“Aditya Prakash is a visionary artist that has found a way to speak to everyone while speaking in his own language.”
– Tigran Hamasyan
Aditya Prakash, an award-winning vocalist known for his powerful and emotive voice, is one of the foremost young virtuosos of Karnatik music, recognized for his innovative approach to composition, production and performance.
At the age of 16, he became one of the youngest musicians ever to tour and perform with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, accompanying him to such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and Disney Concert Hall.
Aditya has collaborated with a diverse range of innovative artists, including sitarist Anoushka Shankar; Jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan; electronic experimental artist Karsh Kale, and the acclaimed dancer and choreographer Akram Khan.
Aditya founded the eclectic music group, Aditya Prakash Ensemble, which creates a space for dialogue between Karnatik and jazz. The Ensemble’s 2020 album, “Diaspora Kid,” garnered praise from Songlines, KCRW and was featured in the top 15 albums on the Transglobal World Music Chart in May 2020. Aditya Prakash Ensemble was selected by the acclaimed festival showcase, GlobalFEST, to perform a NPR Tiny Desk concert in 2021.
Aditya is under the mentorship of two prolific Karnatik artists: musician, activist and author, T.M. Krishna and musician and scholar, R.K. Shriramkumar. Aditya received his B.A. in Arts from UCLA’s prestigious Ethnomusicology program.
Recently, Aditya produced and composed the musical score for the N.E.F.A. awarded production – “She’s Auspicious” by Mythili Prakash. One of Aditya’s produced songs for the album “HOME,” by Sushma Soma, was selected to be featured on BBC at the Earthshot Awards. Aditya’s current focus in production and composition is pushing boundaries within the “classical” tradition. In his newest work, ISOLASHUN, Aditya explores the weight of privilege and the boundaries of tradition in an entirely new creative form.
Training:
Aditya began his initial vocal training under Debur Shrivathsa and Rose Muralikrishnan. Later on, he went to Chennai to train under Sugandha Kalamegham. Following this, he began further advanced training under PS Narayanaswami and Palai Ramachandran (senior disciples of the legendary Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer – one of Aditya’s musical heroes). Currently, Aditya is under the mentorship and guidance of two of today’sleading exponents of Karnatik music: RK Shriramkumar and TM Krishna.
In his initial years of training, Aditya also studied mridangam under V. Vedakrishnan and later under the advanced training of Neyveli Narayanan. Aditya also studied Karnatik music on the keyboard under N Muralikrishnan and Babu Parameswaran.