Full Biography

Dr Ankna Arockiam is a musician, educator, researcher, and arts leader whose work bridges performance, scholarship, and community engagement across cultures and disciplines. Rooted in both Indian classical traditions and Western classical practice, her artistic and academic work explores identity, collaboration, decolonisation, and access within music and the performing arts.

Originally from India and now based in Scotland, Ankna has built an international career spanning performance, higher education, research, cultural leadership, and advocacy. Over the past decade, she has worked across music, theatre, interdisciplinary arts practice, and collaborative music-making, creating spaces that connect artistic excellence with social engagement and cultural dialogue.

Ankna completed her PhD through the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of St Andrews, where her research explored the musical, cultural, and social identities of young Indians learning Western classical music in India. Her work examines questions of belonging, representation, pedagogy, and postcolonial identity in music education, and continues to shape her teaching, artistic collaborations, and public engagement. Alongside her academic research, she is currently developing publications and regularly presents papers, workshops, and panels at conferences across the UK and internationally.

As an educator, Ankna teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, delivering modules in Creative Citizenship, Collaborative Practice, Performance Skills, and Professional Development for Musicians. Her teaching centres collaboration, reflective practice, ethical arts leadership, and the nurturing of sustainable artistic careers. She has supervised postgraduate research projects, mentored emerging artists, and worked extensively with students from a wide range of artistic and cultural backgrounds.

Alongside her higher education work, Ankna has extensive experience in community music and participatory arts practice. She has led workshops and creative projects with schools, charities, arts organisations, and community groups across Scotland and India. Her work with organisations including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, CAMHS, Refuweegee, Garnethill Multicultural Centre, Articulate, and St Albert’s Primary School reflects her commitment to inclusive creative practice and culturally responsive arts education. She currently serves as a board member for Articulate, supporting care-experienced young people through creative and artistic engagement.

Ankna is also the founder and director of Glasgow Sitare, a singing collective for South Asian women that creates spaces for cultural connection, musical collaboration, and community empowerment through song. The project reflects her wider artistic vision of building inclusive and intergenerational creative communities through music-making.

As a performer and collaborator, Ankna’s practice moves fluidly between classical, interdisciplinary, folk, and community-based contexts. She sings with Saanjh, an ensemble that was awarded the Chamber Music Scotland Underrepresented Composers Tour, celebrating diverse musical voices and cross-cultural collaboration. She is also part of Naadhara, an Indo-Gaelic band bringing together Indian and Scottish musical traditions alongside award-winning musicians including Mischa MacPherson, Sodhi Deerhe, Alistair Paterson, and Charlie Stewart.

Over the years, she has collaborated with a wide range of artists and creatives across genres and disciplines, including Khatija Rahman, Hyderabad Voices, Amit Anand, Samrat Majumder, Nandini Manjunath, Himadri Madan, Kirsten Newell, Kevin Leomo, and Amit Sumal, among others. These collaborations continue to shape her interest in intercultural dialogue, new musical forms, and socially engaged artistic practice.

Her research and consultancy work spans music education, diversity and inclusion, cultural policy, and artistic practice. She has worked with organisations including the BBC, Trinity College London, New Music Scotland, SOAS University of London, the National Theatre of Scotland, and international higher music education networks. Her projects have included researching BIPOC repertoire for international syllabi, community engagement within South Asian diasporic communities, and representation within contemporary arts programming.

In addition to her teaching and research, Ankna is deeply involved in arts leadership and quality enhancement within higher music education. She serves as Artistic Director of Westbourne Music, curating chamber music concerts and collaborative artistic programmes in Glasgow. She is also co-founder of Shared Narratives, a platform supporting researchers and practitioners of colour in the performing arts through conferences, dialogue, and advocacy.

Internationally, Ankna has contributed extensively to policy, governance, and quality assurance in arts education. She has worked with organisations including the Association Européenne des Conservatoires (AEC), MusiQuE, EKKA, and the UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), undertaking institutional reviews and contributing to conversations around diversity, inclusion, and equity within conservatoire training. She previously served as Chair of the AEC Student Working Group and later as a member of the Diversity, Inclusion and Gender Equality (DIGE) Task Force.

She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Musicians' Union Scotland and Northern Ireland Regional Committee, contributing to discussions around musicians’ rights, representation, inclusion, and the future sustainability of the creative industries.

Through all aspects of her work — whether in the classroom, on stage, in research environments, or within communities — Ankna remains committed to expanding conversations around culture, access, identity, and the future of the arts.