Faculty bk

International artist and Top Prize winner at the Texas National Music Festival’s “Classical Minds” competition, guitarist Matt Bacon is a highly sought after performer, song writer, recording artist, and teacher now on faculty at KM Music Conservatory in Chennai, India. At KMMC, Matt serves as Guitar Faculty and also teaches Foundation Musicianship. Always a busy performer, In December 2015, Matt was chosen as a Featured Artist for the India Guitar Federation’s annual festival and toured Delhi and Calcutta giving concerts & masterclasses. Matt also has the honor of being the first Western musician to perform Carnatic music on classical guitar under the wing of famed music director Ramesh Vinayakam.

Recently, Matt has performed across the United States at venues such as Barshinger Hall at Franklin & Marshall College, the John Marlow Guitar Series in Washington D.C., a sold-out appearance at the historic Fayetteville Theatre in West Virginia, and has had his performances featured on WITF Radio Harrisburg, the San Francisco News, the American Film Society, the 2016 Rio Olympics, and has recorded on AR Rahman’s film “24.”

From 2009-2012, Matt attended several internationally acclaimed music festivals including New England Conservatory’s Boston GuitarFest and the Texas National Music Festival. In Texas, Matt has been awarded Top Prizes in the guitar competition two years in a row and was also a prizewinner in the first Lancaster International Guitar Competition in Pennsylvania. Through participation and success at these festivals, Matt earned the opportunity to perform in master classes for luminary artists including Eliot Fisk of NEC, Sharon Isbin of the Julliard School, and Marco Tamayo of the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Matt had the honor to study at two of the most prestigious schools for western classical music and received his Masters from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2014 and his BA from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in 2010. At both schools Matt earned Dean’s List for Academic Achievement, merit scholarships, was awarded Career Development Grants, featured in the Distinguished Alumni publication, and also served as the Senior Resident Advisor for Stanford University’s Precollege music program. As a teacher at KM, Matt’s students have won prizes in guitar competitions, had their compositions featured on programs from Chennai to Mumbai, and gave exciting performances for the annual KM Day Concert.

One of our newest members of faculty, Premkumar Sivaperuman brings a wealth of music technology experience with him.

After completing his Diploma in Audio Engineering at the renowned S.A.E. Technology College in Chennai, back in 2001, Premkumar went on to build a successful career as a professional audio technician, live production sound specialist and post-production engineer, as well as teaching all aspects of audio technology and gaining experience in academic administration.

Most recently he was Head of Department for Audio Engineering at S.A.E. Technology College for over eight years, where he was responsible for all faculty recruitment and training, quality assurance, examination control and assessments, student mentoring and course development within the department. He had previously worked at the College as an Audio Lecturer, teaching students about the theory and practical application of audio technologies.

Premkumar has also worked on a number of projects and films in the South Indian film and music industries. As a music director, his output includes the films Ee Bhoomi Aa Bhanu (Kannada, 2013), Neeye En Kathali (2010), and Saahtanai (2005). He has also composed and produced music for a number of commercial advertisements and radio jingles, for clients such as A.G. Eye Care Hospitals, Nandu Brand textiles and Techberry Mobiles.

Having joined KMMC in August 2013, Premkumar now oversees the work of our Music Technology department. He teaches on our part-time Audio Engineering and Electronic Music Production courses.

Having started learning the violin from a very early age, Anupam completed the Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London, in Violin Performance, and went on to study for a BA in Music from The Queen’s College, University of Oxford. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Previous accomplishments include being one of only three Indian participants at the first ever US State Department sponsored exchange programme in music with a residency in Boston, followed by a performance at the UNESCO, Paris. Anupam has also had the privilege of playing on three separate occasions under the direction of legendary Western Music conductor Sir Neville Marriner in London. At KM, Anupam currently lectures on courses in Music History, Theory and the Violin, and also teaches and conducts the Sunshine Orchestra, a talented bunch of young string players, in western music.

Our Russian Piano Studio is led by virtuosic pianist Surojeet Chatterji, who was the first Indian musician to be granted a full scholarship by the offices of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, to study at the world famous Moscow Conservatory. He studied there for a further decade before graduating with the institution’s highest degree.

Mr Chatterji had first begun his piano studies as a child in Allahabad, with his teacher, Naju Shapoorjee. His innate talent soon became apparent and he went on to receive the Licentiate from the Royal Schools of Music in London, having studied under Mr. Hosie Palamkote at the Delhi School of Music, before being selected to further his studies in Moscow.

Having completed his studies, Mr Chatterji emigrated to the USA, where he taught successfully for 25 years. Notably, he was able to inspire underprivileged youths, who were typically the least exposed to Western classical music, and to make them proficient performers in very short periods of time.

In recent years, Mr Chatterji returned to India to take up the position as head of the new Russian Piano Studio at KMMC, where his mission is to impart and share his accumulated wealth of experience from around the world and to inspire young people in his native country to become fully fledged classical musicians and virtuoso pianists.

Mira is trained in Hindustani classical vocal and belongs to the Patiala-Kasur Gharana of the immortal Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahib.

She had her maiden nurturing in music from her grandfather Sunil Sengupta. Later she learned with Anirban Chatterjee, Brajeswar Mukherjee and Kaushiki Chakraborty under the music school Shrutinandan and subsequently also at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata.

Since November 2013, Mira is being brought up in the traditional Guru-Shishya Parampara lifestyle and taalim by Shantanu Bhattacharyya, the renowned classical vocalist and Guru. Under him, she is enriching herself in the subtler aspects of this gayaki, as incomparably illustrated by Shantanuji’s unmatched Gurus Prasun Banerjee, Meera Banerjee and Ajoy Chakrabarty.

Mira is a Graduate with a First Class Honours in Hindustani Vocal Music from the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.

She has been the recipient of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy Junior Scholarship (2010 – 2013); Annual Scholarship from Sri Aurobindo Ashram Delhi Branch (2014 – 2016) and a stipend from Roy Poribar, Naseebpur (2015).

Mira is a much appreciated performer and her many recitals for the music institution Aalor Pathe Raga Dhwani have won her memorable accolades from the topmost Gurus Late Shankar Ghosh, Vijay Kumar Kichlu, Sanjukta Ghosh, Ajoy Chakrabarty, Tejendranarayan
Majumdar and Samar Saha; as also regularly from the Press.

Lijo. K. Jose, Voice Trainer , joined KMMC as a Western Classical Music faculty in 2015. He has completed his Foundation & Diploma Certificates with Distinction in Hindustani and Western Classical Performance from KM Music Conservatory/ Middlesex University and Specialist in Vocal Performance course from KM Music Conservatory. He has been trained in Hindustani Voice under Dr. Shruti Jauhari and Western Classical Voice under Ms. Namrata Shah & Dr. Gilles Denizot. During this time, he has been a two-time winner of the A.R. Rahman Foundation Scholarship. He has been a soloist for KMMC’s annual Opera Scenes events for three consecutive years and has performed in events like Fête de la Musique ’15 & 10th International Film Festival of Chennai ’13 as soloist and performed along with the Foundation and Chamber Choirs for many events such as Queens Birthday at British High Commission ’14.

Lijo has composed the ‘Bay Leaf’ ringtone for Nokia/Microsoft Lumia, after winning the ‘Sounds of The World’ Project. He has composed music for Ads, music videos like, ‘Acceptance’ which was an official selection for Screen Dance Film Festival, Spain and a few short movies/documentaries in collaboration with LV Prasad Film & Television Academy, such as: ‘This Is The Moment’, which was selected in the ‘Focus’ Category for the International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala and the Pondicherry Short Film Festival & Mumbai International Film Festival.

Lijo’s work as a singer and keyboardist, both before and during his pre-degree course at Calicut University, afforded him prestigious opportunities such as participating in the Republic Day Parade in Delhi in 2001, and in other cultural events as part of the National Integration Programme where he represented the National Cadets Corps. While pursuing his degree in Homoeopathic Medicine from Kerala University, he participated in several music competitions and conducted a musical ensemble which represented the college at Homoeo Fest ’08, where he also won the Best Western Classical Singer Award.

Lijo was the lead vocalist for a multi genre band ‘Aver’ based in Chennai and recorded an International Album named ‘Indie100 International’ in 2016. His continuing work involves teaching at KMMC, singing for various composers, independent projects and doing keyboard programming and composing for upcoming Films and Jingles in the industry.

Originally from St Andrew’s in Scotland, Dr Adam Greig completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Lancaster University in England, where he received a BA (Hons) in Music and a Masters degree in Music with Distinction, and went on to complete a doctoral thesis on the music of French composer, Germaine Tailleferre.

As an active performer and musicologist Adam’s research involves combining different modes of analytical enquiry with experience from practice, to better understand interpretation and artistic transmission. In solo piano performance he holds the prestigious Licentiate from the Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in London. He specialises in performing early 20th Century French repertoire, particularly that which surrounds the ‘Les Six’ composers, and has performed as a soloist and accompanist at a number of international conferences, including the Royal Music Association Symposium Nostalgia and Innovation in Twentieth-Century French Music. He has also had the privilege of performing two piano concertos with the Lancaster University Symphony Orchestra – Francis Poulenc’s Piano Concerto No.1, and Germaine Tailleferre’s Concerto pour piano et 12 instruments.

Adam’s secondary area of performance is contemporary electro-acoustic music and he has performed both existing repertoire and premieres in this genre at the International Computer Music Conference in Belfast and the LICA-Mantis Festival in Lancaster.

As a researcher, Adam has given papers at Cambridge University, King’s College London and the International Conference of Music Since the 1900s, held in Keele. His published work includes contributions as a Research Assistant to Professor Deborah Mawer’s articles in the Journal of the Royal Music Association and the Journal of Twentieth-Century Music, and typeset musical examples for her book, Ravel Studies, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010. At KMMC Adam is the Academic Coordinator with oversight over all Music Programmes and curriculum. He is also the institutional link tutor for the Middlesex University partnership and teaches piano, analysis and musicological subjects on the Foundation and Diploma programmes.

Rajesh Dhavale was trained in the art of tabla playing by his grandfather, Veerana Kamkar of Mehboob Khan Sahib Gharana, the recipient of the much coveted Sangeet Ratna Award from the State Government of Karnataka.

At the age of 13, Rajesh was himself awarded a CCRT National Scholarship to further his training in classical percussion and he went on to study under Ustad Hidaayat Khan Sahib from Jahangir Khan Sahib Gharana and to receive the ‘Vidvat’ in Tabla from the Government of Karnataka.

Rajesh has accompanied many renowned artistes on the tabla, including Smt. Lakshmi Shankar on vocals; the late Shri Vishveshwaran on the santoor, Shri Janardhan on the sitar, Sri M.S Gopalakrishnan on the violin and Sri T.V Gopala Krishnan on vocals. He is also a Bhigh grade artiste at All India Radio.

Recently, Rajesh presented a programme of music at the Hamsadhwani, which he had conceived and directed himself. It was called ‘Tal Bol and Laya’ and featured a solo performance and a jugalbandi with shehnai and sitar. His website can be found at www.dhavaletabla.in.

Over the last 15 years, Rajesh has trained many students in tabla. At KMMC, he teaches Hindustani percussion to students on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma programmes.

As a young man, Munna Shaokath Ali studied Hindustani classical music under the Gurukul tradition and was trained by Mohammed Abdul Baki for over 15 years in the Agra Gharana Gayaki, of Faiyyaz Khan fame. At the tender age of seven, Munnaji started to give performances and came to be affectionately known as the ‘Munna Qawwal’. He chose to specialise in the genre of Qawwali, which was perfected by Shankar Shamboo, the celebrated Sama Qawwals at Hazrat Moinnuddeen Chishti, Ajmer. While he had rigorous training in this medium, he also had extensive lessons in Urdu and Arabic. This stood him in good stead and he emerged as poet and a lyricist of note, having written the soul-stirring Piya Haji Ali for the Bollywood Film, Fiza; and Zikr Ahle talab A Jao Zikr Mein for The Forgotton Hero by Subhash Chandra Bose, both under the direction of A. R. Rahman.

Munnaji went on to establish the Bharat Qawwali Sangam in Bangalore and trained many students in Indian classical music. During this time, he gave over 2,000 sama performances at the various dargaahs all over India. He also performed at the palace of Nawab Safdarjung in Hyderabad, for the Mysore Maharaja, and in the presence of Indira Gandhi at Nagpur.

Today, Munnaji is President and a founding member of Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy, a non-profit trust that promotes Hindustani classical music in the South of India.

A regular artiste with All India Radio Bangalore, he has recorded more than 100 devotional cassettes and trained some of the best known play-back singers. His repertoire includes extensive raga delineations in the traditional Dhrut pieces and the light classical modes like the Ghazal.

At KMMC, Munnaji teaches Harmonium on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma courses.

Jayasurian has been teaching music for over 30 years at various levels. Has worked as a music teacher at almost all of the leading educational institutions in Chennai as well as having taught abroad. Has completed Grade 8 Certification in Education from Trinity College of Music. Has performed for The Doordarshan TV channel as a classical guitarist and also as a keyboard accompanist. Has worked for a Five Year Period at Musee Musicals as a guitar and piano teacher. His overseas assignments include his work as a Music Teacher in Tanzania for 2 years and also as Guitar, Piano and Keyboard teacher in Singapore for 7 years. Has been tutoring students for almost all Trinity and ABRSM related Syllabus exams right up to the diploma level in both theory as well as practical over 30 years.

Mr. A. Sigamani Dinakaran was educated in an Anglo-Indian High School and graduated from The Loyola College of Chennai. His passion towards music started at the age of five when he took up the violin. He learnt both Western and Carnatic music and passed Grade 8 from Trinity College London and a Diploma in Carnatic music from the Tamil Nadu Government Music College, as a disciple of Azhalagiri Samy and M.S. Ananthraman.

Much of Dinarkaran’s career has been spent working as a studio violinest for A. R. Rahman, since the days of the composer’s very first film, Roja. He has also performed with the Madras Chamber Orchestra under the baton of the french conductor, Bernard Wacheux and he regular plays in concerts with fusion groups across Chennai and elsewhere in India. He has worked with many celebrated musicians during his career.

Dinakaran has also been teaching the violin for many years, helping to nurture young talent in Chennai. At KMMC, Dinakaran teaches violin on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma programmes.

N.D. Santhosh, a former student of the Middlesex University Affiliated Foundation Program at KMMC, was offered the position of piano faculty of the Preparatory Programme after successful completion of his Foundation course. Santhosh has been learning music for over 13 years and has performed in certain KMMC concerts, including the “KMMC Annual Day Concert” attended by the Founder and Principal, Dr A.R. Rahman. He has also composed music for a dozen short films and documentaries, including one for UNICEF which was pitched against child labour. He additionally works as a sound engineer and studio In-charge at the new state-of-the-art KM campus.

Meera Savoor, a senior vocalist of the Agra Rangila Gharana, is a senior grade All India Radio artiste and a regular performer on Doordarshan Chennai. She is a disciple of Pandit Rama Rao Naik of the Agra Gharana. Through her years studying under the tuteledge of Naik, she became well versed in Khayal, Thumri, Dadra and Bhajans vocal genres. Meera has given numerous private and public performances in India as well as abroad. She has performed at Sabhas and Sammelans at The National Center for the Performing Arts in Mumbai as well as at Tansen Samaroh at Gwalior. She has several albums to her credit, featuring Hindustani classical music and Bhajans.
At KMMC, Meera teaches Hindustani voice on our Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma programmes.

Anantha R. Krishnan started his musical journey at an early age on the mridangam, the principle drum of Carnatic music. As a child he astounded the Indian classical community with his performances and was hailed a progidy. Since then, he has gone on to cement his position as one of the top mridangam players of his generation.

Anantha is the grandson and disciple of arguably the greatest mridangam maestro of all time, Shri Palghat R. Raghu. He started learning the mridangam under his uncle, Shri R. Ramkumar, as a toddler and began an official tutelage under his grandfather at the age of five. Anantha performed his first concert at the age of seven and during this period he received many awards from traditional organisations of Carnatic music across India. Most notably, he won the Best Mridangist Prize from the Music Academy in Chennai a record five times in six years!

As a young adult Anantha moved to the USA and in both 1997 and 1998 he was awarded the State of the Arts
Award from the New Jersey government, as part of the National Endowment of the Arts effort for promoting
greater cultural awareness in America.In 1999, he was invited to perform for the Millennium celebrations in Berlin, Germany, at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and again at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover. A year later, he performed at the historic Sadler’s Wells Music Festival in London for the UK Prime Minister. More recently, Anantha returned to Germany at the invitation of Fred Frith, the British experimental guitarist, to perform for the seminal New Jazz Meeting for SWR 2, a national radio station based in Baden Baden.

In May 2008, Anantha was a featured soloist in the Grammy nominated ‘Miles from India’ tour, which premiered
in Town Hall of New York City and presented the music of the great Miles Davis with Indian instrumentation,
featuring jazz legends such as Ron Carter, Dave Liebman Lenny White, Ndugu Chancler, and Pete Cosey. In July 2011, he also performed in a Carte Blanche Artist Series of the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, to a
crowd of 64,000.

Anantha holds a BA in Western Music and Philosophy from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Electronic Music and Percussion from Mills College, California. Whilst at university he studied Western percussion under William Winant. Specialising in contemporary 20th Century percussion, he is perhaps the only percussionist of Indian heritage to have performed the music of American composers, Steve Reich, John Cage, James Tenney, Jon Appleton and Charles Dodge, among many others. He has also been a special interest student of tabla under Ustad Zakir Hussain for the past six years and has recorded for Intakt Records, Echo Music and ACT Records.

At KMMC, Anantha teaches Western and Indian percussion to students on the Preparatory, Foundation and Diploma programmes.

Rachintan graduated with a Bachelors of Communications while studying Visharad in Hindustani Harmonium. After passing KM Music Conservatory’s Foundation course with a major in Piano, Rachintan has been teaching Preparatory Piano for the last two years at KMMC. Rachintan passed Grade Five in Theory and Grade Six in Piano from Trinity College of London. He has been playing keyboard for the last thirteen years. He also studied Gujarati Folk and rhythm from Saurastra Gujarat University. Recently, Rachintan participated in the creation of the Rhyme Skool album as a Composer, which was supervised by Dr. A.R.Rahman.

As a student at KM, Rachintan performed many times as a pianist in various performances at the school. Highlights include a performance for the US Consulate in Chennai honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi and as an accompanist for part of the “A.R. Rahman: Unplugged” Concert in Delhi, where Hindustani and Western Classical Choir pieces were performed. Currently, Rachintan is learning Jazz and Western Classical.

Guest Relations

Appointed to serve as Guest Relations Officer at KMMC. A pass-out in Higher Secondary Education with a desire to meet people and educate himself further in the field of Public Relations. Karthik also has the additional responsibility of creating schedules for the Preparatory Programme at KMMC so as to enable systemized delivery of
teaching. His portfolio also enables him to direct inquiries to the correct member of the administrative or academic team. Work towards the overall objective of successfully handling the entire front-office management so as to create the nerve centre of the Institution.

Mr Deepan, a drum kit faculty has formally completed Grade 8 of the Trinity College Level of Certification and has been involved in teaching privately for over a period of 8 years. He has also been associated with KM Music Conservatory over a period of 3 years imparting formal education to its students in the genres of funk, freestyle, double pedal and the like. His drive to gain more knowledge has also compelled him to formally pursue ATCL Diploma in drum kit with the hope of keeping his motto, “continuous improvement”, alive.

Dr James Bunch is an American composer, conductor and educator who completed his doctorate in music composition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has written works for voice, instrumental ensembles, and electronics. His music has received performances throughout the US, Europe, South America, and Asia. Dr Bunch joined the KM Music Conservatory faculty in 2014.

Currently doing Bachelors in Music at Madras University. Started learning music at the age of 6.Trained under the legendary Mr. Abdul Sattar who was felicitated by Trinity College London as one of the best Piano Teachers in Chennai. Has finished Grade 8 in Piano and Grade 5 in classical guitar under Sattar’s mentorship and in addition learnt Advanced Theory and Harmonization. Worked as an Assistant to Mr. Abdul Sattar for 2 years at Armonia Music School after completing Grade 8 in Piano. After his assignment at Armonia Music SchooI, he enrolled at KMMC for a summer programme in piano training under the expertise of Dr Adam James Greig, a prominent pianist from Lancaster Univerity. Is on the verge of completing his ATCL Piano Studies pertaining to Trinity College of Music, London. Also underwent Hindustani Vocal Training for 4 years and is currently working at KMMC as a Preparatory Western Classical Piano Faculty.

Humble Shine is a Carnatic and Hindustani vocal performer, ghazal singer and voice trainer who has been active since 1997. He is a PhD Research Scholar on the topic of ‘Experimental Vocological Training’ at the Sree Sankaracharya University, Kalady, where he also completed his MPhil in the ‘Need of Vocological Training’, he also has an MA and BA in Indian Music from the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.

He was selected for the Rotary Club Award and Parat Narayana Menon Endowment for securing the highest mark in MA Music 2004. Also he has founded a music foundation at Kottayam for the promotion of Hindustani classical music named ‘Sursagar Foundation’. He is recognized for performing in various music genres all over Kerala, Ahmedabad, Chidambaram, and Kolloor. Besides his activities in performance he has participated and presented papers in national seminars on Indian classical music conducted at various Universities.

Asawari Waikar started her training under her father the Late Dattatreya Kelkar, and the journey continues with the blessing of her other Gurus Late Vasantrao Gurav, the Late Smt Rekha Deshpande, Smt. Meera Savoor and Pt. Vyasmurti Katti. She completed Sangeet Visharad from the Akhil Barateey Gandharv Mahvidyalaya. During 1996 she won first prize in Hindustani Classical and Light Music category at University level youth festival, and has also won many other prestigious competitions in Classical, Semi Classical and Light Music.

Asides from her 10 years’ experience as a Hindustani classical teacher and 3 years’ teaching Mathematics and Statistics, Asawari has completed a Master in Commerce with specialization in Accounts and Costing, has authored three books of short stories and poems and has regularly contributed short stories and articles in Marathi magazine.

Biographical Details Coming Soon