Abhinav Seetharaman is a promising young South-Indian percussionist on the drum known as the mridangam. He had his initial training on the mridangam at the age of 7, under Sri N. Ganesh Kumar and Sri Vijay Ganesh, and later proceeded to learn from Sri Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan. Currently,he is undergoing advanced training from Sri Kumar Kanthan of New Jersey, as well as world-renowned mridangam maestro Guru Karaikudi R. Mani.
Abhinavs playing style is characterized by tonal clarity, powerful strokes, and manual dexterity. His sensitivity in playing is brought out by a perfect balance of melody and mathematical patterns.He regularly travels extensively around the United States and India to perform, and has accompanied distinguished musicians such as Dr. N. Ramani, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Sri Ganesh Rajagopalan, Sri P. Unnikrishnan, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar,Sirkazhi Dr. G. Sivachidambaram, Sri Ramakrishnan Murthy, and Smt. K. Gayatri, just to name a few. He has played in several prestigious venues, such as the United States Capitol Building (Washington D.C.), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington D.C.), Millenium Park (Chicago), Waukesha Civic Arts Theatre (Wisconsin), Narada Gana Sabha (Chennai), and JSS College (Bangalore).
In November of 2013, Abhinav was invited to play at the United States Capitol Building, as part of the first international annual Indo-American meet, which featured several leading members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
An avid French horn player himself, Abhinavs extensive exposure to Western classical music provides an advantage in collaborating cross-culturally with musicians from a variety of global genres, and in the process brings awareness about South-Indian classical music to both initiated and uninitiated audiences.
Abhinav is also the co-founder of MusiLinks, a non-profit organization whose primary purpose is to raise funds for the needy, locally as well as internationally, through music. He has given over 60 charity concerts to date and continues to do outreach programs.
Abhinav is a third-year undergraduate student at Columbia University in the City of New York.
