OBOE

The baroque oboe first appeared in the French court in the mid-17th century, where it was called hautbois, although this name was also used for its predecessor, the shawm. The basic form of the hautbois was derived from the shawm. Major differences between the two instruments include the division into three sections, or joints, for the hautbois (which allowed for more precise manufacture), and the elimination of the pirouette, a cap placed over the reed that enabled shawm players to produce greater volume. The latter development, more than any other, was responsible for bringing the hautbois indoors where, thanks to its more refined sound and style of playing, it took up a permanent place in the orchestra.
The exact date and place of origin of the hautbois are obscure, as are the individuals who were responsible. Circumstantial evidence, such as the statement by Michel de la Barre in his Memoire, points to members of the Philidor (Filidor) and hotteterre families. The instrument may in fact have had multiple inventors. The hautbois quickly spread throughout Europe, including England, where it was called "hautboy", "hoboy", "hautboit", "howboye", and similar variants of the French name. It was the main melody instrument in early military bands, until it was succeeded by the clarinet.
The baroque oboe was generally made of boxwood and had three keys a "great" key and two side keys. (The side key was often doubled to facilitate use of either the right or left hand on the bottom holes) In order to produce higher pitches, the player had to "overblow", or increase the air stream to reach the next harmonic. Notable oboe-makers of the period are the German Denner and Eichentopf, and the English Stanesby Sr. and Jr. The range for the baroque oboe comfortably extends from c1 to d3. With the resurgence of interest in early music in the mid 20th century, a few makers began producing copies to specifications from surviving historical instruments.

YAMAHA ELECTRONIC DRUMS

The new electronic drum sets incorporate the same technology that powers Yamaha’s Motif synthesizers and as with their predecessors, they also come with an easy-to-use module. Both kits feature round cymbal pads and three- zone snare drum pads.“We have combined the passion of our acoustic drums and the technology of Yamaha to come up with two very cool electronic kits that sound and feel great,” said Dave Jewell, marketing manager, Yamaha Drums.The DTXPRESS IV Special includes sounds sampled from top-quality acoustic drum sets, with 427 drum and percussion voices and 22 keyboard voices. It features a TP100 tunable snare drum pad and three round cymbal pads. The hi-hat controller uses a real hi-hat stand for a better feel and the drums are mounted on a strong curved rack that improves ergonomic efficiency.The DTXPRESS IV Standard features two round stereo cymbal pads and a 3-zone snare drum pad. The 427 drum and percussion voices and 22 keyboard voices offer superior sound quality.

YAMAHA MOTIF XS - SELF EQ

Newly launched YAMAHA MOTIF XS with the entire latest configuration installed. The touch screen display has got EQ on the left of the board, lead arrangements and rhythm arrangements and so on. It has become so simple that to carry just the board so that you have your own mobile studio in your hand. It also has the voice registration built in, just like the studio we can modify our voice to different ranges as we like. The specialties also includes many unknown varieties of sounds, percussion instruments lead instruments etc.

YAMAHA STUDIO SPEAKERS - MSP 5

Most commonly used speakers in Chennai recording studios. The specialty of this speaker is that the clarity of sound and sound differentiation, another important is that the PMPO (Peak Music Power Output sometimes misused in advertising as Peak momentary performance output) which actually reduces the sound clarity. E.g. I have a SONY home theatre which has got the watts power of 3500 with PMPO if not with PMPO it is actually 350watts only. The watts power with PMPO to be divided with 10. But these speakers without PMPO are not recommended for residential purpose, should have a proper setup for the speaker that is why they are widely used in all the recording studios with an acoustic structure.

GREEK COMPOSER - YANNI

Yanni (born Yiannis Hrysomallis)(pronounced Chrysomallis), classical transcription Giannis Chrysomallis), on November 14, 1954 in Kalamata, Greece) is a self-taught pianist, keyboardist, and composer. After receiving a B.A. in psychology, he would instead seek a life in music though he had no formal training and could not read a note.
He earned Grammy nominations for his 1992 album, Dare to Dream, and the 1993 follow-up, In My Time. His breakthrough success came with the 1994 release of Yanni Live at the Acropolis, deemed to be the second best-selling music video of all time. Yanni has since performed live in concert before in excess of two million people in more than 20 countries around the world. He has accumulated more than 35 platinum and gold albums globally, with sales totaling over 20 million copies. Yanni is considered to be one of the top fundraisers of all time for public television. His compositions have been included in all Olympic Games television broadcasts since 1988, and his music has been used extensively in television and televised sporting events. His music is frequently described as "new age", though he prefers the term "contemporary instrumental". The regents of the University of Minnesota conferred upon Yanni the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
Yanni is a self-taught pianist who began his musical career by giving recitals for family members though he had no formal training and could not read a note. He was also a competitive swimmer in Greece and set a national record in the 50-meter freestyle competition. At the age of 18 he attended the University of Minnesota. While a student there, Yanni joined an up-and-coming local group called Chameleon where he met drummer Charlie Adams. Chameleon earned some modest commercial success touring throughout the Midwest, particularly in the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and South Dakota. After receiving a B.A. in psychology, he sought a life in music. He moved to California in pursuit of movie soundtrack work. In 1987 he put together a small band which included John Tesh and Charlie Adams, and began touring to promote his earliest instrumental albums, Keys to Imagination, Out of Silence, and Chameleon Days.
Dare to Dream was released in 1992. It was Yanni’s first Grammy-nominated album and featured "Aria", a song based on The Flower Duet and popularized by an award-winning British Airways commercial. A second Grammy-nominated album, In My Time, was released in 1993. His music has been used extensively in television and televised sporting events, including the Super Bowl, Wide World of Sports, U.S. Open, Tour de France, World Figure Skating Championships, The Olympics, and ABC News.
Yanni's breakthrough commercial success came with the release of his album and video, Yanni Live at the Acropolis, filmed on September 23, 1993 at the 2,000-year-old Herod Atticus Theater in Athens, Greece, and released in 1994. This was Yanni’s first live album and utilized a full orchestra under the supervision of the Iranian conductor, Shahrdad Rohani, in addition to his core band. Subsequently, the concert was broadcast in the US on PBS and quickly became one of their most popular programs ever, having been seen in 65 countries by half a billion people. It has almost continuously remained on the charts since its release and is the second best-selling music video of all time, selling more than 7 million copies worldwide, A composition from this album, "Acroyali/Standing in Motion", was determined to have the "Mozart Effect," by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine because it is similar to Mozart's K 448 in tempo, structure, melodic and harmonic consonance and predictability. He has appeared on several major PBS Pledge TV Specials such as A Decade Of Excellence, including segments from Live at the Acropolis, Tribute, and Live at Royal Albert Hall, London.
In March 1997, Yanni became one of the few Western artists permitted to perform and record at the Taj Mahal in India. Later that year he performed at the Forbidden City in China. From these two events he created his next live album and video, Tribute, which was released in 1997. Armen Anassian, Conductor, concedes that he had some doubts about the artist's plans to perform at India's Taj Mahal and China's Forbidden City for Tribute: "To be honest, a few years ago when he was talking about it, the idea was so amazing. I myself was very skeptical, understandably so. But the truth is, it happened. We did it." Anassian describes Yanni as "very optimistic" and has observed that "nothing really fazes him." That outlook carries over naturally to his music. "I don't think it's a goal, per se. He's very honest with his own feelings. His music really comes from the heart. He writes music with ease, the music comes out with relative ease. The feel-good portion of the music is a by-product. It coincides with what the people love to hear."Lighting Designers Lee Rose and David "Gurn" Kaniski received an Emmy nomination for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Drama Series, Variety Series, Miniseries or a Special" for both Live at the Acropolis and Tribute
In 2000, after a two-year sabbatical, Yanni released his first studio album in seven years: If I Could Tell You.
Yanni also toured in 2003–2004 with the debut of the Ethnicity album extending his "One World, One People" philosophy. This album sparked what would become the 4th largest concert tour of the year ranked by Billboard Magazine.
On May 6, 2004, the regents of the University of Minnesota conferred upon Yanni the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
He kicked off his 2004–2005 "Yanni Live!" tour at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, and his next live album and video, Yanni Live! The Concert Event was released in 2006.
On March 6, 2006, Yanni was arrested after a fight with his girlfriend, Silvia Barthes. On March 31, 2006, the domestic abuse charges against Yanni were dropped.
In 2008, in collaboration with producer Ric Wake, Yanni showcased vocal artists singing his songs on Yanni Voices. On March 24, 2009, Disney Pearl Imprint released Yanni Voices, the artist's first studio album in six years, and its Buena Vista Concerts division produces the tour that began in April 2009.

ASTONISHING PERCUSSIONIST SIVAMANI

Sivamani is the son of S. M. Anandan, a Chennai-based percussionist. He began drumming at the age of seven. Sivamani started his music career at the age of 11, and later shifted to Mumbai. He was inspired by Noel Grant and Billy Cobham. In 1990, he actually shared the stage with Billy Cobham at Mumbai's Rang Bhavan. He touts S. P. Balasubrahmanyam as his Godfather.
Sivamani's earliest experiments with music were with Carnatic maestros including Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, T. V. Gopalakrishnan, Valliyapatti Subramaniam and Pazhanivel, and L. Shankar.The tabla player Zakir Hussain invited him to share the stage with himself and Trilok Gurtu at a fusion concert in Mumbai. Sivamani has since collaborated with several musicians including Louis Banks.He has done world tours with A. R. Rahman and collaborated with him for Bombay Dreams. He has also been a part of a musical group called Shraddha which comprises Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, U. Srinivas and Loy Mendonsa.
Shivamani has a music band named "Asia Electrik" with Nilathri Kumar, Louiz Banks and Ravi Chari. He also plays at another world music band named "Silk & Shrada."
Sivamani has played drums for many notable film score composers hailing from Tamil Nadu. He has played drums for many Indian films including Roja, Rang De Basanti, Taal, Lagaan, Dil Se, Guru, and Kabul Express. Some of the notable songs that he has contributed to include "Kadhal Rojave," "Pudhu Vellai Malai" and Chaiya Chaiya.
Sivamani has performed in Dubai, Moscow, New York, Doha and Toronto. During the Mumbai Festival 2005, Coca-Cola India invited him to perform at the Limca Fresh Face 2005 event, where he created melody from Limca bottles. He has also worked on Galli Galli Sim Sim, an educational series on Pogo and Cartoon Network. Sivamani has also acted in movies. He co-starred with Thomas Jane in the Telugu movie Padamati Sandhya Ragam.

Sivamani is the Brand Ambassador for Xone - wirefree music.

ZAKIR HUSSAIN THE FABLE

Ustad Zakir Hussain born 9 March 1951 Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha. He attended St. Michael's High School in Mahim, and graduated from St Xaviers, Mumbai.
His younger brothers are a noted percussionists, Taufiq Qureshi and Fazal Qureshi.
Hussain was a child prodigy, and was touring by the age of twelve. He went to the United States in 1970, embarking on an international career which includes more than 160 concert dates a year.[citation needed] He has composed and recorded many albums and soundtracks, and has received widespread recognition as a composer for his many ensembles and collaborations.
Hussain is a founding member of Bill Laswell's 'World Music Supergroup' Tabla Beat Science.
Hussain participates in the Silk Road collaborative musical project. He teaches Tabla to advanced students in both San Francisco and Mumbai. Zakir participates in the Global Drum Project with percussionists from around the world.
In 1992, Hussain founded Moment! Records, which features original collaborations in the field of contemporary world music, as well as live concert performances by great masters of the classical music of India. The label presents his own world percussion ensemble, The Rhythm Experience, both North and South Indian classical recordings, Best of Shakti and the Masters of Percussion series. Moment Records’ 2006 release Golden Strings of the Sarode, with Aashish Khan and Zakir Hussain, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album category for that year.
Hussain worked with John McLaughlin on several Indo-Jazz projects, beginning with their collaboration in the band Shakti (band) on the albums Shakti (album) (1975 Columbia), A Handful of Beauty (1976 Columbia), and Natural Elements (1977 CBS). Twenty years later, they rejoined in the band Remember Shakti, recording the albums Remember Shakti (1999 Universal Records), The Believer (2000 Universal Records), Saturday Night in Bombay (2001 Universal Records), Live at 38th Montreux Jazz Festival (18 July, 2004), and Live at Miles Davis Hall (8 July, 2004). They also appeared in the DVD The Way of Beauty. Both bands performed live both in the U.S. and abroad as recently as 2008.

Hussain has collaborated with Mickey Hart on many projects, beginning with Hart's first solo album Rolling Thunder, and including Diga, At The Edge, Planet Drum, Mickey Hart's Mystery Box, Supralingua, Spirit into Sound, and Global Drum Project. He has been part of several of his bands including the Diga Rhythm Band, Planet Drum, Bembe' Orishas, and the Global Drum Project. These projects have brought him together with such masters of world percussion and music as Sikiru Adepoju, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Babatunde Olatunji, and Giovanni Hidalgo.
The first Planet Drum album, released in 1991 on the Rykodisc label, went on to earn the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album. The Global Drum Project album and tour brought Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, and Giovanni Hidalgo together again in a reunion sparked by the 15th anniversary of the ground-breaking album Planet Drum. The album Global Drum Project has won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 51st Grammy Awards Ceremony held on 8 February 2009.
When Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer were asked to compose a triple concerto by the Nashville Symphony they chose Hussain as the third and final member. The piece, titled The Melody of Rhythm; Concerto premiered on September 9, 2006 with Leonard Slatkin conducting the Nashville Symphony. The trio composed several more songs together and included both the concerto and additional works on a CD released in 2009 entitled "The Melody of Rhythm - Triple Concerto & Music for Trio" (2009 E1 Music). On the recording, the orchestral parts are performed by the The Detroit Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin once again holding the baton. The liner notes indicate the trio has more projects in mind that will eventually come to fruition.
Hussain starred in the Merchant Ivory Film Heat and Dust in 1983, for which he also composed the score. He composed, performed and acted as Indian music advisor for the film Vanaprastham, a 1999 Cannes Film Festival entry which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival (AFI Fest) in 1999, and won awards at 2000 Istanbul International Film Festival (Turkey), 2000 Bombay International Film Festival (India), and 2000 National Film Awards (India). He has composed soundtracks for several movies, most notably In Custody and The Mystic Masseur by Ismail Merchant, and has played tabla on the soundtracks of Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha, and other films.
He starred in several films specifically showcasing his musical performance both solo and with different bands, including the 1998 documentary "Zakir and His Friends", and the documentary "The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum" (2003 Sumantra Ghosal). He also performs in the DVDs The Rhythm Devils Concert Experience (2008), and The Way of Beauty (2006) with the band Remember Shakti.

OSCAR HERO PADMASHREE A.R. RAHMAN

Allah Rakha Rahman born 6 January 1966 as A. S. Dileep Kumar is an Indian film composer, record producer, musician and singer. His film scoring career began in the early 1990s. He has won thirteen Filmfare Awards, four National Film Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards. He has also been nominated for two Grammy Awards.
Working in India's various film industries, international cinema and theatre, by 2003, Rahman, in a career spanning over a decade, has sold more than 100 million records of his film scores and soundtracks worldwide, and sold over 200 million cassettes, making him one of the world's all-time top selling recording artists.
Time magazine has referred to him as the "Mozart of Madras" and several Tamil commentators have coined him the nickname Isai Puyal In 2009, the magazine placed Rahman in the Time 100 list of 'World's Most Influential People'.
A. R. Rahman was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India to a musically affluent Mudaliar Tamil family. His father R. K. Shekhar, was a Chennai based composer and conductor for Malayalam films. Rahman lost his father at a young age and his family rented out musical equipment as a source of income. He was raised by his mother Kareema (Kashturi). During these formative years, Rahman served as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as "Roots", with childhood friend and percussionist Sivamani, John Anthony, Suresh Peters, JoJo and Raja. Rahman is the founder of the Chennai-based rock group, "Nemesis Avenue".He played the keyboard and piano, the synthesizer, the harmonium and the guitar. His curiosity in the synthesizer, in particular increased because, he says, it was the “ideal combination of music and technology". He began early training in music under Master Dhanraj. At the age of 11, he joined, as a keyboardist, the troupe of Ilaiyaraaja, one of many composers to whom musical instruments belonging to Rahman's father were rented. Rahman later played in the orchestra of M. S. Viswanathan Ramesh Naidu and Raj Koti, accompanied Zakir Hussain, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and L. Shankar on world tours and obtained a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music where he graduated with a degree in Western classical music.
In 1992, Rahman began his own music recording and mixing studio attached to the backyard of his house called the Panchathan Record Inn, which was developed into India's most advanced recording studio. He initially composed music jingles for advertisements, Indian Television channels and music scores in documentaries, among other projects. In 1992, he was approached by film director Mani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for Ratnam's Tamil film Roja. The debut led Rahman to receive the Rajat Kamal award for Best Music Director at the National Film Awards, the first time ever by a first-time film composer. Rahman has since then gone on to win the award three more times (for his scores for Minsaara Kanavu (Electric Dreams, Tamil) in 1997, Lagaan (Tax, Hindi) in 2002, Kannathil Muthamittal (A Peck on the Cheek, Tamil) in 2003, the most ever by any composer.
Roja's score met with high sales and acclaim, in its original and dubbed versions, bringing about a marked change in film music at the time, and Rahman followed this with successful scores for Tamil–language films of the Chennai film industry including Ratnam's politically charged Bombay, the urbanite Kadhalan, Bharathiraaja's Karuththamma, the saxophonic Duet, Indira, and the romantic comedies Mr. Romeo and Love Birds, which gained him considerable notice. His fanbase in Japan increased with Muthu 's success there. His soundtracks gained him recognition in the Tamil Nadu film industry and across the world for his stylistic versatality in his pieces including in Western classical, Carnatic, Tamil traditional/folk, jazz, reggae and rock music.The Bombay Theme—from Ratnam's Bombay—would later reappear in Deepa Mehta's Fire and various compilations and media. Rangeela, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, marked Rahman's debut for Hindi-language films made in the Mumbai film industry. Many successful scores for films including Dil Se and the percussive Taal followed. Sufi mysticism would form the basis of Chaiyya Chaiyya from the former and the composition "Zikr" from his score of the film Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero for which he created large orchestral and choral arrangements. Musical cues in scores for Sangamam and Iruvar employed Carnatic vocals and instruments such as the veena with leads of rock guitar and jazz. In the 2000s Rahman created hit scores for Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain, Alaipayuthey, Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades and Rang De Basanti. He composed songs with Hindustani motifs for Water (2005).
Rahman has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Javed Akhtar, Gulzar,Anand Bakshi,P.K.Mishra, Mehboob, Vairamuthu and Vaali. His collaborations with some film directors have always resulted in successful soundtracks, particularly with the director Mani Ratnam who he has worked with since Roja, all of which have been hits, and the director S. Shankar in the films Gentleman, Kadhalan, Indian, Jeans, Mudhalvan, Nayak, Boys and Sivaji.
Rahman attached and opened a developed extension studio to his Panchathan Record Inn in 2005 called AM Studios in Kodambakkam, Chennai — considered to be the most developed, equipped and high tech studio in Asia. In 2006, Rahman launched his own music label, KM Music. Its first release was his score to the film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. Rahman scored the Mandarin language picture Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003 after researching and utilizing Chinese and Japanese classical music, and co-scored the Shekhar Kapoor helmed Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007. His compositions have been reused in scores within India and have made appearances in Inside Man, Lord of War, Divine Intervention and The Accidental Husband. In 2008, he scored the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, for which he won a Golden Globe and two Academy Awards, becoming the first Indian citizen to do so. In the United States, the soundtrack topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart and reached #4 on the Billboard 200 chart. The song "Jai Ho" reached #2 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles and #15 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Rahman has been involved in several projects aside from film. He made an album Vande Mataram (1997) on India's 50th anniversary of independence to commercial success. He followed it up with an album for the Bharat Bala–directed video Jana Gana Mana, a conglomeration of performances by many leading exponents/artists of Indian classical music. Rahman has written jingles for ads and composed several orchestrations for athletic events, T.V. and internet media publications, documentaries and short films.
In 1999 Rahman, along with choreographers Shobhana and Prabhu Deva Sundaram and a Tamil cinema dancing troupe performed with Michael Jackson in Munich, Germany, for his "Michael Jackson and Friends Concert." In 2002, he composed his maiden stage production Bombay Dreams (2002) following a commission from musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a success in London's West End. With Finnish folk music band Värttinä, he wrote the music for The Lord of the Rings theatre production and in 2004, Rahman composed the piece "Raga's Dance" for Vanessa-Mae's album Choreography.
In the last six years, Rahman has performed three successful world tours of his concerts to audiences in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Dubai, UK, Canada, the US (Hollywood Bowl and 3d tour) and India. He has been collaborating with Karen David for her upcoming studio album. A two-disc soundtrack, Introducing A. R. Rahman (2006) featuring 25 pieces he composed from his Tamil film scores was released in May 2006. His non-film album, Connections was launched on 12 December 2008.
Skilled in Carnatic music, Western classical, Hindustani music and the Qawwali style of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahman has been noted to write film songs that amalgamate elements of these music systems and other genres, layering instruments from differing music idioms in an improvisatory manner. Symphonic orchestral themes have accompanied his scores, where he has employed leitmotif. In the 1980s, Rahman recorded and played arrangements on mono, synonymous with the era of predecessors such as K. V. Mahadevan and Vishwanathan–Ramamoorthy, but later his methodology changed. Rahman worked and experimented on fusing traditional instruments with new electronic sounds and technology.
His interest and outlook in music stems from his love of experimentation. Rahman's compositions, in the vein of past and contemporary Chennai film composers, bring out auteuristic uses of counterpoint, orchestration and the human voice, evolving Indian pop music with unique timbres, forms and instrumentation. By virtue of these qualities, broad ranging lyrics and his syncretic style, his themes appeal to several sections of Indian society.
His first soundtrack for Roja was listed in TIME's "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time in 2005. Film critic Richard Corliss felt the "astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally Rahman."Rahman's initial global reach is attributed to the South Asian diaspora. Described as one of the most innovative composers to ever work in the industry, his unique style and immense success transformed film music in the 1990s prompting several film producers to take film music more seriously. The music producer Ron Fair considers Rahman to be "one of the world's great living composers in any medium".
Rahman is involved in various charitable causes. In 2004, he was appointed as the Global Ambassador of the Stop TB Partnership, a project by WHO. He has shown support to charities including Save the Children, India, and worked with Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam for his song "Indian Ocean". The song featured a-ha keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and Travis drummer, Neil Primrose. The proceeds of the song went towards helping orphans in Banda Aceh, one of the areas worst affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. He produced the single "We Can Make It Better" by Don Asian alongside Mukhtar Sahota. In 2008, Rahman opened his KM Music Conservatory partnered with Audio Media Education facility to tutor and train aspiring musicians in vocals, instruments, music technology and sound design. The conservatory – with preeminent musicians on its panel and a newly founded symphony orchestra – is located near his studio in Kodambakkam, Chennai, offering courses at Beginners, Foundation and Diploma level. Rahman composed the theme music for a short film for The Banyan in 2006, in aid of destitute women in Chennai. In 2008, Rahman, along with percussionist Sivamani created a song titled "Jiya Se Jiya", inspired by the Free Hugs Campaign and promoted it through a video shot in various cities in India.

A LEGENDARY COMPOSER MAESTRO Dr. ILAYARAAJA

Born Daniel Rajaiyya on 2 June 1943 is a composer, singer, lyricist and the first Asian composer to score a symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a gold medalist from Trinity College of Music, London, and has composed over 4,500 songs and provided film scores for more than 900 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years. He is usually referred to by the title Isaignani (literally meaning 'a man with great knowledge in music'), or as "The Maestro". He is based in Chennai, the centre of the Tamil film industry (colloquially known as Kollywood).

Ilaiyaraaja was born as Daniel Rasaiyya in Pannaipuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India, as the third son of Ramaswamy and Chinnathayammal. Growing up in a rural area, Ilaiyaraaja was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music. At the age of 14, he joined a traveling musical troupe headed by his elder stepbrother, Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout South India. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical setting of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan for Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.
In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai), which included an overview of Western classical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja specialized in classical guitar and had done a course in it with the Trinity College of Music, London.
In 1976, film producer Panchu Arunachalam commissioned him to compose the songs and film score for a Tamil-language film called Annakkili ('The Parrot'). For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which created a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. Ilaiyaraaja's use of Tamil music in his film scores injected new influence into the Indian film score milieu. By the mid-1980s Ilaiyaraaja was gaining increasing stature as a film composer and music director in the South Indian film industry..
Ilaiyaraaja was one of the early Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music. This allowed him to craft a rich tapestry of sounds for films, and his themes and background score gained notice and appreciation amongst Indian film audiences. The range of expressive possibilities in Indian film music was broadened by Ilaiyaraaja's methodical approach to arranging, recording technique, and his drawing of ideas from a diversity of musical styles.
According to musicologist P. Greene, Ilaiyaraaja's "deep understanding of so many different styles of music allowed him to create syncretic pieces of music combining very different musical idioms in unified, coherent musical statements". Ilaiyaraaja has composed Indian film songs that amalgamated elements of genres such as pop, acoustic guitar-propelled Western folk, jazz, rock and roll, dance music (e.g., disco), psychedelia, funk, doo-wop, march, bossa nova, flamenco, pathos, Indian folk/traditional, Afro-tribal, and Indian classical.
By virtue of this variety and his interfusion of Western, Indian folk and Carnatic elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its rhythmic folk qualities, the Indian classical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic ragams, and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound.
Although Ilaiyaraaja uses a range of complex compositional techniques, he often sketches out the basic melodic ideas for films in a very spontaneous fashion.
Ilaiyaraaja's first two non-film albums were explorations in the fusion of Indian and Western classical music. The first, How to Name It? (1986) & Nothing but wind, is dedicated to the Carnatic master Tyāgarāja and to J. S. Bach. It features a fusion of the Carnatic form and ragas with Bach partitas, fugues and Baroque musical textures.[58] The second, Nothing But Wind (1988), was performed by flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and a 50-piece orchestra and takes the conceptual approach suggested in the title — that music is a natural phenomenon akin to various forms of air currents (e.g., the wind, breeze, tempest etc.).
He has composed a set of Carnatic kritis that was recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas for the album Ilayaraaja's Classicals on the Mandolin (1994). Ilaiyaraaja has also composed albums of religious/devotional songs. His Guru Ramana Geetam (2004) is a cycle of prayer songs inspired by the Hindu mystic Ramana Maharishi, and his Thiruvasakam: A crossover (2005) is an oratorio of ancient Tamil poems transcribed partially in English by American lyricist Stephen Schwartz and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. Ilaiyaraaja's most recent release is a world music-oriented album called The Music Messiah (2006). Its musical concept is based against a mythological narrative. His recent release in November 2008, is Manikantan Geet Mala released by India Tales with 9 songs praising Lord Ayyappa in almost all south Indian languages.

Ilaiyaraaja's composition Rakkama Kaiya Thattu from the movie Thalapathi (1991) was amongst the songs listed in a BBC World Top Ten music poll. He composed the music for Nayakan (1987), an Indian film ranked by TIME Magazine as one of the all-time 100 best movies, a number of India's official entries to the Oscars, such as Anjali (1990) and Hey Ram (2000), and for Indian art films such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan's FIPRESCI Prize-winning Nizhalkkuthu ('The Dance of Shadows') (2002). Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for events such as the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant that was held in Bangalore, India, and for a documentary called India 24 Hours (1996). The pop/hip-hop band Black Eyed Peas sampled an Ilaiyaraaja composition called "Unakkum Ennakum", from the film Sri Raghavendra (1985), for their tune "The Elephunk Theme" from their breakout album, Elephunk (2003). The alternative artist M.I.A. sampled his composition "Kaatukuyilu,” from the film Thalapathi (1991) for her song "Bamboo Banga" on the album Kala (2007). His music compositions for the Hindi movie "Paa" (Dec 3rd 2009) has won critical acclaim in several media reviews.

EUPHONY

Does it sounds strange???????

Any agreeable (pleasing and harmonious) sound is termed as EUPHONY. I really desire this word coz I have been trying for a starange musical term suddenly clicked on my mind to choose for my blog.

@ the recording studio

Swamiye saranam Ayyappa

This is my ongoin project, a devotional album expected to be launched ASAP. It was totally a new experience at the recording studio, till that my expectation was extremely faded after stepping into the studio for my vocal regitration. Only then I realized that how difficult to start with composing, setting lyrics, lead arrangement, percussion arrangement, sound arrangement, choice of instruments and then goes to the singer for real take. First of all I would like to thank my friend Vijayanand for giving me such a wonderful opportunity and my Music Director Devakumar

Wow! was really mindblowing. Very keen on throat exercise struggling hard for successful output.

The project goes like this

1. Totally 8songs (devotional)
2. Planning to create a video album (private - Future project)
3. Ayyapan album

Very eagerly awaiting the launch date with my crossed fingers.

Music

Why do we like music?

• Universal language
  
• Touches our emotional feel
• Self realization
• Very close to spirituality (eg. Isha yoga music)
• Slow music helps in rest or peace of mind or meditation
• Matches with the human psychology
• Music really works with the patients while the medicines do not

FACT:  Healing music, Prayers, Soothing Instrumental music and Nature sounds used Internationally in hospitals since 1985