Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Nupur Thakkar is currently a freelance percussionist and educator in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to working with the Front Ensemble at Ravenwood, she teaches percussion lessons and chamber music at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School. This past summer she was also given the opportunity to be a teaching assistant at the Interlochen Arts Camp, where she worked with highschool aged students through masterclasses, clinics, and chamber music. Nupur also teaches private lessons through her own studio.

Nupur received a Bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance from Vanderbilt University under the instruction of Ji hye Jung and Lee Vinson. Nupur has performed with the Contemporary Music Ensemble, Vanderbilt Percussion Group, and Roy Wooten’s New Village Orchestra. She has also had the opportunity to premiere pieces by Forrest Pierce and Keeghan Fountain alongside Ji Hye Jung. During her time at Vanderbilt, Nupur also formed a strings and percussion ensemble, The Timbr(e) Ensemble. They have collaborated with the multimedia company, Continuous Motion Productions, to put out many recordings of their work.

Before Vanderbilt, Nupur attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and studied with Kieth Aleo. Over the past few years she has attended the Yellowbarn Young artist program, Cortona Sessions for New Music, Sandbox percussion Seminar, So Percussion Collaborative Workshop, Northwestern Percussion Symposium, and spent a few months in India studying tabla with Guruji Narendra Gangani.