rajna swaminathan

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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 her father exclusively, he realized Rajna’s potential, took her under his wing and intensively groomed her as his protégé.   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 currently a 20 year-old undergraduate student at the University of Maryland College Park, majoring in Cultural Anthropology and French.

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 in October 2004.

Rajna has accompanied several senior and upcoming artists from India including Dr. N. Ramani, Smt. Jayalakshmi Santhanam, Smt. Suguna Purushothaman, Smt. Radha Venkatachalam, Chitravina N. Ravikiran, Vijay Siva, Rudrapatnam Brothers, Dr. K. S. Subramanian, Flute Shashank, Carnatica Brothers (K. N. Shashikiran & P. Ganesh), Papanasam Ashok Ramani, Kunnakudi 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. She has also performed in Bangalore, Mysore, Bombay, Trivandrum and New Delhi.  Rajna received the "Best Junior Mrudangam Artiste" award for her performance at the Music Academy (Chennai) in December 2007.  She is the youngest and the first female to receive this award.  She was awarded the "Azhiyur Natesha Iyer Endowment Prize" by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in December 2008. In January 2009, Rajna accompanied Gayathri Venkataraghavan with Akkarai Subbalakshmi on violin at the prestigious Shanmukanandha Hall in Bombay.   During the spring of 2009, Rajna toured USA in an all female ensemble featuring Smt Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (violin), Smt Sikkil Mala (flute), Smt Jaishree Jairaj (veena) and Smt Bhagyalakshmi (morsing). 

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 also performs Mrudangam for dance performances, most notably accompanying the Dhananjayans at the Smithsonian in 2006, and recently with the Ragamala Dance Company (Minneapolis) at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., during the Maximum India Festival in March 2011.  In October 2009, Rajna performed at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) in a special collaboration between the Ragamala Dance Company and Çudamani (a company of Balinese Gamelan/dance artists). 



Rajna is one of the youngest of only a handful of female Mrudangam artists in the world. In addition to Mrudangam, Rajna has learned piano and Bharatanatyam for several years. Apart from accompanying South Indian music and dance, Rajna's goal is to collaborate with Western and world music artists, promote her divine instrument to the Western world and put it on the global map. Using her hybrid musical foundation, she has been composing and creating crossover works. Recently, her composition in collaboration with her sister Anjna, a pushpanjali in raga Gavathi, was commissioned and premiered by Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company at the Kennedy Center during the Maximum India Festival in March 2011.