Selina Sharma Biography 
Selina Sharma is an Italian-born Indian musicologist and vocalist mostly associated with devotional music tradition of different cultures. Her works are concentrated on south Asian tradition. She is also associated with the spiritual Bauls of Bengal. She is a disciple of living legend of Baul tradition, Purna Das Baul and she co-authored a book with her guru on the philosophy of the Bauls. She currently serves as the Vice-Secretary and Academic Director of Vraja Kala Sanskriti Sansthana at Vrindaban.
Her real name is Selina Thielemann, and she was born in Italy into a family of musicians and scholars. Since young she got attracted to Indian tradition, spirituality, philosophy, music and related subjects. Her parents who are musicians also influenced her a lot. Her father Peter Thielemann is a violinist while her mother Serena Mitzscherling is a concert pianist. She learnt violin from her father. Her early education was done in Germany, and for advanced studies in music she moved to London where she studied mediaeval Hindi literature, Sanskrit and South Asian politics.
She completed M. Phil from Cambridge University and for PhD, she came to India in 1994 for the first time. She obtained her Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University based on her thesis, "Musical traditions of Vaishnava temples in Vraja". She was guided by renowned musicologist Professor Prem Lata Sharma who made a significant influence in her life and studies. German scholar Professor Josef Kuckertz also influenced her a lot.
While she was in India for her PhD research works, she also took training as a dhrupad vocalist from Pandit Vidur Mallik at Vrindaban. She then moved to Cambridge University for advanced studies, but returned back to India after observing the declining state of many forms of traditional music and art in the Vraja area. She then settled in Vrindavan where she conducted many research works. Between 1996 and 2005 she published 11 books. She married Shashank Goswami, a priest and Sanjhi artist in 2006 and now settled in India with two sons and husband. She can now speak Hindi, Sanskrit and Bengali languages also.
Published: February 18, 2019
Updated: February 18, 2019
