Chanda was born in the USA and named after a Hindu goddess of the moon. Though her parents’ reasons for doing so remain a mystery, it is no wonder that she loved stories. She spent hours of her childhood listening to them, reading them and creating them. After hearing “Peter and the Wolf” for the first time, she also fell in love with the story-telling possibilities in music. She studied voice, violin, flute, piano and oboe, but it was the piano which finally stuck.

After getting her Bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music in New York, she studied opera coaching in Milan and then moved to Vienna where she collected two more graduate degrees in vocal accompaniment and chamber music.

Chanda is currently based in Vienna, though she gives concerts regularly throughout Europe and North America with a variety of singers and instrumentalists. Co-founding Talespin with Anna Lea has also allowed her to combine her childhood passion of telling stories with her life-long passion, music. Her favorite stories feature children who have names even stranger than hers.