Guitar Prasanna

Prasanna, known to many fans as Guitar Prasanna, is one of the most renowned and internationally acclaimed artists to have emerged from the Indian Subcontinent. He is a pioneer in performing the traditional Indian Classical Carnatic music art on a modern electric guitar and is known worldwide for that innovation. Prasanna studied Carnatic music with his Gurus Vocalist Tiruvarur S. Balasubramaniam and Violin Maestro A. Kanyakumari, in the traditional Guru-Shishya system of one-on-one learning. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Carnatic music by H.H. Shri Jayendra Saraswathi in 2003. Most recently, Guitar Prasanna was awarded the coveted Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2021- from his Alma Mater, the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Along with Pandit Ravishankar and A.R. Rahman, Prasanna is the only other Indian composer to have scored the music for an Oscar winning film - Megan Mylan’s “Smile Pinki” which won an Oscar in 2009.

Prasanna has also composed the music for feature films, such as National Award and Filmfare Award winning Tamil blockbuster “Vazhakku Enn 18/9” among others. Prasanna is featured on Open Magazine’s list of ’50 most Creative Indians’ and on Spinditty’s list of ‘100 greatest Indian Classical Musicians’. Prasanna’s music has received rave reviews in the international press such as New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, Guitar Player Magazine, Vintage Guitar Magazine, DownBeat, Jazz Times, and more. Prasanna’s composition ‘Falsehood’ is featured in the book ‘Essentials of Jazz-the first 100 years’ by Henry Martin and Keith Waters alongside the works of some of the most influential composers of Jazz History. A.R. Rahman has called him “A living hope for quality music.”

A Magna Cum Laude Graduate from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Prasanna also is recognized internationally for his expertise as a guitarist and composer in Jazz, Rock and Fusion music, performing and recording with multi-Grammy winning artists such as Esperanza Spalding, Victor Wooten, Joe Lovano and others. He has performed with Indian music Maestros such as Ilaiyaraaja, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Dr. L. Subramaniam, and others. His collaborations over the last 25 years with Indian music legend A.R. Rahman in numerous movie soundtracks has made him a household name with Indian film music fans. Prasanna’s passion for music education led him in 2009 to establish one of the largest colleges of music in South Asia, the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM), with funding and infrastructure support from the Marg Group of Companies. Prasanna served as President of the college for about 5 years before moving on to pursue other avenues. He is deeply devoted to spreading the gospel of Carnatic music on the guitar and is passionately educating young children from all over the world in this beautiful art form.