Vishal Sapuram

Vishaal Sapuram is a Texas-born prodigious chitravina (fretless lute) artist from the south Indian classical (Carnatic) music tradition. He is a disciple of the renowned chitravina maestro Shri N Ravikiran. He began training in vocal at the age of three under respected gurus in the USA and India. From the age of six, he has been under the tutelage of Shri Ravikiran, under whose guidance Vishaal rapidly emerged as a performing artist. At age nine, he gave his first vocal concert at the Music Academy Chennai, and within a few years began to perform on the rare chitravina, becoming one amongst a rare few of his generation to take up this instrument.

He is credited with inventing a new raga (musical scale) with his guru Ravikiran called vishweshwarapriya. Vishaal has won several accolades, including the Best Instrumentalist Award from the Music Academy Madras three times (2015, 2017, & 2018), the Gottuvadyam Narayana Iyengar Award from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, a music scholarship from India Fine Arts (Austin, USA), 'Isai Chemmal' and the Suchindram S P Sivasubramaniam Centenary Award from Trinity Arts Festival, Chennai, and 'Pannisai Ilam Paridi' from the Dr Kannappan-Vasuki Trust. He is also an A-Grade artist for All India Radio. Vishaal began teaching music at age 10 and has also given many lecture-demonstrations and workshops, including at the University of Texas (USA), University of Alabama (USA), the Temple of Fine Arts (Malaysia).