Guitar Prasanna is a pioneering artist who brought Carnatic music to the electric guitar, earning him global recognition. Trained under Gurus Tiruvarur S. Balasubramaniam and A. Kanyakumari in the traditional Guru-Shishya system, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Carnatic music in 2003 and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Madras in 2021.
Along with Ravi Shankar and A.R. Rahman, he is one of only three Indian composers to score music for an Oscar-winning film (“Smile Pinki”, 2009). His compositions have won National and Filmfare Awards, and his work “Falsehood” features in the book ‘Essentials of Jazz-the first 100 years’.
A Magna Cum Laude graduate from Berklee College of Music, Prasanna seamlessly bridges classical Indian music with jazz and rock. His collaborations span from A.R. Rahman to Esperanza Spalding, and from Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia to Victor Wooten. In 2009, he founded the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, one of South Asia’s largest music colleges, furthering his commitment to music education.
