About the Orchestra

​

Vocal: Minu Pasupathi

Minu received her initial training in carnatic music from Smt. Leelavathi Venkatachar and continued her advanced training from Smt. Vijaya Nagarajan & Chitraveena Sri. Ganesh Sudarsan.  Minu holds a Master's degree in Indian Karnatik Classical Music from University of Madras.  She has given several music concerts in South India and in major cities in USA.  Minu is the Director of South Asian Music Ensemble (SAME) at the University of Chicago, Hyde Park, IL.  She is also the Artistic Director of Akshaya Music Academy in Schaumburg, IL since 1990 where she teaches vocal music to students of all ages.

 

Mridangam: Ravi Subramanyan

Ravi started his training at the age of 6 under the tutelage of Kumbakonam Sri. Rajappa Iyer. He received advanced training under Mannargudi Sri. A. Easwaran.  He has accompanied several renowned artists from India and the US. He is one of the most sought after mridangam artists in the Chicagoland area.  Ravi runs a school of rhythm named Swaralaya where he trains and prepares future mridangam artists.  Ravi is a senior product manager for a multinational company.

 

Violin: Rishabh Ranganathan

Rishabh comes from a strong musical lineage, After rigorous tutelage under Shri. Akella Mallukarjuna Sharma, he is currently a disciple of  Parur M.S.Ananthakrishnan and M.A. Sundareswaran.  He has won several awards and titles including the ‘Cleveland Concert  Competition’, ‘Carnatic Music Idol-USA’ by Jaya TV,  ‘Yuva Sri Kala Bharathi’ and ‘Rising Star Award’, among others. He has performed over 500 violin-solo and violin accompaniment concerts in India and USA and. has been actively playing for many dance productions and arangetrams. He is an incoming sophomore  at UIUC pursuing Computer Science.

 

Veena: Vinod Menon

Vinod is a senior disciple of eminent veena player and musicologist, Dr. Jaishri Prasad. He is also a Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer in the Kalakshetra style. He has  presented his art in solos, duets with other instruments and ensembles accompanying classical dance. As a design strategist and technologist at Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures, he works on future focused technology ventures that are rooted in human-centered design.