Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram - Grammy Award–winning Indian percussionist.

Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram (born June 24, 1944), also known as Vikku Vinayakram is a Grammy Award–winning Indian percussionist. He plays Carnatic music with the ghatam, an earthen pot, and is credited with popularizing the ghatam. He was awarded the Padma Shri, given by Government of India in 2002, and later the 2012 Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour in the performing arts conferred by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama. Finally he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Early life of Vinayakram

Vinayakram was born to Kalaimaamani T. R. Harihara Sharma, a musician and teacher. He took up playing at a very young age.

Career of Vinayakram

Vinayakram's concert career began at the age of 13. His first performance occurred on March 5, 1957 at the Sri Rama Navami festival in Thoothukudi. While proceeding for the arangetram the tuned ghatam instrument was broken by a child named Ganesh, which by itself had been a good omen for his bright career. where he accompanied V.V.Sadagopan. He was soon accompanying many famous vocalists in Carnatic music at the time, including Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Madurai Mani Iyer, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M. S. Subbulakshmi and Maharajapuram Santhanam, among others. His brother, T. H. Subhash Chandran, also excelled in the field. The Ghatam followed the master by rising to fame as a percussion instrument that required nimble fingers and strong stomach muscles to control the mouth of the pot.
Vinayakram's tryst with the international music platform came in the early 1970s when he joined Shakti to play along with John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain.
He has also performed at Basant Utsav, the annual fund raiser for the Banyan. Vinayakram is Principal of Sri Jaya Ganesh Tala Vadya Vidyalaya in Chennai, India - the academy established by his late father and teacher in 1958. It continues to produce new stars of Carnatic percussion. Vinayakram's son V. Selvaganesh is a successful percussionist, especially after tours with John McLaughlin's group, Remember Shakti.

Discography of Vinayakram

• A Handful of Beauty (Shakti Album) (1976)
• Natural Elements (Shakti album) (1977)
• Planet Drum (1991) – Mickey Hart
• Mysterium Tremendum (2012) – Mickey Hart Band

Awards for of Vinayakram

Vinayakram was conferred the Hafiz Ali Khan Award for “unmatched contribution in the field of music” in 2000.[citation needed] He is also the first South Indian musician to be awarded the Grammy for Best World Music Album for his participation in Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, in which he played ghatam and morsing.[citation needed] He donated all the proceeds from the award to a charity organization in south India.[citation needed] He was also nominated for the 1996 Grammy Awards for Best World Music Album for his participation in 'Raga Aberi' along with L. Shankar on the ten string double violin and Zakir Hussain on the tabla (the piece is set in the tala cycle of 4¾ beats). The Indian Government decorated him with the Padma Shri Award in 2002.
Finally, he was awarded the 2012 Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna), the highest award in performing arts in India, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Acdemy for Music, Dance and Drama. In 2014 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by Government of India.

Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt also known as V. M. Bhatt (born July 12, 1952) is an Indian slide guitar player. Bhatt is the creator of the Mohan Veena. He performs Hindustani classical music and won a Grammy Award in 1994.

It is for his Grammy winning album A Meeting by the River with Ry Cooder and other fusion and pan-cultural collaborations with Western artists like Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck and Jerry Douglas, that Bhatt is best known, although exposure such as an appearance on the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival, which was organized by Eric Clapton, does allow for this side of his playing to reach a larger audience.

He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1998 and the Padma Shri in 2002.

Folk musician Harry Manx, who studied with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt for five years, plays a Mohan Veena. Counting Crows' Bassist Matt Malley also plays a Mohan Veena and is a student and friend of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Personal life

Vishwa Mohan is married to Padma and lives in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, with his two sons and his wife. His elder son Salil Bhatt is a renowned Mohan veena player (and also a player of the Satvik veena), while his younger son Saurabh Bhatt is a well known composer.

His nephew, Krishna Bhatt, plays the sitar and tabla.


Select discography

* 1992 - Guitar A La Hindustan, Magnasound (India)
* 1992 - Saradamani, Water Lily Acoustics
* 1993 - Gathering Rain Clouds, Water Lily Acoustics
* 1993 - A Meeting by the River (with Ry Cooder), Water Lily Acoustics
* 1995 - Bourbon & Rosewater (with Jerry Douglas & Edgar Meyer), Water Lily Acoustics
* 1995 - Mumtaz Mahal (with Taj Mahal & N. Ravikiran), Water Lily Acoustics
* 1996 - Saltanah (with Simon Shaheen), Water Lily Acoustics
* 1996 - Tabula Rasā (with Béla Fleck & Jie-Bing Chen), Water Lily Acoustics