About Sunaad, Dhrupad & The Upanishads
Sunaad is an eclectic group of people who share a passion for Hindustani classical music, that has been staging performances to share their understanding of music, and more recently philosophy with audiences of all ages, across India. Over the last 10 years, Sunaad has been inspired and guided by Sri M, to present the philosophy of three Upanishads through Dhrupad music, composed by the Gundecha Brothers, storytelling, theater and movement. This presentation will communicate the experience of the members of Sunaad in making this effort and the effect it has had on their well-being as well as the impact it has had on audiences.
The team includes:
Tara Kini, Consultant & Trainer in Education & Music, Founder-Director, Sunaad
Tara Kini is an independent consultant in Education and Music and works with several reputed institutions in Bangalore, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Ahmedabad, developing curriculum, and training teachers and trainers. Tara is an advisor to the Shankar Mahadevan Music Academy.
Tara has trained intensively in Hindustani classical music for over 5 decades. She is currently training in Khayal from Smt Lalith J Rao, and in Dhrupad from Padmashree Gundecha Brothers. She has helped to set up a school of Dhrupad in Bengaluru, called the Dhrupad Sankula, affiliated to the Dhrupad Sansthan, Bhopal.
Tara is the founder director of a music collective called Sunaad that has presented over eighty shows that demystify classical music. The last three projects in Sunaad that she has conceptualised and directed, Swar Katha Upanishad, Isha Rumi- Beyond Form, and Mandukya Sant Vani have Dhrupad music composed by the Gundecha Brothers and have been inspired and guided by Sri M.
C.S. Balasubramanian (Bala), Freelance Multi-instrumentalist, Dhrupad Vocalist & Member Of Sunaad
Bala is a freelance multi instrumentalist, playing the mandolin, sarod and rabab. He is trained in Hindustani classical music, having learnt the sarod from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and currently learning Dhrupad vocal from the Gundecha brothers.
Ramaa Srinivasan, Vedanta Scholar & Former IT Consultant, Dhrupad Vocalist & Member Of Sunaad
Rama with several years of work in the field of Information Technology, has been been a student of Vedanta for over a decade and a student of Dhrupad since about 5 years.
Shanti Subbaraman, Entrepeneur & IT Consultant, Dhrupad Vocalist & Member Of Sunaad
Shanti is an engineer-entrepreneur with about 3 decades of experience in building Networking and Storage systems. Beginning her career as a network engineer in the US with Digital Equipment Corporation, she moved back to India in the late ‘80s to start an off-shore development team, pioneering one of the earliest networking software export projects in India. Later, Shanti worked with Wipro R&D in Bangalore, designing and developing networking products for the global market. Armed with the confidence to build teams and deliver high-tech global products, Shanti co-founded Aarohi Communications, a venture-backed start-up in the storage networking space, based in California and Bangalore, and headed the India centre for over a decade, even after its acquisition by a US company. A B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Oregon, Shanti is now actively pursuing her passions, namely, music, spiritual learning and community service. She is Trustee and member of a music collective called Sunaad, engaged in the making and performance of musical productions that aim to spread awareness on classical music and oneness of all beings. She is a Trustee of Vijay Nambisan Trust to promote budding literary talent.
