Akshaya Avril Tucker is a composer, cellist, Odissi dancer and choreographer who draws inspiration from the music and dance traditions of South Asia. She studied classical Indian dance (Odissi style) with Guru Ranjanaa Devi for about 20 years, and performed with Nataraj Dance Company around Western Massachusetts, the Northeast US and Japan. She holds an M.M. in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in Music from Brown University. In 2019, she won an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. She is also a freelance writer and entrepreneur.