Shanti Sagaram

Shri Vidyasagar Vankayala:
Hailing from a family of musicians, Vidyasagar started learning carnatic music at the age of 8 from Shri Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao of All India Radio, Visakhapatnam for 12 years. He won the annual Gold Medal from Vishakha Music Academy in 1985, as well as many first prizes in Inter-collegiate Youth Festivals. Vidyasagar has given over 25 concerts in many sabhas in India. Since moving to Vancouver in 1996, he has been active in organizing and conducting Tyagaraja Aradhana and Trimurti Aradhana(both are music festivals in honour of the the principal composers in Carnatic music) as well as teaching Carnatic music to aspiring students. Vidyasagar founded Vancouver SaPaSa, a local organization for promoting Carnatic music and dance. An engineer by profession, Vidyasagar lives and works in Vancouver.

Shri Prashant Michael John:
Born in Lahore, Pakistan and raised in Bangladesh, multi-instrumentalist Prashant grew up surrounded by Bengali folk, Baul and classical music as well as contemporary western music. He has performed in India, Bangladesh, S.E. Asia and North America in genres from Folk and Rock to Jazz and World music. He also leads his own world music band, ‘Tandava’. His collaborations include two CDs of Bhajans (devotional music) with the bhajan group of Mata Amritanandamayi (world teacher and recipient of the 2002 Gandhi-King award for nonviolence) and regularly guests with them. He enjoys composing in a cross-cultural context while honoring the traditions. Prashant studied Carnatic music at the Madras Music Academy, took private lessons in rhythm with K. Rangarajan of Madras and studied guitar and jazz theory with Berklee teachers. Prashant has performed at chamber music sessions for Vancouver SaPaSa. He is very active in promoting Carnatic Music to a wider audience.

Sunny Matharu began his musical training at the age of four. His formal training started when he was eight with Satwant Singh, a renowned local artiste that himself received tutelage under the late Ustad Allah Rakha, a monumental figure in the world of Indian classical music. In the year 2001, Sunny also traveled to London, England to receive further training with Pandit Sharda Sahai, whose father was the founder of the most respected Benares School of Tabla. In his musical career, Sunny has accompanied many accomplished ghazal and classical singers, as well as instrumentalists: both traditional and non traditional from around
the world. Sunny currently resides in Surrey
BC, and holds music lessons on a regular basisand also regularly accompanies well-known local and international artists as a freelance tabla-player.