Mridangam

ADITYA GANESH

Aditya Ganesh hails from a family of musicians and dancers and started learning mridangam from Sri N Narayan at the age of 7. Since 2008, he has been continuing his advanced training under the tutelage of Sri K R Ganesh, son of the legendary Mridangam vidwan Sri M. Rajappa Iyer. With his grandmother, Kalaimamani Smt. Ranganayaki Jayaraman, and mother, Smt Indumathy Ganesh, running their own Bharathanatyam Dance Schools, Aditya developed a strong passion and knowledge in Carnatic music at an early age. In addition to playing the mridangam, Aditya plays the Western Drums and also learned Carnatic Music from his Aunt, Smt. Asha Ramesh. He is currently studying Electrical Engineering at UCLA.

Karthik Vasan

Karthik Vasan is currently a junior at the University of Southern California. He initially started learning mridangam from Dr. Frank Bennett, from the Palgat T.S. Mani Iyer school of music. For the past six years, he has been receiving
advanced training from Shri Neyveli S. Narayanan.

Karthik has accompanied several senior artists in the Southern California area and has given concerts around the US. He is a regular participant in the Southern California aradhana festivals and music programs. Karthik is also an accomplished kanjira player having given concerts in the US and in India.

SHUBHA CHANDRAMOULI

Shubha Chandramouli, a disciple of Sri. Poovalur Srinivasan, is an upcoming young artist in the field of Carnatic music, following in the grand lineage of the legendary Sri. Pazhani Subramania Pillai, Mylatoor Sami Iyer, and P.A. Venkataraman. Shubha has given mridangam accompaniment to several renown musicians around the US, Canada, and India. Shubha is a regular performer in Chennai during the December music season, and also has performed several times at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana.

Shubha has been trained in vocal Carnatic music, initially from her mother Sunanda Chandramouli, and is currently training under Smt. Geetha Ramanathan Bennett and Sri. Delhi P. Sunderrajan. She has given several vocal concerts around the US and India as well. An MBA graduate from Boston University, Shubha is currently working at Ernst & Young as a Consultant.

VIGNESH VENKATARAMAN

Vignesh Venkataraman, a junior at Stanford University, is a mridangam artist hailing from Umayalpuram Sri. K. Sivaraman’s school of music. Vignesh was initiated into playing mridangam by Sri. Anand Iyer, also from the same school. For the past 5 years, Vignesh has been traveling to India every summer undergoing advanced training under the tutelage of Umayalpuram Sri. K. Sivaraman. Vignesh has accompanied various artists, including some senior musicians in concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area and in India. He has participated in competitions at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana and has won several prizes there. He won the Best Mridangist award at the Spirit of Youth festival held by the Madras Music Academy in 2013.

Vignesh is also learning vocal carnatic music from Smt. Meena Kothandaraman, a disciple of Sri. M.S. Anantharaman, and more recently from violinist Sri. R.K. Shriramkumar.

ARJUN NARAYANAN

ARJUN NARAYANAN began his training in Carnatic Music with vocal lessons from Smt. Radha Kalyan, a student of the late Shri. Thanjavur S. Kalyanaraman in Sydney, Australia at the age of 9. His initial training in mrudangam began a year later under Shri. Vallish Herur, a student of Bangalore N. G. Ravi. In 1999, he moved to Irvine, CA, USA, and continued vocal lessons with Smt. Padma Kutty, and in 2000, had the good fortune to continue his laya training under the tutelage of Shri. Neyveli R. Narayanan. Arjun continues to receive advanced training and guidance from Neyveli Narayanan to this day. Arjun has been performing in concerts since 2005, and has accompanied numerous distinguished artists. He has performed in many cities across the US, and every year performs in the December music festival in Chennai. He also actively teaches students in the Orange county area in mridangam and laya aspects. Arjun is a graduate in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, and has completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Southern California.

Nirmal Narayan

Nirmal Narayan is a disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. He has been performing for several years, accompanying many stalwarts in the field of Carnatic music. Nirmal has received numerous awards and titles, namely the “Best Concert” prize from The Music Academy, Chennai, and “Yuva Kala Bharati” from Bharat Kalachar, to name a few.
Nirmal earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently pursuing his MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.