Shashank Subramanyam

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Shashank Subramanyam
BornRudrapatna, India
Genres Carnatic music indian classical music
Occupation(s)Musician / Famous Indian Instrumentalist
Instrument(s) Venu flute
Years active1984–present
Website shashank.org

Shashank Subramanyam (was born Oct. 14 1978) is a Grammy-nominated exponent of the Bamboo Flute from India and specialises in Indian Classical Music. [1] He is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi's senior award by Govt. of India bestowed by the Hon. President of India for the year 2017 at an investiture ceremony held at Rashtrapathi Bhavan in New Delhi. He was a child prodigy and began performing from his age of 6 in 1984 and has performed for over three decades.

Contents

Early life

Shashank Subramanyam was born in Rudrapatna, India, to Hemalatha and Prof. Subramanyam. His forefathers belong to Tirunelveli dist of Tamil Nadu. He was trained in Carnatic music by his father and by vocalists R.K. Srikantan, Palghat K.V. Narayanaswami, and Hindustani music under Pandit Jasraj. [2] Shashank is married to Shirisha, a Bharatanatyam dancer. He had no Gurus for Flute playing and was self taught. Shashank and Shirisha have a daughter Swara and son Samvit and live in Chennai, India. [3]

Performing career

Shashank performed in public for the first time in 1984 at the age of six. Shashank began performing at the top circuit in 1990 with major performances in Adelaide, Australia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in Singapore followed by his major performance at Shastri hall in December 1990. [4] His career-defining moment came when the Music Academy invited Shashank, just 12 years old, to perform in the senior most performance slot "SADAS concert" at The Music Academy, Chennai 1 January 1991.[ citation needed ]

Shashank has worked extensively presenting collaborative performances with host of musicians from India and around the world including John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia, Wuppertal and Shanxi Symphony Orchestras, The New Jungle Orchestra, Mikkel Nordso, Terry Riley, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Ronu Mazumdar, Ustad Shujaat Khan, [5] and Debu Choudhury.

Shashank performs in a wide range of concert environments from the pure Indian classical, Symphonies, Jazz, Films and crossover projects. He has led many ensembles and also has been a guest artist on many famed bands like Remember Shakti, New Jungle Orchestra, Blue Lotus, etc.

Style

Specialized in Carnatic classical music and trained in Hindustani Classical music as well, he incorporates patterns of improvisation from both systems of Music from India and uses a range of flutes to cover octaves that are not supported by the traditional Carnatic flute. Shashank is known for his intricate (Improvisations), melodious keerthana ( composition) renderings and pulsating kalpanaswaram (Faster and rhythmic improvisations). His concerts generally include a Ragam Tanam Pallavi as a central piece, normally composed by Shashank himself. [1]

The BBC World TV did a documentary on Shashank titled Destination Music in 2006 and the CNN international TV featured Shashank’s performance and interview as part of the Travel Logue India show.

Discography

He has released over 75CDs and 10 DVDs.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Archive News". The Hindu.
  2. "The Hindu : Friday Review Chennai : On an innovative journey". www.shashank.org.
  3. "Review - Shirisha Shashank – a Bharatanatyam review - Aneal Krishnamurthy". www.narthaki.com.
  4. "Press clippings" (JPG). www.shashank.org. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)