Rajna Swaminathan

Rajna Swaminathan, disciple of MRUDANGAM MAESTRO Padma Vibhushan Dr. UMAYALPURAM K. SIVARAMAN, is an accomplished  young artist in the field of Carnatic percussion. She started learning Mrudangam from her father Dr. P. K. Swaminathan at the age of 5 and came under the direct tutelage of Sri Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman at the age of 8. The Maestro made 6 visits of 2 months' duration each to the Swaminathan residence in Maryland, between April 1999 and April 2001.  Although he came to USA only to teach the father exclusively, he realized the potential of the daughter, took her under his wing and  intensively groomed her as his protege.   Rajna visited Chennai in 2002 and 2003 to continue her training with the Maestro.  Rajna is the only Mrudangam artist to be completely and personally trained by Maestro Sri Sivaraman.  She is a 19 year old sophomore at the University of Maryland College Park, majoring in Cultural Anthropology.

During fall 2004, Rajna toured USA along with her illustrious Guru and performed for one piece in each venue (25 high profile venues including Asia Society, Smithsonian, and several Universities), on Mrudangam with Sri Sivaraman playing on Kanjira and encouraging her. She is the first and only female percussionist to share the stage with the Maestro. Sri Sivaraman presented her to the Maryland audience for a full two hour concert debut under the auspices of the Chinmaya Mission, Maryland on October 9th, 2004.

She has accompanied top artists including Dr. N. Ramani, Smt. Jayalakshmi Santhanam, Smt. Suguna Purushothaman, Smt. Radha Venkatachalam, Chitravina N. Ravikiran, Smt. R. N. Srilatha, Rudrapatnam Brothers, Veenai Dr. K. S. Subramanian, Flute Shashank, Carnatica Brothers (K. N. Shashikiran & P. Ganesh), Papanasam Ashok Ramani, Master Balamuralikrishna, Kiranavali Vidyashankar, Sreevalsan Menon, R. Suryaprakash, Gayathri Venkataraghavan, and Sikkil Gurucharan.

Rajna debuted in Chennai during summer 2005 and she received great approbation from dignitaries and musicians. Rajna performs regularly during the Chennai December Music Festival.  Rajna has performed in Bangalore, Mysore, Bombay, Trivandrum and New Delhi.  She was interviewed by Kairali TV which was broadcast worldwide.  Rajna performed at Madras Music Academy on December 24th, 2007 for Dr. Vijayagopal (Flute), and received the "Best Junior Mrudangam Artiste" award.  She is the youngest and the first female to get this award.  She was awarded the "Azhiyur Natesha Iyer Endowment Prize" by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha for her concert accompanying K. Jyotsna in December 2008.

Rajna performs Mrudangam for Dance programs, most notably the grand Kuchipudi dance ballet, Bharatha Sambhavam, held at Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater in 2004 and accompanying the Dhananjayans at Smithsonian in 2006.  During 2006, Rajna and her father won a Maryland Traditions Apprenticeship Award, using which she learned the nuances of playing Mrudangam for dance.

On January 3rd, 2009, Rajna accompanied Gayathri Venkataraghavan with Akkarai Subbalakshmi on violin for an award function at the prestigious Shanmukanandha Hall in Bombay.   During Spring 2009, Rajna toured USA in an all female ensemble featuring Smt Lalgudi Viji (violin), Smt Sikkil Mala (flute), Smt Jaishree Jairaj (veenai) and Smt Bhagyalakshmi (Moresing).  In October 2009, Rajna performed at the Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis with the Ragamala Dance Company collaborating with South Indian Dancers & Balinese Gamelan/Dance artists.

Rajna performs and gives workshops/clinics at western percussion conferences and camps such as PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Conference), KOSA International Camp, etc.

Rajna is a member of the light music group RASIKA, where she performs for Mrudangam-based cinema songs.

Rajna is the youngest and one of only a handful of female Mrudangam/percussion artists in the world. In addition to Mrudangam, Rajna has learned Piano and Bharathanatyam for several years. Apart from accompanying South Indian Music and Dance, Rajna's goal is to collaborate with Western artists, promote her divine instrument to the Western world and put it on the global map.