Sivaramakrishna Rao

Hailing from a family of musicians, Sivaramakrishna was initiated into music at a very tender age by his father Sri.B.Sudarsana Rao. He took up sitar as a child of 6 under the guidance of Late Pandit Shri. Subba Rao, a reputed sitar and Rudra Veena Vidwan and later on became the disciple of the illustrious and veteran sitarist, late Ustad Ahmed Hussain Khan, who was a flag bearer of the famous Mian Achpal Gharana, who set high standards in traditional Hindustani music. This particular ancient Gharana which Siva belongs, has a great lineage of masters like Ustad Bande Ali khan (Beenkar of Indore), Ustad Rahmath Khan Sahib of Dharwar, Ustad Habib Khan Sahib of Gudyani who are exponents of the special techniques of Razhakhani Maseetkhani and senibaj.

Sivaramakrishna at a very young age, performed with his brothers and was conferred the title ‘Laya Brahma’ awarded by the Music College of Tirupathi for his rhythmic exellence. He has accompanied Shree. Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna in the Spirit of Freedom Concerts for National Integration conducted by the BCIC. He was awarded ‘Child Prodigy of the Year’ in 1990 by the Governor of Tamilnadu instituted by the Madras Telugu Academy as a ‘Ugadi Puraskar’ for excellence.
Sivaramakrishna's improvisation in playing also brings out a perfect combination of ‘Gayaki’ and ‘Tantrikari Angs’, he plays both Hindusthani & Carnatic music in Sitar. He has given Solo performances and Jugalbandhi concerts with various artists all over India and abroad. His prestigious tours embraced the Festival of India Golden Jubilee Independence in Kuwait ,conducting workshops in Singapore & a tour to Europe for Jugalbhandhi with Kalpana Venkat visiting UK, France, Germany and Switzerland for 30 concerts in 2000. He was the 1st Indian Sitarist to perform in the Kuwait TV Channel. He visited South Africa in 2002 for programmes held under the auspices of Indian Academy of South Africa, and also to Mauritius in the banner of Tamil Cultural Centre. His recent prestigious tours include Singapore in 2003 hosted by Singapore Indian Fine Arts and Australia to perform with the Australian Art Orchestra for Melbourne Arts Festival with guru Kaaraikkudi Mani.

He has released Audio CDs named Sneham and Singing Strings with violinist Kalpana.The duo have been performing in several Sabhas during the Chennai Music Festival in December each year. Sivaramakrishna has released several recordings, such as the recent exclusive ‘Focus’ Sai Bhajans for Saican Company, Canada. He has also worked with a French Guitarist Nadaka and released a Fusion Album namely ‘Living Colours ‘ mixing three different Styles produced by Rain Tree Records.