What Celebs Had To Say About Prasanna

“Prasanna is a living hope for quality music.” – A.R. Rahman, Academy Award winning film composer

“He just cannot strike a false note ever” – From the desk Of R. Srinivasan, Indian Express

Some also categorize Prasanna’s music under ‘World Fusion’.

Awards and Achievements

Life Time Achievement Award, 2003 from Jayendra Saraswathi of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham

He has won prestigious awards that include the ‘1999 Guitar achievement award’ and the ‘1999 Composition achievements award’ from the Berklee College of music.

Prasanna’s official Website

For anyone who would like to know Guitar Prasanna as an artist, you can reach him at guitarprasanna.com.

Picture Source : prasanna.com

Prasanna is hailed by critics and fans around the world as one of the world’s most innovative guitarists and composers today. Prasanna truly exemplifies the notion of a global musician. He is the pioneer of traditional Indian classical carnatic music performance on the guitar and has stunned musicians, listeners and critics with his authentic performance of this ancient art on a standard electric Guitar replete with all the microtonal ornamentation.

Besides Carnatic Music on an Electric Guitar, He is also a Jazz Musician

‘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.

Harmony of Music in Prasanna’s Profession

Prasanna picked up the Guitar when he was ten years old. In 1984 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 Music Academy.

As you’re now aware, five time grammy award winning musician Victor Wooten is touring 4 Indian Cities, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkatta and Mumbai conducting concert-cum-workshop, during 4 and 8 April, 2010.

The innovative bassist, Wooten, is touring as a part of fund-raising project by Chennai based Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM, www.sam.org.in) – an ambitious project of guitarist Prasanna (composer of Oscar winning documentary Smile Pinky, who also heads SAM as President). In addition to the performing, the celebrated bassist will also conduct bass workshops for music enthusiasts in Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai.

Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM) will be the first ever professional college of music in India to offer a range of programs in contemporary music that includes Rock, Jazz, Classical and World music and will include world renowned musicians as its faculties. With courses in Voice, Guitar, Piano, Bass, Drums and Indian Percussion performance as its focus, SAM will commence its first six month diploma certificate program in July 2010. SAM is located at Marg Swarnabhoomi, an ambitious 1200 acre township off Mahabalipuram, on ECR, about 100 kms from the city of Chennai. Swarnabhoomi houses residential complexes, SEZ and prestigious educational institutions, including Virginia Tech campus and others.

Arguably, Victor Wooten is one of world’s most well known bass guitarist and member of the Grammy-winning super group Béla Fleck & The Flecktones. He has performed with artists such as Dave Mathews Band, Branford Marsalis, Chick Corea, Dave Matthews, Prince and Bobby Mc Ferrin among others. On his India tour, Wooten will be performing along with guitarist Prasanna, S. Karthik (ghatam) and Bangalore Amrit (kanjira).

This is not the first time that SAM has organized such a workshop. In August 2009, SAM conducted a residential workshop for musicians where jazz guitarists David Gilmore, bassist Mike Pope and drummer Rodney Holmes taught budding musicians finer nuances of the art and also gave some inspiring performances. View photos and videos

The first concert, held at Chennai, was a soaring success, where the Prasanna-Victor Duo got standing ovation from the public, who gathered in large numbers, despite being an IPL evening, proving a point that cricket is not everything.

Yesterday, the team performed in the garden city of Bengaluru and tomorrow they’ll be performing at Kolkata. Below is the schedule of the Victor Wooten-Prasanna-India tour and workshop.

Concert/workshop schedule

4 April, Sun Chennai Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall

5 April, Mon Bangalore Cathedral High School Auditorium

7 April, Wed Kolkata G D Birla Sabhaghar

8 April, Thurs Mumbai Sri Shanmukhananda Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Auditorium

Photos by Kiruba Shankar & Shrinidhi Hande. Part of the text is sourced from Radioandmusic.com. Stay tuned to this blog for more updates