Sound and Scholarship: Ameera Nimjee and Suhail Yusuf collaborate to bridge performance and ethnomusicology

Shauq, the Persian word for passion, captures the essence of taste. 

“You’re here to be flavored,” Ameera Nimjee told the crowd of eager listeners who had come to Luce Hall for Mehfil-i-shauqeen—a gathering for connoisseurs of taste. Attendees were soon immersed in a celebration of sound encompassing both intellectual curiosity and artistic expression. 

On Friday, April 18th, Ameera Nimjee and Suhail Yusuf, alongside fellow artists Fawzia Afzal-Khan and Roshni Samlal, performed in the mehfil. 

In the intimate setting, the pair explored Hindustani classical performance in an event that marked another chapter in their ongoing collaborative journey. The audience was invited into a world where music was not only heard but experienced, transcending distinctions between performer and viewer.

The mehfil came a month after Sacred Offerings: Musical Dialogues of Interfaith, an event organized by Yusuf that brought together scholars and practitioners of Sufi songs, Hindu devotional and premodern Indian classical music, Ashkenazi Jewish liturgical styles, and Christian mysticism.

That concert, which was co-sponsored by the Institute of Sacred Music and the South Asian Studies Council, featured performances by Vishal Nagar, Henry Hodder, Marni Loffman, and Samarth Nagarkar, as well as a lecture by Dard Neuman of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Sacred Offerings highlighted the interfaith dialogue that Nimjee and Yusuf have made central to their work, reflecting on how diverse musical traditions can come together for community-oriented cross-cultural exchange.

Nimjee grew up in a musically oriented, “performance-forward” South Asian Muslim community in Toronto, where she began her musical journey with classical piano. She studied classical piano in her undergraduate career at the University of Toronto before discovering musicology, the research-based, often ethnographic, study of music. Pursuing a Masters in ethnomusicology at U of T and then a PhD at the University of Chicago, she said she found that music was not just an art form but a means of scholarly engagement—a way to bridge cultural and intellectual practices through performance and research.

Now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Yale, Nimjee brings her experience in both academic study and performance to her collaborations, particularly with Yusuf, a fellow scholar and musician from a long lineage of Hindustani musicians.

Their combined expertise in both the theoretical and practical aspects of Hindustani classical music creates a rich, multifaceted environment for students and audiences alike, blending rigorous academic inquiry with a commitment to preserving and transforming the tradition.

“We’ve kind of arrived at a place of shared collaboration in this form of Hindustani and South Asian music practice and dance practice,” said Nimjee of her partnership with Yusuf.

Yusuf, who comes from a long line of musicians, is completing a year as postdoctoral researcher at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music. The two bonded over their interest in ethnomusicology, which Yusuf pursued throughout his PhD studies at Wesleyan University.

Speaking about the Sacred Offerings concert in an interview with the Council, Yusef emphasized how every song had a “different religious aspect” to it. “The idea was that we are offering the many different faiths that contribute to the music practices of the world,” he said.

Yusef said this approach leads to a sense of some unified “higher identity,” adding that the event revealed “more commonalities than difference.”

Nimjee mentioned her own personal experience, noting that the Islamic devotional songs she grew up singing “feel and sound like bhajans, but with Muslim content.”

For the past three years, Nimjee has taught “Music of South Asia,” a course that explores the region’s traditions and diasporic practices. Through ethnomusicology, students study the sociocultural contexts that shape performance and ritual.

This semester, Yusuf led a course titled “Music and Well-Being: A Sound Lab of Sacred Music.” Centered on sacred music across space and time, the course included the practice of yogic poses and breathing exercises along with the utilization of Rāgas—an ancient Indian musical system.

For Yusuf, musical practice can—and should—be experimental. He mentioned attending a musicology conference in 2019 that encouraged him to embrace not just “critical” but also “creative” inquiry.

That sense of exploration is never careless.

“Anything we are taking to a classroom, even if it's a topic or an idea for discussion, we’re doing it first ourselves,” said Yusuf. “We’re living with it first and then trying it around the classroom.

The mehfil is also a core part of Nimjee’s and Yusuf’s “lived” collaboration. The pair has begun calling their weekly combined class a “mehfil” where students are invited to experience music as a conscientious practice.

These joint sessions focused on various themes, from musical accompaniment to storytelling. Participating in hands-on musical sessions with an emphasis on partnerships rather than performance alone, students occupied space simultaneously as musicians and listeners—rather than one or the other.

Inside and outside the classroom, Nimjee and Yusuf continue to embrace the pursuits of both theory and practice. 

The pair joked about pursuing musicology, with Nimjee quipping that it’s often seen as a field for those who couldn’t quite make it as professional musicians.

Nimjee has made the most of the university setting to integrate academic inquiry and performance. Exposed to scholars interested in diverse aspects of musical study, she said she feels “a responsibility” to “open those opportunities to full-time musicians and performers.”

“I always keep myself accountable to the practice of tradition and to where I draw the most important parts of my intellectual curiosity, which is in the moment of performance,” Nimjee said.

Nimjee added the reverse is also often true.

“We see performers all over the world who are doing research on their work,” she said.

Together, Nimjee and Yusuf have created an environment at Yale where music, scholarship, and community intersect—one where the performance of Hindustani classical music can continue to evolve while staying grounded in its historical roots.

“It’s so lovely to get into the depths of a fourteen-beat cycle right away with the integrity of being attached to the roots and playfulness at the same time,” said Nimjee of rehearsing with Yusuf. “It’s like I have a partner, you know? I really feel that way.”