Sriram Gopal

Sriram is a proud son of Maryland and has called Washington, D.C. home for over a decade. He has performed throughout the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. metro area since the mid-1990s, with shows the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, the Mansion at Strathmore, Blues Alley, Twins Jazz, Bohemian Caverns, and the Bossa Bistro & Lounge. Sriram has also performed at the DC Jazz Festival, the East Coast Jazz Festival, and other larger scale events. In 2005, he performed on and co-produced the recording and release of One and One Makes One, an album by The Duology Band.

Since 2008, Sriram has been performing using the name, The Fourth Stream, which is a loose collective of musicians with a few regular collaborators. While there is no set lineup of players, the aesthetic has always been consistent. The goal is to play music that incorporates any and all influences while retaining a strong commitment to melody, improvisation, and accessibility. Friends often spice up Fourth Stream performances, and past guests have ranged from D.C.’s finest hip-hop artists and jazzers, to poets, to Indian classical musicians.

All of this culminated with the release of The Fourth Stream album in 2016. The recording received many positive reviews and Washington City Paper named it one of the best local jazz recordings of the year. 

Sriram has been active in D.C.'s arts community in other areas as well. He taught drum set as a volunteer instructor at the Sitar Arts Center in 2008 and 2009. He contributed to DCist.com as a music and arts writer, and eventually music editor, before returning to a freelance role with both DCist and Washington City Paper. Sriram was also an organizer for Subcontinental Drift--a District-based, South Asian community arts organization--from 2007 to 2014.