Origins

I was born and brought up in Chennai. My first step into the world of music began as early as age 4.  Smt. N Kesi, a President Awardee, trained me in classical music till about the age of 13.  While schooling ran parallel to music, Sri. K.V Ramanujan took over as my next guru, under whose auspices I staged my arangetram in the year 1998. This was presided over by Dr. Balamuralikrishna.

 

Campus Life

 

Choosing to do Electronics & Communication Engineering at Hindustan College of Engineering, gave me not just the opportunity to emerge as a successful engineer but also laid the stones for a  career in music. Inter collegiate cultural shows, paved way for me to go up the ladder.   The ‘Best Instrumentalist’ award at IIT’s Saarang, for three consecutive years is the biggest achievement during my college life.

Music Career

My career kicked off with ad-jingles and film-recordings for regional languages.  After I realized my true calling for music,  I streamlined myself for a transition.  For this, I took up training in Western classical music under Mr. Balakrishnan. With industry associations demanding versatility, I procured a variety of custom-made flutes.

 

Big Break

 

My biggest break in the film industry was through the Tamil movie Veyil, with music composer G.V Prakash, for the song Veyilodu Vilayadi.

Since then I have played the flute for several film compositions across the South Indian Film Industry. Apart from the industry, I have also had the opportunity to get involved in several international collaborations.

 

Collaborations

 

Fusion based associations with renowned artistes such as Sri Vikku Vinayakram, Sri. Kadri Gopalnath, Smt. Bombay Jayashri and city based pianist Mr. Anil Srinivasan and UK based artiste Mr. James Asher are some of the takeaways.  Association withEarthSync, a world-music record label has drawn recognition from world audience.

 

Inspiration

 

Three 4 the music,  a collaboration with Sri. D.A Srinivas and Sri. Raghavendra Rao, features the use of classical instruments to attempt other genres of music such as jazz, persion, Irish folk etc.

 

Forever a learner, I draw my inspiration from Karl Jenkins, Yani, Ilayaraja, A.R Rahman, RD Burman, SD Burman, Bach & Chopin. My favorite genre of music is World Music.

 

Live

 

Nothing But Wind

June 2010 gave me a beautiful opportunity to perform Ilayaraja sir’s flute based album ‘Nothing But Wind’. I was accompanied by Raja sir’s orchestra, conducted by Mr.Prabhakar. Raja sir was seated among the audience. I don’t want to trivialize this further by adding more words!

Classic Incantations

German Film Orchestra Babelsberg performs A.R Rahman