Master Rohan Krishnamurthy

Twelve-year-old Rohan Krishnamurthy, who lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, began learning mridangam at the age of eight under Damodharan Srinivasan. After three months of one-to-one training, further classes had to be held over the telephone since Srinivasan moved to Massachusetts. This arrangement worked out well and was one of the two turning points in Rohan’s mridangam activities. The other turning point was when Rohan met the famous Guruvayur Dorai in Michigan and the latter agreed to train him during Rohan’s visit to Chennai. Rohan spent one month in the summer of 1997 and part of December 1998 taking advanced classes from Sri Dorai. Rohan has performed in many concerts in the US and won first prizes in several competitions held by various Thyagaraja Aradhana festivals, in particular the junior and senior prizes in Cleveland.

During the 1998 Music Festival in Chennai Rohan provided mridangam support for eight concerts in some of the famous sabhas. Commenting on one of his performances, Mr. Sunderrajan, the celebrated music critic wrote in ‘The Hindu’ " The percussion prodigy from America once again stole the show with an immaculate performance on the mridangam." Another critic, Mr. Rajagopal, wrote in ‘The Hindu‘ about the concert in the Indian Fine Arts - "The eleven-year-old Rohan Krishnamurthy was the cynosure of all eyes. His smart pats on the mridangam and his thani (solo) for the Bhairavi showed his acute sense of timing and rhythm." The celebrated Sruti magazine identified Rohan as one of the promising young bloods that took part in the 1998 music season. In the 1999 season, Rohan is slated to provide mridangam accompaniment in 10 concerts including the prestigious Music Academy.

Rohan also had the enviable experience of playing in front of the great Bharat Ratna M.S.Subhalakshmi in her house in Chennai. Seeing him play, MS commented - "You play without any mistakes. Your skills are well beyond your age. I am amazed that you have gathered enough skills to play for concerts in such a short time. Keep it up."