Yollay - Rohan Krishnamurthy and Nitin Mitta -Percussion Duet

Rohan Krishnamurthy
Music
Acclaimed an international mridangam performer by USA Today and pride of India by India's leading newspaper, The Times of India, Dr. Rohan Krishnamurthy is considered a musical ambassador. Having initially received mridangam training with Damodaran Srinivasan over the telephone in the U.S., he continued advanced training from maestro, Guruvayur Dorai, in India. Rohan has performed hundreds of concerts internationally since the age of nine as a distinguished soloist and collaborator in diverse music and dance ensembles. His prodigious, cross-genre artistry draws from his formal study of Indian classical music, at once propagating the ancient tradition and expanding it in new artistic directions. Rohan has shared the stage with the leading artists of Indian classical music, including M. Balamuralikrishna, T.N. Krishnan, N. Ramani, R. K. Srikantan, T.N. Seshagopalan, Chitravina N. Ravikiran, S. Shashank, T. M. Krishna, O.S. Thyagarajan, and Ranjani and Gayatri. Having intensely studied many styles of music, he has also spearheaded new cross-musical collaborations with eminent symphony orchestras, jazz ensembles, and musicians including Grammy Award-winners Glen Velez and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Anoushka Shankar, Jamey Haddad, and Ayano Ninomiya. He recently premiered Rohan, a novel concerto for South Indian percussion and Western percussion ensemble written specially for him by distinguished composer and percussionist, Dr. Payton Macdonald. The concerto was premiered on both coasts at The Juilliard School in New York City and San Francisco Conservatory of Music in San Francisco. A highly-acclaimed educator, Rohan has presented Indian percussion institutes and summer camps, clinics, workshops, and master classes, and academic courses at world-renowned institutions, including the Eastman School of Music, Harvard University, MIT, Berklee College of Music, Duke, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Sam Houston State University, Western Michigan University, University of Madras (India), A.R. Rehmans K.M. Conservatory of Music (India), Society for Ethnomusicology, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Interlochen Arts Academy, and National Institute of Design (India). He directs the award-winning RohanRhythm Percussion Studio, both in-person and online, which has attracted dozens of students of all ages from around the globe. Rohan is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including USA Todays All-College Academic Second Team, Young Artist of India by Bharat Kalachar (India), Thomas Siwe Scholarship from the Percussive Arts Society, and Prodigy in Performing Arts by the Indo-American Center in New York City. He was named an IndianRaga Fellow in 2013. An innovator, Rohan designed a new drumhead tuning system that won him first place in Eastmans New Venture Challenge entrepreneurship competition. His work resulted in a publication in the premier music journal, Percussive Notes. Rohan conducted acoustical research on his new design and has been regularly invited to present his work at the Acoustical Society of Americas international conferences, where he twice received the Best Student Paper award. Rohan also received a patent for his invention. Committed to community service and outreach, Rohan has conducted and organized concerts and workshops since 1998 at prominent centers, including Chinmaya Mission, The Banyan (India), Sankara Nethralaya, Sankara Eye Foundation, Lakeside Treatment and Learning Center, Kalamazoo Unitarian Church, Indo-American Cultural Center and Temple, Kalamazoo Juvenile Center, Washington Square Retirement Home, University of Rochester, and the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, the largest Indian music festival outside of India. Rohans multifaceted accomplishments as a performer, composer, educator, researcher, and entrepreneur earned him a one-on-one meeting and performance for the President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, at the presidential office and estate in New Delhi. A native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and based out of San Francisco, Rohan obtained bachelors degrees in music and chemistry from Kalamazoo College as a Heyl Foundation Scholar, and Masters degrees in musicology and ethnomusicology from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He earned a Ph.D. in musicology at Eastman as a Provost Fellow, where he founded and directed a popular Indian percussion ensemble and summer institutes.

Nitin Mitta
Music
Nitin Mitta is one of the most accomplished and distinctive tabla players of his generation, with a reputation for technical virtuosity, spontaneity, clarity of tone, and sensitivity to melodic nuances. Apart from being a dynamic soloist, he is a highly sought after accompanist who has performed with some of Indias most celebrated Hindustani classical musicians, including Pandit Jasraj, Dr. Prabha Atre, Pandits Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Ustad Shahid Parvez, as well as many Carnatic musicians, such as Lalgudi G.J.R Krishnan and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. Nitin has also made a mark as a versatile collaborator in other spheres. He recently joined forces with 2010 Grammy Nominee Pianist Vijay Iyer and electric guitarist R. Prasanna to produce a studio album titled Tirtha that blends elements of contemporary jazz with the North and South Indian traditional ragas and compositions. Another collaboration with R. Prasanna can be heard on the soundtrack of the Oscar-winning documentary Smile Pinky. He has also performed and toured with singer and Juno Award nominee Kiran Ahluwalia. Born in Hyderabad in 1975, Nitin received his early training in Hyderabad from Pandit G. Satyanarayana. Blessed with raw talent, he gave his first solo tabla performance at the age of ten. During his studies he won many accolades, including first prize in the All India Competition held in Calcutta. To expand his repertoire of tabla compositions, he sought the guidance of Pandit Arvind Mulgaonkar of Mumbai, one of the most highly respected mentors of his generation. Under Mulgaonkarjis tutelage, Nitin not only broadened his tabla vocabulary, but sharpened his understanding of how to bring the material to life in performances through interpretation, improvisation and respect for the dynamics between instrumentalist and rhythmic accompanist. Both of Nitins gurus are disciples of the late Ustad Amir Hussain Khan Saheb, legendary doyen of the Farukhabad Gharana. After moving to the United States in 2002, Nitin received a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on Arts. He was a member of the faculty at the Learn Quest Academy of Music in Waltham, MA. He maintains a busy schedule of performances and tabla workshops, traveling throughout the U.S, Europe, Canada and India. He has performed at several prominent venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Weill recital Hall/Carnegie Hall, the UCLA Royce Hall, the Indian consulate in New York, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C, the Music Academy in Chennai, and the Habitat Centre in New Delhi.

Rohan Prabhudesai
Music
Rohan has been actively studying music for the past 18 years. He began his training in Indian Hindustani classical music on the harmonium on one of his trips to India at the Goa Kala Academy. Later, he continued this musical pursuit under the guidance of Dr. Kedar Naphade, a senior disciple of Pt. Tulsidas Borkar. At the same time he started learning harmonium, he studied classical piano with Mr. Edwin Lopez, the concert master and conductor of Crescent Avenue Presbyterian church music program. He has studied classical contemporary composition at NYU Steinhardt and Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

Rohan Krishnamurthy and Nitin Mitta -Percussion Duet

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