Krishan Oberoi is an internationally performed composer, songwriter, and lyricist whose work moves fluidly across the worlds of music, theater, and experimental film. A 2025 winner of both the New England Conservatory Entrepreneurial Musicianship Award and the NEC Choral Composition Competition, Oberoi's work has also been recognized with grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Foundation for the Arts, Ernst Krenek Forum (Austria), and a 2024 Marion & Jasper Whiting Fellowship for international collaboration.
Known for his evocative blend of choral intimacy and theatrical boldness, Oberoi was commissioned in 2025 to create an original work for a mass choir of 400 students at the Tokyo International School KPASS Choral Festival. The resulting piece, 土曜日, was shaped by written reflections from the student performers themselves, resulting in a deeply personal choral work that echoed their own hopes and anxieties.
Oberoi has collaborated extensively with award-winning British poet Kate Wakeling, creating contemporary choral works that balance emotional clarity with poetic invention. His published pieces include Telescope (Santa Barbara Music Publishing, 2022) and Intro (It’s You) (Endeavor Music Publishing, 2023), the latter featured as a J.W. Pepper Editor’s Choice in 2024.
His evening-length dance drama SNAKESKIN, commissioned by Emmy Award-winning choreographer John Malashock, and the musical Best Time to Be Alive- developed with Brooklyn-based playwright Rhiannon Ling and praised by Hamilton star Lexi Lawson as “euphoric, magical… a musical masterpiece in the making”- demonstrate his versatility as a musical dramatist.
Under his alter ego Renoir Kobashi, Oberoi explores more surreal and cinematic terrain. His upcoming project, Jen Xponential (2025), is a semi-animated film musical that blurs the lines between glitch-pop, autobiography, and digital folklore.
A graduate of the Yale School of Music, Oberoi's music has been performed around the globe, from chamber halls to choral festivals. His genre-bending arrangements of artists such as Bon Iver, Genesis, and Jimmy Eat World are available through Sheet Music Plus and have found international audiences.
