Scene since 2017 with Grammy Award-winning pianist Rachel Z, NEA Jazz Master Reggie Workman, and renowned pianist Armen Donelian. Vatan has featured at the International Jazzfestival Bern in Switzerland, Lincoln Center, Smalls Jazz Club, New England Conservatory, Yale University, The Django, and several more venues worldwide, seldom acknowledging stylistic constraints and described as "A visionary who proves that the next era will be written by those bold enough to reshape the map as they go." (All About Jazz).

Vatan's compositional influences range from mentor Bill Stewart to composers Olivier Messiaen and Morton Feldman, with music deeply rooted in Microtonality, the New York School, Musique concrète, and constructed soundscapes – concepts on display on the performer-composer’s debut EP ‘Alone’ (recorded 2022, released 2025). The artist has featured in All About Jazz, Rolling Stone Magazine, Nikkei, Sankei, Rock Street Journal, and many other international publications.

Detailed Biography

Vatan Singh Rajan (born August 31, 1998) is an Indian drummer, composer, and music educator. Described as "An individual who has the ability to connect with the deepest chords of the human experience." (Arun Kapur, India Today Group), Vatan has worked with Grammy Award-winning pianist Rachel Z, NEA Jazz Master Reggie Workman, renowned pianist and educator Armen Donelian, and Jazz Messengers alumnus Charles Tolliver.

Vatan has performed at Lincoln Center, the International Jazzfestival Bern in Switzerland, Smalls Jazz Club, New England Conservatory, Yale University, The Django, The Roxy, Zinc Bar, and Grace Church Broadway in the United States; The Piano Man Jazz Club and The Air Force Auditorium in India; and the Aitchison Art Festival in Pakistan.

Compositions by Vatan have been described as "Always so ambitious and creative." (Ned Rothenberg, The New School), spanning experimental percussion and chamber works, microtonal compositions, and jazz compositions that have been recorded by celebrated pianist Armen Donelian.

Early Life and Education

Vatan grew up in New Delhi - an environment with little support for the arts, constructing a first drum set from discarded cookware. The largely self-taught drummer was considered a child prodigy, featuring in performances at 8 years old, and becoming a bandleader by 13.

Vatan's teenage discovery of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue sparked an early interest in jazz. The musician enrolled in classes at the Global Music Institute at the age of 14, becoming their first ever graduate 2 years later.

In 2017, Vatan received a scholarship to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, studying with Reggie Workman, Joan La Barbara, Buster Williams, and Hal Galper, graduating with honours in 2022 and returning to complete the Master of Music program in 2025.

Vatan is the student of jazz legend Bill Stewart, studying with him since 2018.

Career

Vatan has a considerable output as a leader, beginning with the quintet ‘Roadrunner Crisis’ (2012) and jazz trio ‘School of the Wolf’ (2015), started while a teenager in India and becoming one of The Piano Man Jazz Club's inaugral artists in residence at 17. Vatan has been a featured artist at Lincoln Center, and the Bern International Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and has performed all over the United States leading the Vatan Singh Rajan Trio.

As a collaborator, Vatan has performed with Grammy Award-winning pianist Rachel Z in performances at The New England Conservatory, The Django, Zinc Bar, Roxy Bar, and The Soho Grand, worked with jazz royalty Reggie Workman, and been a frontline percussionist in Scott Kettner’s Maracatu NY, featured in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade from 2017 to 2019.

An avid composer, Vatan has premiered several experimental percussion pieces since 2018, many available to stream for free on the composer's website. Vatan was a featured composer at Lincoln Center in December 2024, presenting 'Concerto for Bowed Cymbals'. Vatan's piece 'Excerpts from Sleep Paralysis: String Quartet I' was read by Dan Trueman the Bergamot Quartet in 2025 for 'Project Resonance'. The composer's microtonal extended Pythagorean tuning opus, 'The Archimedes Principle', was produced into a TEDx-style lecture/performance video at Scholes Street Studio in 2025 and released on YouTube.

Vatan's jazz works have been performed and recorded by pianist Armen Donelian in 2022. A trained sound engineer, Vatan has self-produced all recorded output, including ‘Musashi’, a picture piece inspired by the life of a Samurai, and 'I am a Microphone’, a virtual reality concept based on metallurgy; included on Vatan's debut EP 'Alone' (recorded 2022, released 2025), which released to resounding critical acclaim, featuring in All About Jazz, Rolling Stone Magazine, Nikkei, Sankei, Rock Street Journal, and many other international publications.

As a composer, Vatan's influences range from mentor Bill Stewart to composers Olivier Messiaen and Morton Feldman, with music deeply rooted in Impressionism, Spectralism, and the New York School.

Through ongoing work as an educator, Vatan has mentored private drum-set students across all ages and skill levels since 2012 - often other professional instrumentalists - and taught extensively at workshops and teaching residencies around the world. One of Vatan's central goals remains expanding access to high-quality music education for young musicians from underserved communities and without institutional resources.

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