Prof. Trichy Sankaran, is a master mrdangam (barrel-shaped drum) and
kanjira (tambourine) player of the Carnatic, or South Indian classical music tradition. In addition, he has had a profound influence as a teacher of the history, theory and performance practice of the South Indian vocal and drumming traditions on two generations of North American performers and composers. The author of a textbook on South Indian classical drumming, Sankaran is credited with having raised the
mrdangam and kanjira to the status of solo concert instruments.
By 1971, when he began teaching at York University in Toronto, he was already a mature percussionist, thoroughly trained in the South Indian guru-shishya parampara system. He was also repeatedly featured as a drummer in significant exploratory works by composers at York, playing in Richard Teitelbaum’s
TAI CHI ALPHA TALA (for Tai Chi performer, biomedical telemetry system, synthesizer, mrdangam, and video synthesizer). One element of the piece involved attaching brain-wave monitors to a dancer who performed Tai-Chi dance movements; the dancer's brainwave signals were picked up and sent via a biomedical telemetry system to Teitelbaum's analogue synthesizer which transformed those signals into audible pulses. Sankaran, listening and instantaneously reacting to the stream of pulses, found patterns within them, which he then replicated and transformed in his live
mrdangam performance.
In addition to his work at York University, Sankaran has led an active international performing schedule with such jazz and new music luminaries as Anthony Braxton, Charlie Haden and Pauline Oliveros, as well as with most of the leading Carnatic artists of the past forty years. He has gained international recognition for his multifarious and cross-cultural musical accomplishments, receiving an honourary doctorate from the University of Victoria in 1998. He continues to teach at York and at Kalayalam, his own school of South Asian percussion, and travels annually to India.
Trichy Sankaran in Musicworks:
“Trichy Sankaran: South Indian Drummer, Western Composer.” Andrew Timar. Musicworks 59.
“Vidwan Trichy Sankaran: So much to Learn, So Much to Give.” Ken Shorley. Musicworks 59.
Sankaran has written “Writing for Gamelan Ensemble” in Musicworks 47; and “ “The Tuning of Time” a conversation with James Tenney and Casey Sokol in Musicworks 29.
For further information visit 
www.trichysankaran.com
