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Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, India's first professional college of music for Jazz/ Rock and World Music, with Prasanna as its President started its first 6 month diploma program on July 26, 2010 at Marg Swarnabhoomi near Chennai, India with a faculty that includes Prasanna, Dr. Randall Giles, the Dean of the College, drummers David Anderson, Jovol 'Bam Bam' Bell, Atma Anur and Harvey Wirht, guitarists Rubens De La Corte, Ed Degenaro and Andro Biswane, Pianists Manu Koch and Vardan Ovsepian, Bassists Steve Jenkins and Steve Zerlin, vocalists Sarah Jerrom and Natalie John and ghatam player Dr. S. Karthick.
 
 
Smile Pinki , directed by film maker Megan Mylan with music composed by Prasanna has won the 2009 Oscar for 'best documentary short subject'. The film is about a young girl in India, Pinki, who is treated for a cleft lip. Its a wonderful film that showcases the cause of children born with cleft lip and how much their lives could change if they undergo surgery.
 
 
Prasanna and the 'Electric Ganesha Land' ensemble did a successful US tour in Sept 2008 performing 13 concerts all over the US at several major festivals and venues such as Chicago World Music Festival Chicago World Music Festival, Madison World Music Festival, Global Union festival in Milwaukee, Symphony Space in New York, Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia and others. Prasanna was also featured in some of the top national public radio stations such as NPR in New York, Chicago Public Radio, NPR Wisconsin, WKCR, Columbia University, New York etc, both in live performances and interview segments. Here are links to some of these radio shows that you can listen to -

Meet the Jimi Hendrix of India on Wisconsin Public Radio, Sept 10, 2008 with Lori Skelton - live performance and interview

Sri Jimi, Carnatic Rock on NPR New York with John Schaefer, Spet 25, 2008 - live performance and interview

 
 
Prasanna is now part of the Vijay Iyer Quintet along with Vijay Iyer on Piano, Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet, Stephan Crump on acoustic bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums. The band recorded their first CD in November 2008 for release in 2009. Check out these videos of this exciting band at the Chicago Jazz Festival

Video 1

Video 2

See review in Chicago Tribune on the Quintet's performance

 
 
'Tirtha' recorded their first album in Aug 2008 in New York. The album is scheduled for a late Spring/Summer 2009 release. 'Tirtha' is a trio featuring acclaimed Pianist Vijay Iyer, Prasanna and tabla player Nitin Mitta. 'Tirtha' has performed in Chicago, Boston, New York, Toronto etc to some rave reviews. Check out the My Space page of Tirtha which also features a video clip from the New York concert and audio clips from the Chicago concert.

Budd Kopman's review of 'Tirtha' concert at the Jazz Standard, NYC

Dave Douglas' review of 'Tirtha' concert at the Jazz Standard, NYC

 
 
Prasanna scored and recorded the music for the dance theater production A Story and a Songchoreographed by Aparna Sindhoor. The musicians on the production include Prasanna on guitar and bass, David Binney on saxophone, Prapancham Ravindran on mridangam and assorted percussion, S. Karthick on ghatam and morsing, B.s. Purushotham on kanjira, Veda on ghata singari, urumi and other assorted percussion and Raja on dharbuka, talking drum and other assorted percussion. The workd was premiered at Boston University in July 2007 and has since been performed at Lincoln Center in New York, Clarke Theatre in Montreal, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Rangayana arts in Mysore etc.

Here is a review of the premiere in the Boston Globe

 
 
''Essaye Moi' is directed by Pierre Francois Martin and stars Pierre Francois, Pierre Richard, Julie Depardieu and others. The music for the film is scored by Belgian guitarist and composer Pierre Van Dormael. Pierre is a featured guitarist on the Aka Moon Guitars project.
 
 
Good news for those of you who are digital junkies! You can now LEGALLY download any or all tracks from 'Be the Change' from the following e-music stores
 
 
Prasanna is featured on the May issue of the renowned 'Jazziz' magazine, as one of the innovative 'roots' based guitarists along with Nguyen Le, Fareed Haque and Rez Abbasi.
 
 
'Be the Change' continues to get rave reviews from the international press. Here are links to three recent reviews - in Germany, Italy and France.

German, Italian and French

Click here for a free translator in English
 
 
'Aka Moon 'Guitars' are back in stock in our online store.
 
 
Prasanna performed two acclaimed solo guitar (unaccompanied) concerts at Alliance Francaise in Chennai and Koshy's in Bangalore. It featured the first ever live performances of Prasanna's 'Nasika Blues', 'Cosmic Potato' among others including 'Gaza', 'Kalyani Connection', Jazz standards like 'Green Dolphin Street', 'Days of Wine and Roses' and even outrageous versions of the Beatles' Norwegian Wood' and 'Across the Universe'.

Click here for a great review of the Chennai concert in 'The Hindu' newspaper.
 
 
Prasanna's 'Be the Change' concert on Jan 26th, 2005 at Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India with the cool line-up featuring Jeff Coffin on saxophones/flutes/clarinets, Kai Eckhardt on bass and Derico Watson on drums. It was great to see several thousands of people at the concert. Thanks to all who not only came from Chennai but from far off places like Bangalore, Mumbai, Coimbatore etc.
 
 
Yet another review of 'Be the Change' appeared in allaboutjazz.com. This is an extended analysis written by Vallikanth. Click here for review.
 
 
Thanks to everyone who helped out in making the Tsunami relief fund-raiser concert in Washington DC on Jan 7, 2005. We were able to raise around $10,000 through ticket sales for this worthy cause.
Washington Post feature on this concert.
 
 
Prasanna recorded a few tracks last November with composer/pianist Marc Rossi in his upcoming CD. The new CD will contain Marc's tour-de-force contemporary jazz concerto titled 'Jazz impressions of a kriti' composed specially for Prasanna, among other pieces.
 
 
'The Tempest' choreographed by Astad Deboo with music composed by Prasanna premiered in Sydney, Australia to great acclaim. Prasanna also played live on all the four shows along with his own recorded score. The colorful instrumentation of the score includes a Baroque sized string orchestra (3 1st violins, 3 2nd violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos and 1 double bass), a string quartet (2 violins, viola and cello), bamboo flute, male and female vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, thavil, mridangam, ghatam, kanjira, konnakol and morsing.
 
 
Yet another original score of Prasanna's was premiered at the bharatanatyam presentation of 'the story of DNA' in Tufts University, Boston in September 2004. The dance was choreographed by Kausalya Srinivasan. The instrumentation of the score includes a string quartet (2 violins, viola, cello), electric guitars, synthesizers, FX loops, mridangam, udukkai, kanjira, ghatam, bells, thavil thattu, morsing and konnakol.