Finding His Rhythm

Tejas Karthik ’28 brought a lifelong love of tabla to Millville — then found a community where music, friendship, and a willingness to try something new opens unexpected doors.

BY KRISTIN DUISBERG

When Tejas Karthik ’28 enrolled at St. Paul’s School as a Fourth Former last year, it wasn’t immediately clear to him how he would integrate one of his most important activities into his new community. Since the age of four, Karthik has been learning the tabla: a set of two drums, played by hand, common to South Asia and India in particular. An instrument noted for its difficulty — the two different-sized drums require precise hand positioning, pressure, and finger placement to create the proper sounds, and rather than employing written notes and an A through G musical alphabet, songs are taught using spoken syllables and complex linguistic rhythmic “sentences” that must be memorized — Karthik intended to continue lessons over Zoom with an instructor he’s had for years. He didn’t assume, however, that there would be a place for his instrument in the SPS music program, though he had included a video of himself performing as part of his admissions portfolio.

The day Karthik arrived at St. Paul’s, he played the instrument for Director of Music Orlando Pandolfi P’19, who suggested that he try out for the SPS Jazz Band. There, he developed a quick, creative rapport with Assistant Director of Music Mike Stockbridge and fellow percussionist Chris Tong ’26. “Jazz is mainly improvisation, and tabla has a lot of improvisation as well,” he explains. “So I figure out what I’m going to play, and Mr. Stockbridge will just tell me to play loud in one place, or play soft in another, or maybe go back and forth a bit with the drums. It’s meant a lot to me to contribute to the SPS music program with the tabla.”

Karthik’s comfort with stretching and improvising has paid off in other aspects of his life at SPS as well. A conversation with a math classmate, one of the co-editors of The Pelican, about the Applied Science and Engineering Program led to her assigning him science-related stories and other complex topics — and also inviting him to join the Eco-Action club. A conversation en route to the Friedman Community Center with another friend about the Keiser concert they’d just attended quickly landed him in front of Director of Chapel Music Nicholas White and in the bass section of the Chapel Choir. “One minute I was walking to Friedman, unsure if I wanted to join the choir or not,” he says, “and the very next week I was singing as part of Lessons and Carols.” It’s a similar story for Karthik’s involvement with the School’s a cappella group, and afternoon debate, and the South Asian Society, and JV crew.

“It’s been kind of a theme of my time at SPS,” Karthik says. “People realize I’m open to new things, and the more they see that, the more they invite me to try out something else they think I might be interested in.” It’s also part of what drew Karthik, who was raised mostly in California but whose family now lives in Chennai, India, to Millville. “There are two things, really,” he says. “The personal connections you are able to have here because of the size of the school. That was important to me. And then also this culture of experimenting and trying different things off the buffet.”

Karthik smiles as he admits that, when he was younger, he “hadn’t ever imagined coming to boarding school.” Now, he can’t imagine being anyplace other than St. Paul’s.