About the Artists:
Prasanna:
'How
can you play Carnatic music on a guitar'? is a question
that was on everyone's mind when Prasanna daringly took to one of the
world's
most ancient musical forms on one of the world's most modern
instruments - the
electric guitar! 20 years on, the question is still asked by everyone
but now
in disbelief at how Prasanna brings out the subtlest of microtones on a
standard electric guitar and goes even further by extending his
signature style
to Jazz, Blues, Rock, Classical music and everything that he feeds in
as a
contemporary musician of today.
In a world studded
with brilliant guitarists, 'Prasanna plays like nobody on
the planet' according to one Jazz critic. As a guitarist and composer,
Prasanna's prolific body or work is as diverse as it is integrated.
This
includes over eleven Carnatic albums, the just released Carnatic/Rock
Jimi
Hendrix tribute album ‘Electric Ganesha Land’, a highly acclaimed Jazz
Fusion
album 'Be the Change' featuring several Grammy Award winning artists
from the
Jazz world, an eclectic solo guitar album 'Peaceful', a special triple
guitar
project 'Guitars' with the Belgian band Aka Moon, an original score for
contemporary dance theater adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Tempest' with a
premiere in Sydney, Australia, a work for Contemporary and Fusion dance
'Sanaatana' premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, yet another
work for
contemporary dance 'Soliloquy', numerous sessions work on
multi-platinum Indian
film soundtracks for such top composers as A.R. Rahman, Illayaraja and
many more.
His orchestration and arranging credits include the title score for the
Oscar
nominated Bollywood film 'Lagaan'. Prasanna's acclaimed guitar
instructional
DVD 'Ragamorphism', gives an in-depth look at how he stretches the
boundaries
of improvisation.
The North Sea Jazz
Festival, Middelheim Jazz Festival, Festival Guitares Du
Monde, La Fete de la Musique, Les Orientales De St. Florent Le Vieil,
Festival
Jazz En Artois, PanaFest, Lotus world music festival are some of the
top
international festivals Prasanna has performed at. He has
performed/recorded
with legendary names in the Jazz/ Fusion world including Joe Lovano,
Larry
Coryell, Victor Wooten, Airto Moreira, Alphonso Johnson, Steve Smith,
Kenwood
Dennard, Jeff Coffin, David Gilmore, Aka Moon, Kai Eckhardt and from
the Indian
music world such as A.R.Rahman, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Illayaraja, Dr.
L.
Subramaniam, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Trichy Sankaran and several others.
With an engineering
degree in Naval Architecture from the prestigious Indian
Institute of Technology, Madras, he
went on to
pursue his passion for music and graduated Magna-Cum-Laude with an
honors
degree from the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston. His multi-faceted musical
personality
has been recognized with such diverse awards as the 'Lifetime
Achievement Award
for Carnatic music for 2003' from H.H. Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, India's
most
revered spiritual leader and 'Acharya' of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam,
'The
Berklee College of Music Guitar Achievement Award' (for outstanding
work as a
Student Jazz guitarist'), 'The Berklee College of Music-Composition
Achievement
Award' (for outstanding work as a Student Classical composer) and many
others.
As a true artist,
Prasanna is both a traditionalist
and modernist and everything in between.
Lakshman
Mahadevan studied mridangam with Sri T.R. Rajamani, son
of the legendary Palghat Mani Iyer. Under his guru’s guidance for the
last
twenty years, Lakshman has blossomed to be one of the most promising
mridangam
players of the younger generation, having imbued the authentic carnatic
tradition in both accompaniment and solo playing.
In the last few
years, Lakshman has had
the fortune of performing with top musicians like Dr. L. Subramaniam,
Prasanna,
Prof.T.R.Subramaniam and others. Lakshman is one of the most sought
after
carnatic percussionists in the US. He has accompanied Prasanna on major
tours
in the US, Europe and India. He is a graded artist of All India Radio
and has
also performed at many top venues in India.
Lakshman presently
works for Federal
Express in Memphis, USA and continues to accompany several top artists
from the
Indian classical carnatic world.
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