| About Ravikiran | Prodigy and Musician Chitravina N Ravikiran, one of the most sought after musicians and composers in world music, is considered to be “Perhaps the world's greatest slide player today” (Radio National, Australia). He entered the field of music as the world’s youngest prodigy at the age of two (in 1969). Tested by the likes of Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and vocal legend M S Subbulakshmi, he identified 325 ragas (scales/modes), 175 talas and answered numerous other questions related to Carnatic and Indian classical music in major events in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and other cities. His first professional vocal concert was at the age of five and he presented his maiden concert on the 21-stringed slide - chitravina - at age 11. He set a trend with a record non-stop recital for 24 hours when he was 18. Ravikiran, known as 'an arresting virtuoso' (Los Angeles Times) because of his ‘teasing precision’ (New York Times) has performed extensively in major festivals and venues in USA, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Austria, Hungary, Holland, Poland, Switzerland, Czech, Philippines, Slovenia, Bahrain, Malaysia and Japan, to name a few. Networks like CNN, BBC, NPR, ABC and record labels such as Nimbus, Naxos & Waterlily have featured him. He has also collaborated with top world music stars such as Taj Mahal, Larry Coryell, Glen Velez, Jovino Santos Neto and Martin Simpson and with orchestras like BBC Philharmonic, Cleveland Opera and Sacramento Symphony. Composer and contributor Perhaps the most significant contribution of Ravikiran to world music is Melharmony, which is a novel approach to compositions - creating harmony with an emphasis on melodic rules. Ravikiran has composed and arranged several melharmonic compositions for Western Classical orchestras as well as Jazz and world music ensembles. He has also composed nearly 600 Indian classical compositions in five languages including operatic dance productions such as Lakshmi Prabhavam, Cosmos, Ramayana and Savitri. He has also pioneered innovative teaching methods such as tele-teaching and trained hundreds of students in many parts of the world, authored numerous books, designed his own instrument - nava chitravina and promoted music in rural schools. Awards Ravikiran who won a Fellowship from the Madras Music Academy at the age of two. He has since been the first or youngest musician to receive the President of India's Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Millennium Festival Award (UK), Harvard University Sangeet Award (USA) and Citations from Cities such as Houston and Tulsa. Other awards include Star of India, Kumar Gandharva Award & Sangeeta Ratnakara. He attributes all his success to gurus Chitravina virtuoso Narasimhan and T Brinda. |
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