R. Prasanna

R. Prasanna is a South Indian Carnatic musician who is one of the very few people who play the south Indian musical art form of Carnatic music on the electric guitar. He not only plays carnatic music but is also a jazz musician. Some also categorize Prasanna's music under world fusion.

Early years

Prasanna picked up the guitar when he was ten years old and studied with Shanmugaraj and then Samuel Thangadurai. Because he did not have long fingernails he did not pursue learning western classical music. He became interested in Carnatic music after hearing his sister's Carnatic vocal classes. After learning quite a few things on his own, in 1984, he started formal instruction with Tiruvarur Balasubramaniam. In the same year, he formed the band "Music Fusion". In 1985, he formed a band called "Dispersions" and joined "The Eleventh Commandment", a rock band in South India.

In 1989, he gave his first professional Carnatic music concert at the Madras Music Academy. He studied with violinist A. Kanyakumari. Around this time, he performed several concerts in the "sabha"s in Chennai. He also gained contacts with several Indian cinema composers, including Ilayaraaja and A. R. Rahman. The first filmi music that he played is for the song "July Matham" (Tamil) from the movie "Puthiya Mugam". He has a lot of respect for Ilayaraja, whom he considers to be a phenomenon.

In 1992, after graduating from IIT, he took up a software engineering position in "Complete Business Solutions, India". In 1993 he quit this job to go to the Berklee College of Music.

Education

Prasanna received a Bachelor's degree in Naval Architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1992. In 1999, He was awarded an Honours Bachelor's degree from the Berklee School of Music majoring in "Classical Composition and Jazz Composition". Author of Ragamorphism a carnatic guitar instruction DVD released on January 20th 2004.

Awards and achievements

* Life Time Achievement Award, 2003 from Jayendra Saraswathi of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham
* The Berklee College of Music-Composition Achievement Award

Discography

Prasanna performed with several jazz artists and has also given several Carnatic concerts. Below are some of his albums:

* Jazz
** "Be The Change" with Victor Wooten and other Grammy Awards winners.
** "Peaceful"
** "Guitars" with the Belgian band Aka Moon
** "Echo" - a fusion album of Sathya Sai Baba Bhajans
** "Summa cum Jazz"

* Carnatic
** "Shakthi The OmniPotent"
** "Natabhairavi"
** "Apoorva"
** "Roots"
** "Guitar - Indian Style"
** "Spirit of Youth" / "Classical Music of India"
** "Guitar Meets Thavil" / "Vibrant Aesthetics"
** "Evergreen Classicals on Guitar"
** "Evergreen Melodies on Guitar"
** "Raa Rama"
* Other
** "Electric Ganesha Land" - A tribute to Jimi Hendrix.
** "Ragamorphism - A carnatic guitar instruction.

External links

* [http://www.guitarprasanna.com Guitarist Prasanna's Website]