SRUTI is pleased to present a Grand Carnatic Veena and Violin Instrumental Concert featuring Ramana Balachandran (Veena) and Kamalakiran Vinjamuri (Violin), accompanied by Patri Satish Kumar (Mridangam), and Sowmiya Narayanan (Ghatam)

Ramana Balachandran (Veena)

Ramana Balachandran (website) is a Veena player in the Carnatic tradition. Considered a prodigious talent, he was directly awarded an A grade by All India Radio.He brings on the veena, considered a tough instrument, exceptional phrasal clarity that exposes microtonal and curvy nuances that characterize a deeper interpretation of raga-centric music; he discovers deeper structures of traditional and contemporary ragas as he interprets them spontaneously. Ragas are interpreted in a variety of different moods & structures, as he explores them in alapana and swaraprasthara. He has also discovered a number of playing techniques that help him stretch the boundaries of clarity and precision; his renditions that involve heightened repose while retaining phrasal richness are looked forward to by keen music lovers.

Kamalakiran Vinjamuri (Violin)

Kamalakiran Vinjamuri started his journey with the violin from his grand-father, Sri. Parthasarathy Iyengar. He subsequently had training from Smt. Malladi Vijayalakshmi. His father Sri.Subhash Vinjamuri, started teaching him the violin at the age of 7. He has been under the tutelage of Sangeethakalanidhi A. Kanyakumari since 2006.

Kamalakiran has won several accolades and has accompanied several leading artists of both past and present generations. Kamalakiran has also widely worked in collaborations with musicians of different genres. As a soloist, he has performed across Asia, the US, and Europe.

Patri Satish Kumar (Mridangam)

Patri Satish Kumar (website) was born into a family of musicians. He was initiated into the art of percussion by his mother Padmavathy, a renowned violinist and had his debut at the tender age of 7. A fine performer, composer and with a deep interest to innovate and explore the art form, his specialization is his precise fingering technique and the fine balance of sounds between the treble and base heads of the Mridangam.

Satish Kumar has been a regular feature in prestigious venues and festivals across India and around the world . An “A-Top” ranking artiste of the All India Radio, Satish Kumar continues his journey in the world of percussion.

Sowmiya Narayanan (Ghatam)

Sowmiya Narayanan is a disciple of Mridangam Maestro Trichy Sri Harikumar and Ghatam Sri Krishnaswami. Sowmiya is a board of trustee of Sankara Nethralaya and conducted more than 650 plus online concerts. With this online concert series he has coordinated and received donations of more than $ 1.5 million in the last 2.5 years supporting 15,000 free cataract eye surgeries to poor indigent patients of Sankara Nethralaya.