Trichy Sankaran

Sangeetha Kalanidhi Trichy Sankaran (b. Poovalur, Madras Presidency, India, July 27, 1942) is a South Indian percussionist, composer, scholar, and educator. He is acknowledged as one of the foremost virtuosos of the mridangam, a barrel drum used in Carnatic music, and also plays the kanjira on occasion. Since the early 1970s, he has performed and recorded in a number of cross-cultural projects.

Sankaran has lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada since 1971.<!--Can we get the year he obtained Canadian citizenship? Does he have dual citizenship, i.e. does he also remain a citizen of India?--> He is the founder of the Tyagaraja Festival in Toronto and is a professor of music at York University. He has regularly performed at all leading organizations in Chennai, India every December Music Season and continues to accompany a wide array of top ranked musicians. Trichy Sankaran has been conferred the illustrious Sangeetha Kalanidhi award from the Madras Music Academy, Chennai, India for the year 2011-2012 .

Background

Born in the year 1942, Sankaran had his early musical training first under his cousin, the late Sri P. A. Venkataraman, and later became the star disciple of the legendary mridangam maestro, the late Sri Pazhani Subramania Pillai. He made his debut at the age of 13 in a concert given by the Alathoor Brothers at Nanrudayan Temple in the town of Trichy, Tamil Nadu.

Since then he has performed with all top ranking Carnatic...
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