Anantha R. Krishnan (musician)
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Anantha R. Krishnan
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | misterdangam |
| Born | Chennai, India |
| Origin | Indian-American |
| Genres | Indian classical music, Carnatic music, World music, Jazz fusion |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Mridangam |
| Years active | 1993-present |
| Website | www |
Anantha R. Krishnan is an Indian-American exponent of the mridangam, a South Indian percussion instrument. He is also a music composer and educator.
Early life and education[edit]
Anantha started his musical journey on the mridangam, the principle drum of the Carnatic music tradition. The grandson and disciple of the mridangam maestro, Palghat R. Raghu, he first learned the fundamentals of the mridangam under his uncle, R. Ramkumar and then began an official tutelage under his grandfather at the age of five. He is also a special interest student of tabla under Ustad Zakir Hussain (musician).
On his paternal side, Anantha is the grandson of Vainika exponent, A. Anantharaman Iyer, who was the founder/principal of the Guru Guha Gana Vidyalaya, an institution with an unbroken musical lineage traced back to Muthuswami Dikshitar. Noted Carnatic singer, Abhishek Raghuram is his cousin.
Anantha is a graduate of the Ranney School in New Jersey, holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Master of Fine Arts, from Mills College in Oakland California.
Professional Career[edit]
He performed his first concert at the age of seven and before the age of twenty performed alongside a rare generation of Indian classical musicians like, Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Prof. T. N. Krishnan, Vid. K. V. Narayanaswamy, Vid. M. S. Gopalakrishnan, Dr. K. J. Yesudas, Mandolin U. Srinivas, Ganesh and Kumaresh among many others. During this period, he received numerous awards from traditional organizations of classical music in India. Most notably, he has won the categorical Best Mridangist Prize from the flagship institution for promoting classical Indian music, the Music Academy, Madras, five times. He was awarded the State of the Arts Award from the New Jersey government twice in 1997 and 1998 as part of the National Endowment of the Arts' effort to promote cultural awareness in the U.S.A.
In 1999, he was invited to perform for the Millennium celebrations in Berlin, Germany at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover. A year later, he performed at the historic Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. In fall of 2006, at the invitation of Fred Frith, the British experimental guitarist he performed for the seminal New Jazz Meeting for SWR2 Archivradio, a national radio station in Baden Baden. In October of 2007, he was invited by Rudresh Mahanthappa to perform with the group, Samdhi, at the Festival of the Firsts in Pittsburgh, PA. In July of 2011, he performed in a Carte Blanche Artist Series at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam with the same group and was the first mridangam artist to appear in Carnegie Hall’s Shape of Jazz series in NYC, all with the group Samdhi.
In May of 2008, he was a featured soloist in the Grammy nominated, Miles from India tour, which premiered in Town Hall, NYC presenting the great Miles Davis’s music with Indian instrumentation featuring jazz legends: Ron Carter, Lenny White and Ndugu Chancler.
In November 2014, he was invited to perform at the opening ceremony music for International Film Festival (IFFI)l in Goa and the closing ceremony of the National Games 2015 at Greenfield Stadium, Karryavottam in Trivandrum with the actor danseuse Padmashri Shobana. In 2014, Anantha had the unique privilege to be invited by Ustad Zakir Hussain (musician) to perform a mridangam solo at both the Ustad Alla Rakha "Abbaji Barsi" on February 3 at Shanmukhananda Hall, Mumbai and the Abbaji Jayanti celebrations on 29th April at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch in Pune. Subsequently, in 2016 Spring, he was invited to perform with Ustad Zakir Hussain (musician) and the Masters of Percussion (MOP)[1] through the United States and Europe. In 2018, MOP ensemble performed in Kathmandu to commemorate seventy year India-Nepal diplomatic relations. Anantha also performed with the great guitarist, John McLaughlin with MOP at Opéra de Nice [2] in Sept of 2018. In May of 2018, Anantha performed with Kammern Ensemble- Neue Musik for the prestigious Berliner Festspiele, MaerzMusik edition for the premiere of Memory Space [3] by Alvin Lucier. Anantha curated the Memory Spaces of KNM Ensemble's Chennai edition at the Goethe Institute in March of 2022. In Nov. 2022, Anantha composed and collaborated with Clearing Customs, a free improvisation ensemble led by Fred Frith for Unesco Heritage festival at Zollverein, in Essen Germany and at the Handelbeurs, Ghent.
Anantha has led two percussion ensembles, Taala Sangam [4], a traditional taala vadya ensemble featuring the Tavil Maestro Mannargudi M.R. Vasudevan and the KanjiraMan, B.Shree Sundarkumar and Mellow Rhythms, a contemporary presentation of mridangam featuring special guest Charumathi Raghuraman, on the violin.
Since 2011, Anantha has served on the faculty of A. R. Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, Chennai teaching Western percussion, 20th century music composition, European and American History and Professional development.
Projects[edit]
MRIDANGAMELA
Mridangamela[5] is a festival property started together by Anantha with Viveick Rajagopalan of India 91 (Gully Boy) song fame. Mridangamela had its premiere at the historic Royal Opera House (Mumbai) combining elements of classical mridangam repertoire with Ta Dhom project, a contemporary rap/hip hop ensemble. This was followed by an all day immersive workshop and performance at the Art Village, Karjat [6]. Kunal Naik, multi disciplinary actor and artist is the visual director and KG Ramnarayan from Wobble Creative is the on ground producer of Mridangamela. [7] [8]
SAADHANA SESSIONS
Saadhana Sessions[1], is a group practice led by Anantha for advanced and intermediate students of percussion. The workshop has been presented in many cities in India and in the UAE.
MISTERDANGAM GUILD
The Misterdangam Guild is a modular online curriculum for learning the mridangam. This module was started by Anantha as a response to the Coronovirus 21 Day Lockdown Practice Challenge on the misterdangam youtube channel.[9] [10] [11]
Awards[edit]
Anantha is the recipient of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar in the category of Contemporary music from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Ministry of Culture, Government of India for the year 2021.
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- ↑ "Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion".
- ↑ "OPÉRA DE NICE".
- ↑ "Maerz Musik Festival - Memory Space".
- ↑ "Taala Sangam".
- ↑ "MridangaMela at Royal Opera House, Mumbai".
- ↑ "MridangaMela at Art Village Karjat".
- ↑ "Mridangam is like a living being - Anantha R. Krishnan".
- ↑ "Rhythm feast on his finger tips".
- ↑ "MridangaMela - Movement of gods".
- ↑ "Musicians' copyright webinar - MridangaMela".
- ↑ "Musically connected".
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