Guest Faculty

E. Gayathri was born to Kamala Aswathama, a veena vidushi, and to G. Aswathama, a film music director in the Telugu film industry. Her father named her Gayathri Vasantha Shoba. Gayathri first trained under her parents and later under Sangita Kalanidhi T. M. Thyagarajan, a Carnatic vocalist and composer.

Gayathri began her career at the age of 9 when Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Triplicane invited her to perform in their Saint Thyagaraja Festival in 1968. Gayathri went on to receive awards and titles from organisations in India and abroad. Gayathri has released many albums. She was appointed as Honorary Director of Tamil Nadu Government Music Colleges (in Chennai, Thiruvaiyaru, Madurai and Coimbatore) by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa, in 2011. E.Gayathri has been honoured with Doctorate by the World Tamil University in the year 2017.

Apart from these, she has also given performances abroad, in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Singapore and Malaysia to name a few. She was also one of the many well-known artistes of India to have been featured in composer A.R. Rahman's Jana Gana Mana anthem track.

Ranjit Barot is an Indian film score composer, music director, music arranger, drummer and singer. He has been described by guitar legend John McLaughlin as "one of the leading edges in drumming", and is part of John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension, touring Europe. Born into a family steeped in Indian classical music and dance, melody and rhythm has always been an integral part of Ranjit’s life.

In 1980 he performed at the Jazz Yatra in Europe with the Jazz Yatra Sextet (with Louis Banks), besides performing with Pandit Ravi Shankar's ensemble on the same tour.This phase saw journeys to Europe and the West with leading Indian jazz/pop and classical musicians. Ranjit has also had a long career in composition and music production, working out of his own state-of-the-art studio facility in Mumbai.

Ranjit has been an integral part of some of A.R. Rahman’s work through the years recording for many of his tracks and accompanying him on live shows including the US Intimate Tour in 2015 and One Heart Tour in 2018. His collaborations with musicians abroad have included unique performances with artists such as John McLaughlin, Jonas Helborg, Ayden Esen, and Tim Garland. He has been a featured drummer and arranger for R.D. Burman, Laxmikant – Pyarelal, Kalyanji – Anandji, continuing through the eras of Anu Malik and Ismail Darbar, and to the present, as arranger/ producer.

An eminent singer, flautist, keyboardist and producer, Palakkad Sreeram is a versatile musician best known for his penchant for long raga phrases. Born in Kavassery near Alathur, in the Palakkad district of Kerala, Sreeram started learning music under his mother from very young age and also under Sri. Sundareswara Bhagavathar demonstrating an immense passion. As many others, he acquired a post-graduation in music from Calicut University and moved to Madras for his musical journey. Sreeram now owns a multi faceted highly modern equipped recording studio “Swararnavam”.He entered as a flautist in the industry in 1996 and his first voice recording was done by music director Keeravani for the film Annamayya in Telugu. After that, A. R. Rahman the music director of young generations used Sreeram’s enchanting voice for his films including Padayappa, Uyire, Tajmahal, En swasakkattre. He has also recorded under Harris Jayraj, Deva, S.A.Rajkumar, VidyaSagar, Mani Sarma, Devi Sriprasad, A.R.Rehana and sang many songs for other young music directors of next generations such as Yuvan Shankar Raja, Karthik Raja, Sreekanth Deva, G. V. Prakash.He has directed for two Malayalam films, “Mazhamegha Pravukal” and “Melvilasam Seriyanu”. He also has many music albums to his credit including the remix works “Irandayirathil oruvan” and “Galatta Remix” both done for HMV audios of MGR songs. “Yanai Mukhavane” is a devotional music album released by Magna sound in which all the songs were written by his wife Dr. Babysreeram and sung by Sreeram.

Charumathi Raghuraman, is a young violin virtuoso in the Carnatic, South Indian music tradition. A precocious talent, she started learning first from her mother Smt. Rama Raghuraman, then continued formalized training with the respected Guru Smt. T.R. Balamani in Mumbai, and soon thereafter, at the suggestion of the iconic violinist of South India, Padma Bhushan Prof. T. N. Krishnan, Charumathi became his ardent disciple in 1995. She also studies Carnatic vocal music with the renowned teacher Padma Bhushan Sri. P. S. Narayanaswami.

She played her debut concert alongside Prof. T. N. Krishnan in 1998 and since then has been performing regularly both as a soloist and accompanist. She has been awarded the CCR&T, Govt. of India scholarship from the age of ten. She is the recipient of many awards; some of the notable ones include the ‘Yuva Sammann Award’ from MOP Vaishnav College in 2019, ’Kalki Krishnamurthy Memorial Award’ for the year 2016, ‘Sangeetha Saptha Sagara’ title from SAFE in 2014, ‘Ramabhadran Centenary Award’ for the Most Promising Young Musician of the Year 2013 from Tag Corporation, India; ’Young Achiever award’ from Rotary Club; ‘Best Violinist’ awards for the years 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006, and the ‘Outstanding Young Violinist’ award in 2007-08 from The Music Academy (Madras); and ‘Best Violinist’ awards from various institutions like Narada Gana Sabha, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Indian Fine Arts Society. She is also an ‘A grade' artist of the All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Charu has traveled widely across India and abroad to perform in prestigious music festivals and institutions over the last 15 years. In 2011, Charu was invited to participate in The Woodford Folk Festival, an annual music festival held in Brisbane, Australia. A year later, Charu was part of a cultural delegation organized by ICCR (New Delhi) to tour Brazil. She also participated in a collaborative concert with the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, USA. In May 2016, Charu was invited to perform a solo concert at The Bhavan, London, as part of their Mandolin Shrinivas Memorial Concert Series. She has traveled widely for other performances in USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, and Singapore.

Nithyasree Mahadevan comes from a strong musical lineage; the granddaughter of the legendary Carnatic singer Padmabhushan Sangeeth Kalanidhi D.K. Pattamal; the grandniece of prominent Carnatic vocalist D.K. Jayaraman; and also granddaughter of the legendary mridangam maestro Palghat Mani Iyer. From this proud history Nithyasree has emerged as a distinguished Carnatic singer and renowned play-back singer. She had her initial vocal training from her mother, Lalitha Siva Kumar, a trained Carnatic singer, and under the ardent supervision of her accomplished father Sivakumar himself, a noted mridangam player and disciple of Palghat Mani Iyer.

She has scaled great heights as a musician having presented concerts around the world and twice at the Sangeet Natak Academy also being the recipient of multiple awards and honors including the ‘Kalaimamani’ from the Tamil Nadu government (2000); ‘Yuva Kala Bharathi’ from Bharat Kalachar (1994); ‘Isai Paeroli’ from Karthik Fine Arts (2001); and ‘Innisai Maamani’ from Tamil Nadu Welfare Association. She has released more than 100 commercial albums and her association with A.R. Rahman has particularly created many great hits. On the 23rd birthday celebrations of Papanasam Sivan, she was conferred with the title ‘Sivan Isai Selvi’ by P.S. Narayanaswamy.

Anantha R. Krishnan started his musical journey at an early age on the mridangam, the principle drum of Carnatic music. As a child he astounded the Indian classical community with his performances and was hailed a progidy. Since then, he has gone on to cement his position as one of the top mridangam players of his generation. Anantha is the grandson and disciple of arguably the greatest mridangam maestro of all time, Shri Palghat R. Raghu. He started learning the mridangam under his uncle, Shri R. Ramkumar, as a toddler and began an official tutelage under his grandfather at the age of five. Anantha performed his first concert at the age of seven and during this period he received many awards from traditional organisations of Carnatic music across India. Most notably, he won the Best Mridangist Prize from the Music Academy in Chennai a record five times in six years!

In May 2008, Anantha was a featured soloist in the Grammy nominated ‘Miles from India’ tour, which premiered in Town Hall of New York City and presented the music of the great Miles Davis with Indian instrumentation, featuring jazz legends such as Ron Carter, Dave Liebman Lenny White, Ndugu Chancler, and Pete Cosey. In July 2011, he also performed in a Carte Blanche Artist Series of the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, to a crowd of 64,000.

Whilst at university he studied Western percussion under William Winant. Specialising in contemporary 20th Century percussion, he is perhaps the only percussionist of Indian heritage to have performed the music of American composers, Steve Reich, John Cage, James Tenney, Jon Appleton and Charles Dodge, among many others. He has also been a special interest student of tabla under Ustad Zakir Hussain for the past six years and has recorded for Intakt Records, Echo Music and ACT Records.

Sid Sriram is an Indian music producer, playback singer, and song writer of Indian Tamil origin. He is a R&B songwriter, singer and performer, and works in the Tamil, Telugu film industries. He regularly collaborates with Bharata Natyam dancer, Pallavi Sriram, his sister, and music director A. R. Rahman.

Sriram was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. His parents moved with him to California when he was a year old, and he grew up in Fremont. His musical skills were nurtured by his mother, Latha Sriram, a Carnatic music teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. He simultaneously started picking up R&B. After graduating from Mission San Jose High School in 2008, he joined the Berklee College of Music and graduated in Music Production and Engineering. Since his graduation, he has been regularly visiting India and giving Carnatic concerts, including as a part of the December Music season - Marghazhi Utsavam. He gained popularity in India with the song "Adiye" sung for the soundtrack of Kadal (2013) composed by A. R. Rahman. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Playback Singer for his rendition of "Ennodu Nee Irunthaal" for the soundtrack of I (2015).

Munna Shaokath Ali studied Hindustani classical under the Gurukul tradition from Ustad Mohammed Abdul Baki for over 15 years. He also trained in the Agra Gharana Gayaki of Faiyyaz Khan fame. At the tender age of seven, he started to give performances and came to be affectionately known as the ‘Munna Qawwal’. He chose to specialize in the genre of Qawwali, which was perfected by Shankar Shamboo, the celebrated Sama Qawwals at Hazrat Moinuddeen Chishti, Ajmer. While he had rigorous training in this medium, he also had extensive lessons in Urdu and Arabic. This stood him in good stead when he emerged as a noted poet and a lyricist, having written the soul-stirring Piya Haji Ali for the Bollywood Film,’ Fiza’; and Zikr- ‘Ahle talab A Jao Zikr Mein from the film “The Forgotten Hero- Subhash Chandra Bose’’ both under the direction of A. R. Rahman. Munnaji went on to establish the Bharat Qawwali Sangam in Bangalore and trained many students in Indian classical music. During this time, he gave over 2,000 sama performances at the various dargaahs all over India. He also performed at the palace of Nawab Safdarjung in Hyderabad, for the Mysore Maharaja, and in the presence of Indira Gandhi at Nagpur.

At KMMC Munnaji has put together a Sufi Ensemble that has emerged as a hallmark of the institution with performance in Dubai (2014), at the UN General Assembly (2016), in Mumbai (2017), twice in Delhi for the Sufi festival and recently at Toronto. Asides from mentoring the Sufi Qawwali, Munnaji also teaches Harmonium for the Foundation and Diploma courses.

Gomathi Sree is the daughter and disciple of Sri. V. Dakshinamoorthy, Malyalam Music Director. She learnt Carnatic music from him since her childhood.

She has given Carnatic concerts in Calicut, Palakkad, Vadagara in Kerala and in many temples in Chennai.She has consecutively given Thiruppugazh performances in the Shashti Festival for 15years. She has sung more than 50 devotional albums like Bhuvneshwari, Suprabatham, Mookambika, Dasaraga Pushpamala. She has sung in movies namely, Sivaji (Tamil) and Nuvvu Nenu Prema (Telegu) unnder A.R. Rahman’s music direction.

She had been a music faculty in Kuchipudi Arts Academy for 3 years and now runs a music school in Chennai. She gave a concert with her students on the occasion of her Guru Sri V. Dakshinamoorthy Swami’s Centenary year to whom she dedicates all her success.

Rajesh Dhavale was trained in the art of tabla playing by his grandfather, Veerana Kamkar of Mehboob Khan Sahib Gharana, the recipient of the much coveted Sangeet Ratna Award from the State Government of Karnataka. At the age of 13, Rajesh was himself awarded a CCRT National Scholarship to further his training in tabla and he went on to study under Ustad Hidaayat Khan Sahib from Jahangir Khan Sahib Gharana and to receive the ‘Vidvat’ in Tabla from the Government of Karnataka.

Rajesh has accompanied many a renowned artists on the tabla, including Smt. Lakshmi Shankar on vocals; the late Shri Vishveshwaran on the santoor, Shri Janardhan on the sitar, Sri M.S Gopalakrishnan on the violin and Sri T.V Gopala Krishnan on vocals. He is also a B high grade artiste in All India Radio.

Rajesh presented a programme of music at the Hamsadhwani, which he had conceived and directed himself. It was called ‘Tal Bol and Laya’ and featured a solo performance and a jugalbandi in shehnai and sitar. He is also part of the Sufi Ensemble which has performed extensively in India and abroad. Namely at the UN General Assembly and in Sufi concerts in Delhi, Dubai and Mumbai. Over the last 15 years, Rajesh has trained many students in tabla. At KM Music Conservatory he teaches tabla to students on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma programmes.

Asawari Waikar started her Hindustani classical vocal training under her father, the Late Dattatreya Kelkar, and continued with the blessings of her Gurus the Late Vasantrao Gurav, and Late Smt Rekha Deshpande. Smt. Meera Savoor and Pt. Vyasmurti Katti have continued to guide her in more recent years. She completed the Sangeet Visharad from the Akhil Bharateeye Gandharv Mahavidyalaya and in 1996 won the first prize in Hindustani Classical and Light vocal in the youth festival. In 2017, she topped in her Masters in Hindustani classical, from SNDT University Pune and received the Sangeet Alankar from Akhil Bhartiya Gandharava Mahavidyala.

Asides from her musical skills, she is highly qualified with a Masters in Commerce specializing in Accounts and Costing leading to a period as a professor for Mathematics and Statistics. She has authored three books consisting of short stories and poems and has regularly contributed short stories and articles to many Marathi magazines.

Humble Shine is a Carnatic and Hindustani vocal performer, ghazal singer and voice trainer who has been part of the music scene since 1997. An experienced creative music composer with a proven ability; an expert at identifying the appropriate resources required for a subject matter and then ensuring that they are used effectively, efficiently and aesthetically. He is able to demonstrate and encourage high standards of professionalism and create and support novel ideas.

He is a PhD Research Scholar on the topic of ‘Experimental Vocological Training’ at the Sree Sankaracharya University, Kalady, where he also completed his MPhil on the ‘Need of Vocological Training’.He has a BA and MA in Indian Music from the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.

He is a recipient of the Rotary Club Award and Parat Narayana Menon Endowment, for securing the highest marks in MA and MPhil. He has founded the SurSagar Foundation at Kottayam to promote Hindustani Music. He is recognized all over Kerala, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu for being adept in using different music genres. He has also presented papers in different universities and on national seminars on Indian classical music.

P.A.Deepak is a mix engineer and record producer. He won the 2010 Grammy Award for the "Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media" for the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

Deepak is also a recipient of Certificate Of Honour in the year 2015 from The Recording Academy in recognition of his participation as Surround Mix Engineer on the Grammy Award Winning recording Winds of Samsara in the Category of Grammy Award for Best New Age Album of 57th Annual Grammy Awards. 'Winds of Samsara' was the first collaboration between award-winning South African flautist Wouter Kellerman and award-winning Indian Composer, Producer, Artist Ricky Kej. The Album headed to the Number 1 spot on the Billboard New Age Charts . The Recording Academy further feted Deepak in 'Appreciation & Recognition' on 15 years of Membership with the Academy and for Supporting The Recording Academy's mission to improve the Environment for Music and the lives of all Members of their Creative Community in the year 2017.

Deepak worked as a Music Composer for the Feature Film Boss in which, the single 'Hum Na Tode', is an adapted track of hugely popular Tamil song composed by 'Vidyasagar', 'Appadi Podu'. This fast-paced addictive track – boasted of ferocious and aggressive vocals by Vishal Dadlani, adapted by P. A. Deepak and lyrics by Kumaar which consolidated the album's positive impact on its audiences. Deepak worked as a Co-Music Composer for the Feature Film 'Gulaab Gang' while Soumik Sen being the main Music Composer for the Feature Film. As a musician, he played guitar and oud for the movie Raavan. He has done Music programming for various songs and of which the Blue Theme was described as a 'Killer Mix'.