Global Union
Saturday, September 13, 2008, 2:30 p.m.
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'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.
As a guitarist and composer, Prasanna's prolific body of 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, and Trichy Sankaran.
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.
Accompanying Prasanna will be Poongulam Subramanyam – mridangam; S. Karthick – ghatam; and Bangalore Amrit – kanjira.