James Waterman

Pantala is a Los Angeles chamber ensemble led by composer, percussionist, and multi-instrumentalist James Waterman, performing original music that draws on Hindustani, Middle Eastern, West African, Greek, Balkan, and Western classical traditions. The sound is bright, soaring, and intricate, built on rhythmic cycles that shift between fiery drive and wide open lyricism, with the organic timbres of oud, bansuri, and tabla woven through strings and piano. The ensemble brings together Chris Votek (cello), Neelamjit Dhillon (tabla, saxophone, bansuri), Yvette Holzwarth (violin), Dimitris Mahlis (oud, guitar, bouzouki, saz), and Madeline Barrett (piano), players whose collective experience spans Hindustani classical performance, new music, and cross-cultural collaboration. The name comes from Pantala flavescens, the globe skimmer dragonfly, which rides monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean in the longest migration of any insect, tracing the same ancient corridors of trade and exchange that connect the musical traditions at the heart of this work. Embedded in the name is tala, the Indian classical rhythmic cycle that underpins so much of Pantala's music.