Kumari Rajna Swaminathan Mrudangam Artist
	Kumari Rajna Swaminathan, disciple of MRUDANGAM MAESTRO SRI UMAYALPURAM K. SIVARAMAN, is an upcoming young artiste 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 artiste to be completely and personally trained by Maestro Sri Sivaraman.  She is a 17 year old 11th grader in Paint Branch High School, Maryland, USA. 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, 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, R. Suryaprakash, and Sikkil Gurucharan. Rajna performs regularly for the prestigious Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana.  She was specially spotlighted by Jaya TV. Rajna debuted in Chennai during summer 2005 and she received great approbation from dignitaries and musicians.  Rajna visits India twice a year, performing in various cities and especially for the Chennai December Music Season.  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 in the 12:00 noon slot for Dr. Vijayagopal (Flute), and received the "Best Junior Mrudangam Artiste" award.  She is the youngest and the first female to get this award. Rajna also 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. Rajna is a member of the light music group RASIKA, where she performs for Mrudangam based cinema songs. Rajna gave a World Clinic/Performance on "Women In Percussion - Breaking the Gender Barrier in India," at PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention). This was held in Austin, Texas on November 10th, 2006.    Rajna was invited to teach south Indian Rhythms at the KOSA International percussion camp 2007, where she gave masterclasses, workshops and performed Mrudangam solos.  She received standing ovations and was greatly adored by the Western percussion community.  She is the youngest participant in the history of these events. Rajna is the youngest and one of only a handful of female Mrudangam/percussion artistes 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 artistes, promote her divine instrument to the Western world and put it on the global map.