Shankar Lakshminarayana, better known as L. Shankar, is an Indian violinist, singer and composer who also goes by the stage name Shenkar. Known for his innovative contributions to world music, he is often regarded as one of the pioneers of East- West fusion, blending the rich traditions of Indian classical with Western genres such as jazz, rock, and electronic music. His world music albums with the band Shakti during the mid-70s became the ‘standard to gauge the playing and composing abilities of any world musician following in Shakti's expansive wake”. He is credited with inventing the stereophonic double violin (known as the LSD - L.Shankar Double Violin), which covers the orchestral string family's range. In 1990, Shankar's talam-bending Pancha Nadai Pallavi' album was on the Billboard top ten world music chart for three months becoming the first traditional Indian record to reach those heights. His 1995 Raga Abheri album was nominated for a Grammy Award, in the Best World Music Album category. With Peter Gabriel, he worked on the Grammy winning album Passion(1989), the soundtrack album for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and wrote and performed vocals on Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004) which won a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year at the 36th GMA Dove Awards. He also worked on the soundtrack for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned with Jonathan Davis and Richard Gibbs and recorded eight songs of which five were picked for the movie. Additionally, he collaborated on the original score for NBC's hit TV series Heroes with Wendy & Lisa. As an acclaimed musician, Shankar is ranked as one of the top famous male violinists by Ranker and one amongst the greatest violinists of popular music by Digital Dream Door. His extensive body of work spans a wide spectrum of genres, encompassing vocal and instrumental compositions.
Subramaniam Lakshminarayana is an Indian violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music.
Narasimhan Ravikiran is an Indian slide instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and orator, who created the concept of melharmony. He is the son of gottuvadhyam player Chitravina Narasimhan and the grandson of Narayan Iyengar, who was also a Carnatic musician.
Balabhaskar Chandran was an Indian musician, violinist, composer and record producer. He is best known for promoting fusion music in South India. Hailing from a musically affluent family, he was introduced to the world of instrumental music at the age of three by his uncle B. Sasikumar, a laureate in Carnatic music.
Abhijeet is a masculine name common in the Indian subcontinent. The meaning of Abhijit is brightest star (vega). It also refers to a period of 48 minutes centered on solar noon which is considered a good time (Muhurat) to start any task.
Stephen Devassy is an Indian musician hailing from Palakkad, Kerala. He started his career at a very early age, and has performed on stage around the world. Stephen is the founder of Musik Lounge, an audio technology school and studio in Chennai.
Trippunithura Narayana Krishnan was an Indian Carnatic music violinist. Along with Lalgudi Jayaraman and M. S. Gopalakrishnan he was considered part of the violin-trinity of Carnatic music. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1980. He was also the recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, in 1992, and earlier, the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 1973.
N. Rajam is an Indian violinist who performs Hindustani classical music. She remained professor of music at Banaras Hindu University, eventually became head of the department and the dean of the Faculty of Performing Arts of the university.
Manoj George is an Indian violinist and a music composer. He performed as the conductor, string arranger, solo violinist and choral arranger of 3 Grammy Award Winning albums : Winds of Samsara, in 2015, Divine Tides in 2022 for the Best New Age Album & Divine Tides in 2023 as the Best Immersive Audio album. He is reported to be the first Indian violinist recognised by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, The Grammys, United States and the first Malayali violinist to receive the honour. Manoj George has won several accolades for his Music Compositions including a nomination to HollyWood Music in Media awards and Silver Medal from Global Music Awards.
Ambi Subramaniam is a violinist, composer, and educator. He started performing on stage when he was six years old and was described as the "new king of Indian classical violin" by the Times of India.
Sharat Chandra Srivastava is a North Indian classical violinist and music composer. He represents the Senia gharana.
Pandit S. Ballesh Bhajantri is a popular Indian classical Hindustani shehnai player. He is a disciple of shehnai player Ustad Bismillah Khan, he is benares gharana shehnai player and a patiala gharana hindustani vocalist, ghazal singer, Indian playback singer and musician, Ballesh is credited with popularizing the shehnai, a reeded woodwind instrument. He is also a Prasar Bharati's All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan artist.
Jyotsna Srikanth is an Indian-British violinist and composer, performing Carnatic music and Western classical music.
Rosemary Joy Siemens is a Canadian violinist and vocalist originally from Plum Coulee, Manitoba. She has performed at the Grand Ole Opry, four times at St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, four times at Carnegie Hall, for two U.S. presidents and Canadian Prime Ministers, and was the first violinist to perform at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican since its first mass in 1483. She was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal and Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for her contribution to the arts in Canada and is married to saxophonist and film composer Eli Bennett with whom she records and performs with their instrumental duo SaxAndViolin.
Charumathi Raghuraman is an Indian carnatic music violinist.
Mohini Dey Hartsuch is a Bengali Indian electric bass player. She has been part of Gaan Bangla's Wind of Change and Coke Studio India and also plays for A. R. Rahman.
Aneesh Vidyashankar is a violinist, composer and architect. He is best known as the "Walking Violinist". for his ability to walk and play fusion music on the violin, amidst the crowd. He was introduced to Carnatic Music at the age of three and was formally trained by his father S.R Vidyashankar, who hails from the Lalgudi Jayaraman school of violin playing. Aneesh was a child prodigy and gave his first solo violin performance on stage, when he was six years old.
Mylapore Sundaram Anantharaman was an Indian Carnatic and Hindustani violinist. He was an exponent of Parur style of violin playing. He received several awards including Kalaimamani Award and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.
Dwaram Durga Prasad Rao is an Indian violinist of Carnatic music style, guru and music teacher from the state of Andhra Pradesh. For over fifty years, he has performed solo and as an accompanist in several music concerts. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, India's highest award in the arts, for his contributions to Carnatic music.
