Artist Profile

Abhaya Krishna Shrestha is a musician, composer and ethnomusicologist.

Besides his early training in Western-style drums and his tabla apprenticeship with Prof. Dr. Gert-Matthias Wegner in Nepal, he has learned to play the Dhimaybaja of both the Kathmandu and Bhaktapur styles, the Navabaja of Bhaktapur, the Naykhibaja of the butchers of Bhaktapur, and also Dapha music.

He completed his master’s thesis on processional drumming in the Kathmandu Valley.

He teaches in the department of music at Kathmandu University, and continues to document different Nepali drumming traditions, always exploring different ways of bringing local traditional music into the academic realm and into the international contemporary music scene.

His initiative to learn the Naykhibaja of the Newar butchers and open the doors for music enthusiasts and musicians to engage with the music has raised the profile of traditional music practice and performance in and around the valley.