Sukumar Prasad is a
South Indian
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
guitarist who was the first
Carnatic musician to play the south Indian musical art form of
Carnatic music
Carnatic music, known as or in the South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka. It is o ...
on the
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
. He not only played Carnatic music on guitar but was a skilled mridangam artist who accompanied stalwarts including
Alathur Srinivasa Iyer
Alathur Srinivasa Iyer (1911–1980), born in Tamil Nadu, was an Indian vocalist. Together with Alathur Sivasubramania Iyer, he formed the successful duo known as the Alathur Brothers (though the two were not in fact brothers). He was awarded ...
,
M. Balamuralikrishna
Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (6 July 1930 – 22 November 2016) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist, musician, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer, and character actor. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in ...
and T. R. Subramanyam.
Early years
Prasad began learning Carnatic music from a very young age from his uncle
M. Chandrasekaran
Mohanan Chandrasekaran is a Carnatic classical violinist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He was born in Calcutta, on 1937 December 11 as the younger of the two sons of T.N. Mohanan and Charubala Mohanan, a violinist herself. He was awarded th ...
and mridangam with Trichy Sri. Raghavan Iyer. In 1970 he gave his mridangam arangetram. In the early 1970s he began playing Carnatic music on the guitar and in 1981 he was honored by the Music Academy, Madras for having adapted the western instrument guitar to Carnatic.
[SIFA recording, 1988] A cassette exists of him from 1985 playing several Carnatic standards, including one of the compositions for which he became renowned, "Brova Barama." It is currently out of print. He is the son of Chennai's famous cost accountant Mr Renganathan and Padma Renganathan. It is learnt that he had associated himself with the Adi Parasakthi Peetam in Melmaruvattur, Chennai.He was with Price Water House, Chennai.
Disappearance
The details of Prasad's disappearance from the Carnatic music scene are hazy at best, and many famed artists and scholars are unfamiliar with his contribution to Carnatic music. He toured the U.S. in 1988 and in Australia in 1989, but sometime shortly after he disappeared from the music scene. Poovalur Sriji, mridangam artist and professor at the
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal Schoo ...
postulated that, "One reason I think is he was too trendy for the 1970's conservative audience. Institutions like the Academy won't (sic) give him stage as he was not
s'traditional' as
Emani Sankara Sastry
Emani Sankara Sastry (23 September 1922 – 1987), was a renowned Veena player of Carnatic music.
Life sketch
Emani Sankara Sastry was born on 23 September 1922 in Draksharamam, India. He came from a family of celebrated classical musicians. H ...
and
Chitti Babu were since they used contact microphones....I have accompanied him in many concerts, most of them wedding events."
Education
Sukumar Prasad received a degree from the AC College of Technology, Madras.
References
External links
Guitarist Prasanna's history of the Carnatic guitarPrasad's rendition of Brova Barama
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Sukumar
Carnatic instrumentalists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Indian film score composers