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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.
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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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| '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
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| 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 |
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| ''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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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'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 |
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| 'Aka Moon
'Guitars' are back in stock in our online store. |
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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. |
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| 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. |
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| Yet another
review of 'Be the Change' appeared in allaboutjazz.com.
This is an extended analysis written by Vallikanth. Click
here for review. |
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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. |
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| 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. |
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| '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. |
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| 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. |
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