Joshua Geisler

​

Joshua Geisler plays the Bansuri, the North Indian Bamboo Flute, with a flowing, highly ornamented style that effortlessly weaves together Indian Classical Music and Jazz. With solid roots in both East and West, his music is at the same time experimental and grounded in traditional training. The result is a sound that conveys the essence of the mystical traditions of India yet is accessible to modern ears.

He recently returned home after touring for 9 years with Cirque du Soleil’s “TOTEM” with whom he performed 2650 shows around the world.

By embracing the concept of hybridization, Joshua Geisler has innovated both the playing technique and construction of his instrument. His book, The Chromatic Bansuri, details a unique fingering system of his own creation that enables the bansuri to play virtually any style of music. As a flute maker, he has improved the tone, volume, and response of the bansuri by studying traditional flute-making techniques from around the world as well as the science of flute acoustics.

An award-winning artist, his work has received funding from the American Institute of Indian Studies and the New York State Council for the Arts.

Joshua composed and performed the soundtrack for the award-winning documentary “My Life in China” directed by Kenneth Eng.

While studying guitar at Berklee College of Music, he developed an interest in the music of other cultures. At the same time, he was beginning to explore meditation and spirituality. As a way of incorporating these interests, he began learning the bansuri. After graduating in 1998, he moved to upstate New York to study North Indian Classical music with the great American bansuri master, Steve Gorn. This was followed by multiple trips to India to study with Pandit Raghunath Seth, one of the living legends of Indian flute playing. He has also studied guitar and bansuri with Varanasi-based Sarod maestro Pandit Vikash Maharaj, a 14th-generation master musician.