Exclusive Interview | Vasundhara Vee On Becoming One Of Only Two Vocal Behaviourists In The World
The woman helping India's biggest singers find their voices again, Vasundhara Vee has just become one of the world's rarest voice specialists.
Published : August 5, 2026 at 4:00 PM IST
There is a moment every singer secretly fears. Not forgetting the lyrics or missing the cue. Not even the terrifying silence that comes before walking onto a stage. The real nightmare is waking up one morning and discovering that the one thing you've trusted your entire life, your voice has decided it no longer belongs to you. That nightmare happened to Vasundhara Vee.
Long before she became one of India's most respected jazz, blues and soul singers. Before playback work, sold-out workshops and coaching some of the country's biggest artists, she was a frightened singer staring at surgery.
“I had recurring nodules and was on steroids just to get through performances,” she recalls. “Sometimes I had to cancel gigs because my voice simply wouldn't recover.” She spent nearly two years searching for help across India. “Everybody kept saying, 'You sound great, so you must be doing the right things.' But I knew something was wrong.”
Sometimes, your ears tell you one story while your body tells you another. The breakthrough arrived in the form of an email. She had stumbled across an online video by legendary American voice specialist Mark Baxter. “There was just something about the way he spoke,” says the Mumbai-based artist. “My gut feeling told me this is the right person.” She wrote to him. He agreed to teach her over Skype. Three weeks later, after two years of frustration, her voice was completely rehabilitated.
That single decision changed not just her career, but eventually the careers of hundreds of other singers. Today, after almost 15 years of studying Baxter's methods, Vasundhara has become one of only two certified Voice Behaviourists in the world, and the first person in India entrusted to carry forward what musicians affectionately call the “Baxter Gharana”: an evolving philosophy that blends voice science, psychology, neurology and artistry into something far bigger than traditional singing lessons. The word gharana usually belongs to Indian classical music: Families, lineages, generations. Yet somehow it makes perfect sense. Because this, too, is a musical inheritance. Only instead of compositions, it passes down understanding.
Widely respected as one of India's leading jazz, blues and soul vocalists, she has also made her mark as a playback singer, author and performer. Her versatility has allowed her to move effortlessly between jazz clubs, film music, independent releases and large-scale musical productions. A sought-after collaborator and vocal coach, she has worked with acclaimed artists while also training theatre performers, independent musicians and playback singers. Whether she's interpreting a jazz standard, delivering a powerful soul performance or preparing an artist for a demanding concert tour, Vasundhara brings the same curiosity and precision that now define her work as one of the world's only two certified Vocal Behaviourists.
Also read: Jazz Vocalist Vasundhara Vee Brings Soul In The Age Of Scroll, Talks About Songs That Heal Not Hype
From promoting and nurturing the concept of vocal wellness, to helping save the concert economy for voice-based artists with customised vocal hygiene and care plans, Vasundhara is leading the movement for better vocal health. Ask her what makes her work different and she immediately reaches for an example. “A speech therapist may help somebody speak comfortably again,” she says. “But can they help a Punjabi folk singer belt for three hours every night? Can they help a rock singer scream safely for an entire tour?” Those are increasingly important questions.
Modern singers are expected to rehearse all day, record at night, create Instagram reels in the morning, travel constantly, survive endless interviews, then manage to sound fresh on stage after sleeping four hours in a hotel room. The human voice wasn't designed for social media algorithms, which, Vasundhara believes, partly explains why vocal injuries are becoming more common. “We're seeing more acid reflux, hormonal issues, anxiety-induced muscle tightness and a culture of constant productivity,” she explains. “People are pushing their bodies to the limit.”
For years the standard advice to injured singers was simple: Don't sing. Don't sing loudly or high nor strain yourself. “The method I learnt is a 'yes' method,” she tells ETV Bharat over a Zoom call from Mumbai. Instead of asking artists what they shouldn't do, she asks how their bodies can safely do everything they dream of doing. “How do we make the voice capable of all of these things without re-injury?”
That philosophy has helped artists including Vir Das, Amit Trivedi, Anusha Mani, Paresh Pahuja, Akasa Singh, Osho Jain and many others return to performing after injuries or prepare for demanding tours. She describes one recent recovery almost matter-of-factly. “Singer Anusha Mani had a vocal fold cyst. She's back on stage now, sounding fabulous.” Then there are artists who weren't injured at all. They just wanted more. “Singer-composer Amit Trivedi came for voice optimisation. Paresh Pahuja came before his tours.”
Listening to her, you realise she doesn't really divide singers into professionals and amateurs. She divides them into people whose voices are working for them, and those whose voices are working against them. Maybe that's why her own story remains central to everything she teaches. “I had terrible technique,” she admits. As a schoolgirl in Delhi Public School, RK Puram, she pushed every note harder than necessary. “I thought if I pushed more, I'd get better results.” Eventually the body sent her the bill.
Ironically, the same stubborn determination that damaged her voice also saved it. After Baxter rehabilitated her, she became obsessed with understanding why it had worked. “I used to perform gigs just to pay for lessons.” Years later, Baxter himself encouraged her to begin teaching. Now he has officially entrusted her with taking his life's work forward. Even now, after thousands of teaching hours, she still becomes nervous before performances. “Before I go on stage, I'm always anxious,” she laughs. “Once I get there, I'm happy.”
Her ambitions now stretch beyond individual coaching sessions. She's developing a comprehensive programme that will combine vocal health, stage performance, ensemble skills and what she calls “core artist development.” Not branding or styling but something more intrinsic. “I want singers to be recognised blindfolded.” It's an unusual ambition, because somewhere along the way, popular music became filled with people trying to sound like whoever happened to be successful that year.
“We all wanted to sound like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey,” she says. "Then everybody wanted to sound like Adele. Now everyone wants to sound like Billie Eilish!” She pauses. “But who are you?” That, ultimately, may be the most important question she asks. Not how high you can sing nor how loudly, not even how long. Just whether the voice the world hears is actually your own. For someone who once feared losing her voice forever, helping others discover theirs feels less like a career and more like completing a circle.
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