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BIOGRAPHY

Praveen Sparsh is a multi percussionist and a music producer who started learning the art of Mridangam playing at the age of 5 from Mridangam Maestro Guruvayur Sri Dorai. He is the grandson of Mridangam exponent Tanjore Sri Upendran and great grandson of Tavil exponent Valangaiman Sri Shanmugasundaram Pillai.

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Praveen is one of the most sought after Mridangam exponents in the field of Carnatic music, and performs regularly with stalwarts like Sri TM Krishna, Smt. Aruna Sairam, Smt. Bombay Jayshree, Smt. Sowmya, Sri. Sikkil Gurucharan, amongst others. He has toured the United States extensively, as also, countries like Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, Amsterdam, Singapore, Malaysia, Jakarta, Sydney, Melbourne, Israel and Palestine.

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Praveen has most recently, released his solo percussion album, ‘UNRESERVED’, a mridangam centric album that explores the sounds of everyday life. The album has since received critical acclaim from the music and entertainment fraternity at large.

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As a music producer, Praveen has scored and performed music for the play ‘Kurukshetra - When things fall apart’, directed by noted playwright Dr. Gowri Ramnarayan where he simultaneously played instruments like the Mridangam, Kanjira, Guitar, Cajon, Darbuka along with Konnakol (Vocal Percussion) and and other ambient percussion instruments. He has also scored music for short films and ad jingles, and has worked with famed director Rajeev Menon.

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Prestigious awards and titles from revered institutions in the field of Carnatic Music have also added to the recognition he has earned. These include “Laya Ratna”, “Palani Subramania Pillai Memorial Award”, “Bharat Ratna Dr.M.S. Subbulakshmi Fellowship in Music”, “Yuva Kala Bharati”, “Best Performer Award”, “Palghat Mani Iyer's Endownment Award”, “Central Govt Scholarship for Mridangam”, “Best Mridangam Artiste” and “The carnatic idol”, amongst others.

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Praveen has collaborated and toured with world music bands like, “House of Waters”, “Sid Sriram live”, “Sean Roldan and Friends”, “Aditya Prakash Ensemble”,“Poorvaa”, and many others. He has performed in various independent music festivals like the NH7 Weekender, Frostbite Festival, Riff Festival, Covelong Surf Festival, DAM Festival and MAD festival. He curated and led a percussion ensemble with Parai artistes (traditional folk percussion) at the Urur Olcot Music Festival. At the same festival, he also presented a performance with a group of students from Avvai Home, a school for underprivileged girl children, that he trained for upto 3 months prior to the performance.

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Praveen also performs as part of the Carnatic instrumental ensemble, ‘A Carnatic Quartet’, as also ‘An Experiment with Sound and Music’, a duet with violinist Shreya Devnath. Shreya Devnath and Praveen Sparsh have also curated a Music Outreach program for economically underprivileged children. In addition, they have curated and performed a concert exclusively for the Armed Forces of the country, in their ‘Special Project for the Armed Forces’,

Praveen, along with a team of sensitive artistes, curated “No’mad Projekt”, a platform for musicians where they are placed in a pristine environment and recorded with a single microphone capturing the ambience and the music as one. They then, proceeded to curate, “Orisai”, an offset of No’mad Projekt which brings the listener an immersive concert experience in a minimalistic concert design through ambient micing.

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Praveen has also been performing with his Indo-Fusion music band called the ‘Sparsh Quartet’, for the last five years. He is an avid trekker and traveller and does a music travelogue called ‘Projekt Peragro’.

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Praveen’s perception of music is as nuanced as it is precise, and his boundless artistic curiosity reflects in his wide array of musical explorations.

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