Music

I play a South Indian percussion instrument called the "Ghatam", meaning claypot in Sanskrit. Above, I am receiving the title Yuva Kala Bharati (2003) from Bharat Kalachar, a music organization in Chennai, India, for excellence in and dedication to the art of Ghatam. The then Governor of Tamil Nadu is also on-stage. I have been performing the Ghatam for over seventeen years and have given lecture demonstrations at the University of Pittsburgh, Chatham College, the SV Temple, and other institutions. I am fortunate to have had great teachers and mentors guiding me along the way.

I just published an article in India's leading arts magazine, Sruti. It is a pretty fun read! (PDF scan).

Check out the video of a performance at CMU's SCS Day 2004. The other participants are Brandon Paluzzi on the drum set and Jim Dispirito on the Tabla. I composed the whole music, performed percussion vocal, and Ghatam. The other participants were so talented that we practiced over phone twice and the we went to stage after the third practice. The video was by Mahesh Sabhnani, who really did well with a Canon digital camera.