Kartik Seshadri

Performance
Sitar/Tabla

kaseshadri@ucsd.edu

Website

Pandit Kartik Seshadri is a world-renowned force in the field of Indian Classical Music. As a sitarist, he attracted widespread attention when he began performing full-length solos at the age of 6 in India. The sitar maestro is now hailed as an "amazingly accomplished" musical powerhouse noted for his music's "expressive beauty, rich tonal sensibility, and rhythmic intricacy," praised the Washington Postwhile the Times of India (2011) noted that Seshadri's concert was "a show stopper that transported the audience to soak soul deep in his mesmerizing performance." The prestigious Songlines Magazine (UK) has in its March 2012 issue declared his latest album Sublime Ragas as one of the "Top Ten of the World's" CD's (as with his 2004 Raga:Rasa album) further citing him as one of the "world's greatest sitarist players."

A multifarious confluence of musical influences steeped in the Maihar gharana's dhrupad & beenkar styles, Seshadri began his initial training with Shri Shankar Rao of the Vishnupur Gharana and further trained and toured worldwide with his acclaimed guru Pandit Ravi Shankar. In 2005 and 2010, Seshadri collaborated with composer Philip Glass and the Brazilian instrumental group UAKTI on the critically acclaimed Orion project. Seshadri performs extensively in his homeland and around the world, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, Mexico and the Middle East. He has played at prestigious venues and events ranging from Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Melbourne International Arts Festival in Australia, the Brighton Festival in UK, the Ravinia Festival, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to the Dover Lane, ITC, Sawai Gandharva Samaroh and Saptak Sammelans in India to name but a few. Seshadri has received numerous awards and accolades for his contributions to the musical world including his June 2011 nomination as the Artist of the Month" by the prestigious Sangeeth Research Academy (SRA) in Kolkata and his 2014 honorary award from the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) for his "incredible contributions, vision, leadership and expertise in the creative field...and as a true pioneer" of music and art.

Seshadri is also a distinguished composer and educator of Indian Classical Music. While his Quartet for a Raga was premiered under the auspices of the Contemporary Music Forum in Washington D.C., his latest "Concerto #1 for Sitar and Chamber Orchestra" received its 2010 world premier in San Diego.

As an educator Seshadri heads one of the largest programs of Indian Classical Music in the USA at the University of California San Diego. He has been invited as a distinguished guest faculty member at various conservatories, universities and academies around the world: The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, Stanford University, the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music in Bath, U.K., and the Sangeeth Research Academy (SRA) in Kolkata, India. In 2009 Seshadri launched Raga : Rasa, Kartik Seshadri's Center for Indian Classical music and improvisation.