Anantha R Krishnan

Anantha R. Krishnan started his musical journey on the mridangam, the principal drum of the Carnatic tradition. He is the grandson and disciple of the great mridangam maestro Palghat R. Raghu, beginning his tutelage under his grandfather at the age of five after first learning fundamentals from his uncle Shri R. Ramkumar. He performed his first concert at seven. He holds a B.A. in Western Music and Philosophy from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Electronic Music and Percussion from Mills College. He received the Best Mridangist Prize from the Music Academy, Madras five times in six years, and the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (2021) from the Sangeet Natak Akademi. In 2008 he was a featured soloist on the Grammy-nominated Miles from India tour, and was the first mridangam artist to appear in Carnegie Hall's Shape of Jazz series. Since 2011 he has served on the faculty of A. R. Rahman's KM Music Conservatory in Chennai.