A Woman Of The World

Vocalist, composer, pianist, choral specialist, leader of a global jazz ensemble— Annette Philip, the Indian face in the band, Women of the World, always has a song on her lips. She tells Discover India how music has shaped her life and how travel gives rhythm to it.

- Sushmita Srivastav

How has the journey been so far as a part of Women of the World?

Well, Women of the World was founded in 2008 so this is our 10th-year anniversary. It was formed with an idea by a Japanese vocalist, Ayumi Ueda. She wanted to form a group of women musicians who would come together and learn about each other’s culture through the learning of music. And we found that over the last decade, we have studied and performed music in 34 languages! Through this period of time, we have really grown to understand the similarities and differences that exist between many cultures. We feel, as a group, that the more you understand people, the less you are afraid of them. That is one way to bring about more understanding, more compassion, more acceptance in our world. And from a purely musical side, it’s a really amazing group to be a part of. We have been so fortunate to get to tour all over the world. It’s really amazing to live a life where you get to sing with the people that you love and create really positive energy, go around the world and learn from people and share joys, stories and ideas. So it is a very exciting part of my life and I am really grateful to be a part of something that uses music for connecting people.

This was your first trip to India with the band. How does it feel to return to the country as a global artiste?