Celebrating Birds

Dr. Suma Sudhindra is the foremost exponent of the Veena in her generation of Musicians. A very rare blend of the classical conservatism with a belief in evolving to the present, her range of work has extended from the scholarly to performances of immaculate skill and creative contours. Keen on making a global presence Suma’s works of experimentation have been applauded all over the world.  Her unique emani Chittibabu style is vibrant, which has evolved in making the melodic sounds of the Veena a phenomenon of universal appeal. Her recent contribution to the world of  music is her own new innovation ‘The Tarangini Veena’ which has made a tremendous impact in the music circles. She has been honored with “Rajyotsava Award” from the Government of Karnataka in the year 2001. She is also a recipient of  “Kalaimamani” award from Tamilnadu  Government. Recipient of “Veene Sheshanna National Award” in the year 2012 from Swaramurthy V N Rao Memorial Trust,  and Ganakalabhushana from Karnataka Gana KalaParishat in October 2014. She is the recipient of Central “Sangeet Natak Akademi Award” for the year 2017. She is part of the leadership and boards of many organisations including the Indian Music Experience Museum.

Manasi Prasad is a combination of an accomplished singer, arts management professional, passionate educator and eloquent orator. She is a noted Karnatic vocalist from Bangalore. Manasi has studied music with renowned gurus such as RK Padmanabha in Bangalore and Sriram Parasuram in Chennai. She started performing concerts at the age of 14 and since then has performed widely across India and in 6 continents around the world. She is a recipient of several awards in music, including the prestigious Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from the Sangeet Natak Akademi (Government of India), the Ganakalashri from the Karnataka Ganakala Parishat and the Rotary- Brigade Young Achievers Award. Manasi has performed on radio and TV several times, and has over 10 music albums to her credit. Manasi holds an MBA from IIM Bangalore and served as the first museum director of the Indian Music Experience Museum.

Jyotsna Srikanth is a sought after South Indian Carnatic violinist and composer. She is an all rounder who has performed numerous South Indian classical (Carnatic) solo concerts, jugalbandhi concerts and jazz-fusion concerts. She has featured in many major global music events and venues like The Music Academy – Chennai, WOMAD – UK, Red Violin Festival – Wales, North Atlantic Fiddle Convention – Scotland, BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, South Bank Centre – Queen Elizabeth Hall – London, Barbican – London and many more major venues and festivals across the world. She has also played violin for nearly 300 Indian films under music directors like Ilaiyaraaja. She is a medical doctor, a postgraduate in Pathology. Jyotsna is the Artistic Director of the London International Arts Festival and Dhruv Arts.

Amith comes from a family of musicians and has been widely acclaimed as a child prodigy of Karnataka. He is the son and student of flautist Vidwan B.K.Anantharam. He underwent training under Padma Bhushana Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr.R.K.Srikantan to learn the finer aspects of the Gayaki Style of flute playing for almost 2 decades.

Amith is one of the youngest “A” graded artistes of ALL INDIA RADIO and has been featured on the most prestigious National Programme of Music at a very young age of 21 and also the South Zone hook-up concert from Doordarshan. A recipient of Ananya Yuva Puraskara for the year 2016, Amith has had the honor of being the only Indian to have been invited to perform at the Dusseldorf Church Organ Festival and JazzArt Festival in 2016.

He has been awarded the annual award of Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira in the year 2017 and has been accompanied by some of the top ranking musicians of India.

Adarsh Shenoy started his training in Tabla at the age of 8 under Sri Nagaraj Rao Gaikwad, who built in him a strong foundation of the basics of the Delhi and Ajrada Gharanas. Later he undertook training in the Faroukhabad style under Pandit Rajgopal Kallurkar from the year 1999. At present he is receiving advanced lessons from Pt. Yogesh Samsi of Mumbai.

He has also performed alongside Carnatic Musicians like Vidwan Sriram Parasuram & Anuradha Sriram, Vidushi Aruna Sairam, Sri Yella Venkateshwara rao, Sri Shashank Subramanium, Mysore Manjunath and Nagaraj, Vidwan Bangalore V.Praveen, Vidushi Kanyakumari, Vidwan Sri N Amrit etc. Adarsh has also played alongside western musicians like Mike Herting, Mathias Shriefel & Peter Kroll Ploeger and some jazz and rock musicians like Amit Heri, Keith Peters, Bruce Lee Mani, Darshan Doshi, Manoj George & Rhzude in fusion shows.

Born into a family with Music in their DNA, Shadrach Solomon’s love for music came naturally to him.  His formal training in Western Classical Piano at a tender age of 6 years from his father, Mr.Christopher Shyam Prasad was a good beginning that continued, with the able guidance of Sister John of Good Shepherd’s Convent, who was also known for teaching music to the Royal Family of Wodeyars, then later took advanced piano lessons from Ravi Kashyap. Solomon’s profession as a musician began when he was 15 years.

His expertise to keep his skill neat and crisp has been the key to share the space ‘on stage’ and ‘in studios’ with the eminent Music Directors (Shri Hamsalekha, Shri V.Manohar, Shri Guru Kiran, Shri Arjun Janya, Shri Ravi Basrur, Grammy Awardee – Mr.Ricky Kej, Shri Raghu Dixit), highly acclaimed Celebrity Singers and accomplished Musicians  of International repute, such as Hariharan, Pankaj Udaas, Taufiq Quereshi, Dr.Balamuralikrishna, Dr.L.Subramaniam, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Ganesh- Kumaresh, Amit Heri, Unnikrishnan, Keith Peters, Udit Narayan, Kunal Ganjawala, Chitra, Rajesh Vaidya, Dr. Prakash Sontakke, Dr.Jyotsna Srikanth, Vijay Prakash, Shivamani.

Karthik Mani is a World Percussionist and Drummer. He hails from a family of musicians – his father, TAS Mani was a renowned percussionist and founder of “The Karnataka College of Percussion”, and his mother RA Ramamani is a reputed Carnatic vocalist who has performed Worldwide and has pioneered Indo-Jazz fusion.

He has performed in various festivals in India, China, Spain, Germany, USA, Turkey, Bangkok, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Indonesia and Australia. He has also performed shows all over India with various renowned Carnatic, Hindustani and World Musicians including Shankar Mahadevan, Dr L Subramaniam, Carnatic Maestro Mandolin U Sreenivas, Dr M Balamuralikrishna, Dr S P Balasubramanyam, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Hariharan, Carnatic flute Maestro N Ramani, Violinist Mysore Manjunath, Shashank Subrahmanyam, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Aruna Sairam, Praveen Godkhindi and others.

Trained in Bharatanatyam , Deepti Sudhindra  has been an artiste in performance for over three decades. She embarked on a professional theatre journey acting directing producing and designing for drama. In a decade, she has worked in over 25 productions. Today her study of the Natya Sastra and her committed spiritual practice influences her performances converging together dance drama and spoken word to bring to performance an expansive understanding of Sanskrit texts and directions to performance. Deepti is a designer entrepreneur at ‘The Jewelry Project’ crafting handmade jewellery and creating a new lexicon of ornament in Indian design by applying a decolonial design thinking to her process. Her work in design drama and dance practice is rooted in eco feminism. Deepti also offers experiential movement meditation sessions bringing together her exploration and understanding in the spiritual path she continues to abide in.

Keerthi Kumar is a Kathak, Indian contemporary dance and Bharatanatyam artiste. He is a Principal dancer and Head of Projects of STEM Dance Kampni and has performed and toured extensively. He is also a sought-after Lighting Designer, a Nattuvanar and a Padhant artiste. Keerthi also holds a Master’s in Business Administration. He co-founded ARTMOS through which he creates original choreographic works for educational institutions and works with artistes to create specially curated events, fastidious production design and their mindful execution.