Members of Ilayaragam
Anand Kannan, Vocalist Anand has been singing for bands since the Y2K. Back in India Anand has mostly sung western classic rock belting out numbers from Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Megadeth, Metallica, Pink Floyd and the list goes on. Anand has been singing more of Hindi/Tamil/Telugu in bands here in Bay Area which he seldom did in India. Anand has been learning Hindustani music from a very young and talented tutor, Mahesh kale. Anand's strength is his powerful voice and he enjoys singing at the top of his voice. He has sung for a couple of movies and jingles back in India and have participated in the final shoot of SaReGaMaPa USA 2008. |
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Anitha Badrinarayanan, Anitha is an excellent coordinator when it comes to events. Planning and Perfection in achieving the best presentation has been her motto in any event organization. Her invaluable experience will play an important role in organizing Ilayaragam's shows.  |
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Ashok Seetharaman, Rythm Guitar Ashok is trained in rhythm guitar for several years, and being a great fan of guitar legends in western music as well as indian music - he adds great rhythm support in Ilayaragam. |
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Ashwin Vasudevan, Keyboards Ashwin is a classically trained musician and a well trained key board player who has been integral part of many popular bands in bay area. His performing style and great motivation is a great asset to Ilayaragam. |
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Banulakshmi Hariganesan, Vocalist Banu is a classically trained singer who renders high voices with much ease. Her voice will definetely attract all ages due to her versatality. |
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Easwar Swaminathan, Lead Guitar Easwar has been part of a rock and roll band in India until he was introduced to Ilayaragam, he can easily deliver the nuances of classical and western guitar and is a great asset of Ilayaragam. |
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Giridharan Anandan, Kabbas Giri has a great passion in music and his involvement in talam and beats makes him a great support to the percussion team of Ilayaragam by playing the Kabbas. |
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Gopal Thiruvenkadam, Vocalist Gopal has been part of singing and organizing band from early school and college/post college days. He has sung few devotional jingles and also done several shows in India. Being a hardcore Ilayaraja fan, he is keen on making Ilayaragam a very orchestral band focused on delivering quality music in the area. |
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Ishwarya Ramachandran, Vocalist Ishwarya is a trained exponent of carnatic music. She is a winner of the trend setting musical talent show Sapthaswarangal on Sun TV. She has won plenty of accolades and prizes as a vocalist in inter-school and college level cultural programs. She has performed for various bands in Chennai. Apart from singing, Ishwarya can also play the veena. She has a fascination for meaningful lyrics and prides herself in her ability to remember the lyrics of most of the Tamil movies songs. Though she is a diehard fan of Music Maestro Ilayaraja, she equally loves the catchy tunes of Isai Puyal A.R. Rehman. Currently pursuing her MBA, she ultimately aspires to be a RJ/VJ. |
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Janani Viswanathan, Vocalist Janani is a classically trained carnatic music singer who learnt under the able guidance of Late Vidwan Shri Mudikondan Krishnamurthi. She started learning classical music at the age of 7 and was junior artist in All India Radio, Chennai. She also underwent a few years of hindustani music training under the renowned Bay Area vocalist and teacher Shri Nachiketa Sharma. Janani has a great passion for Arts and has performed for various Bay Area music bands and dance troupes. She is also an active dancer of Sanhiti - South Indian Dance Troupe. Her other passions include painting and blogging. |
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Koushik Venkatesh, Bass Guitar Koushik is a self trained bassist and has been performing for bands over the 7 years. Primarily cultured into Metal and Rock through out his childhood, accquired a taste for Tamil music when he joined his college band. He has played at numerous college events and shows and now is instrumental in delivering excellent bass for Ilayaragam . 
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Nathan Narayanan, Percussions Nathan is classically trained on tabla and mridangam for several years, and has expert knowledge on the percussion department in Ilayaragam. He also has great depth of knowledge in classical/semi-classical film music and plays pads for Ilayaragam. Nathan is also a key in making Ilayaragam a perfect band through practice. |
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Padmanabhan Ramaswmy, Percussions Paddu is en energetic drummer with experience playing both acoustic and electronic V-drums and he strives to move the audience with his beats. He has played for bands in the bay area and loves to play Ilayaraja numbers. |
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Radhika Iyer,Vocalist Radhika Iyer comes from Bombay . She is a trained vocalist , a performing violinist and a National prize winner of the All India Radio music competition . She commenced her training from her mother and guru, Smt. Seetha Ramakrishnan at the of 4. Radhika’s first stage performance was a full fledged violin jugalbandi at the age of 11 and an All India Radio recording at the age of 12. She won the National Government scholarship program for Karnatic classical music when she was 8 and carries awards from nearly every music institution of Bombay . Radhika also holds the record of being a 5-year consecutive 1st prize winner of MALHAAR, a renowned intercollegiate competition in India hosting more than 65 top colleges from around the country in addition to a National award from Singapore for vocal music. Radhika is passionate about metaphysics and meditation and believes that from silence comes a lot of strength. |
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Ramakrishanan Guru, Percussions Guru is trained in various percussion instruments and loves music. He has great knowledge in analyzing and maintaining tempo and also conducts the songs for Ilayaragam. |
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Rangarajan Ramachandran, Vocalist/Bass Guitar Rangarajan is a trained singer with several years of experience singing for bands and recording. He was instrumental in forming Ilayaragam with his vast knowledge of music including playing Bass Guitar.  |
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Saravanan Chidambaram, Percussions Sarav has great passion to percussion and loves to play the acoustic drums. He is a home grown member of Ilayaragam with lots of potential. |
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Srividya Jayaraman, Vocalist Srividya is classically trained in carnatic music for several years during school and is now back to training after a long break. She likes to listen all kinds of "melodious" music. |
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Senthilnathan Subrananian, Vocalist Senthil is a trained singer who has sing in bands and competitions in India and won awards. His melodious voice makes him a great fit for singing melodies with ease. |
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Smriti Jayaraman, Vocalist Smriti is a singing enthusiast who started formal vocal training at the age of 8. She is currently under the tutelage of her Guru Smt. Sangeetha Swaminathan, the senior most student of Smt Sudha Raghunathan, for Carnatic music. Smriti has been part of several bands through high school, college and currently free lances for prominent Bay Area bands. Over the years she has participated and won numerous competitions and awards for excellence in vocal music. |
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Srinath Viswanathan, Keyboards Srinath Viswanathan, doing my Masters in Software Engineering at San Jose State University has been learning music(Keyboard) for the past 10 years,predominantly western music almost for 8 years and 2 years carnatic music.He has completed 5 grades both in theory and practical in music from Trinity College of London.He has also done some compositions in recording theatre. Right now he is at the place where skill meets passion. |
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Vidya Shankar, Keyboards Vidi has been playing keyboard for over 8 years and has played for several bands in India. He has also done his own compositions and is the home keyboardist for Ilayaragam.  |
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Ben Thomas, Keyboards Ben is a classically (western) trained piano player turned keyboardist. His training and vocation has always been centered on western music such as pop, jazz, rock etc. and he says it took him years of maturity to truly love and appreciate Indian music. This urge resulted in him co-founding Swaram, a bay area based Tamil performance arts group. He is excited to be part of Ilayaragam and looking forward to play some great music this year. |
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Shankaran Sitarama, Percussions Shankar Sitarama has had his classical Hindustani tabala education. He was trained in the Abdul Karim khan sahab Gharana from a renowned guru, many of whose disciples are All India Radio and TV artists of international fame. He obtained his training in Hubli Karnataka, India where he grew up. He has kept up with his tabala performances and he provides tabala accompaniment to many local as well as other reputed artists visiting US from India on their classical performances. |
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Vasudevan Nanjangud, Vocalist Vasu is an enthusiastic entertaining singer. He has sung for several events in the Bay Area. He has performed in many plays in the Bay Area under the guidance of Thirumudi Thulasiraman.
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Vasanth Jayaraman, Percussions Vasanth Jayaraman is an upcoming Percussionist/ Singer hailing from Chennai. Began his learning under Shri M. Kapali at age of 7. Got fascinated by Sri Mushnam Shri Raja Rao's style of playing Mridangam and continued Advanced learning from his prime disciples Late Shri Thanjavur Guru Shankaran & Shri Nangannallur Swaminathan. Also had direct classes and workshops with Shri Rajarao himself. |
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Balaji TT, MC A multi faceted personality, Balaji brings great spirit and has been integral part of the creativity behind Ilayaragam's shows. His natural and pragamatic approach in carrying the show is a great asset to Ilayaragam. |
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Praveen Vipranarayanan, Vocalist Praveen is a trained singer with a great passion for both Classical and Light Indian music. He started learning music at the age of 7 and has had the privilege of learning from stalwarts like Smt. D. K. Pattammal and Shri. Vairamangalam S. Lakshminarayanan. He is currently under the tutelage of Shri. D. Seshachary (Hyderabad brothers). He has participated in popular reality shows like Airtel Super Singer and Ragamalika and has also given various stage performances in India. He firmly believes that music is divine and that real music originates from the soul. |
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Venkatesh Viswanathan, Vocalist Venkatesh is a trained singer and winner of several awards for singing including the Galataa Idol 2009 in the bay area. His versatile voice is a great asset to Ilayaragam and he has also sung for other popular bands in the Bay area. |
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