The Moksha Academy All Stars Consists of Highly Reputable Musicians from Bangalore
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THE MOKSHA ACADEMY ALL STARS CONSISTS OF HIGHLY REPUTABLE MUSICIANS FROM BANGALORE. THE BAND HAS ITS UNIQUE, IRRESISTIBLE MUSICAL CHARM AND CREATIVE MIX, TO ENTERTAIN ANY AUDIENCE WITH THEIR OWN SET OF FANS. THE BAND HAS DONE OVER 30 GIGS ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN THE LAST 3 YEARS WITH VENUES MOST OFTEN INVITING THE BAND BACK TO PERFORM AGAIN. THE ALL STARS FEATURE WELL-RESPECTED MUSICIANS INCLUDING SANJAY CHANDRAKANTH, SHALINI MOHAN, JOSHUA COSTA, AVINASH GRUBB, RICHARD ANDREW AND JAIME. AN EXTRAORDINARY LINE-UP OF GUEST VOCALISTS, WHO HAVE CAPTIVATED AUDIENCES IN INDIA AND OVERSEAS, WITH STYLES INFUSED FROM DIFFERENT GENRES OF MUSIC, WILL ENSURE YOU WITNESS AN IMPRESSIVE ARRAY OF POP, ROCK, JAZZ AND THE BLUES! THE BAND COLLABORATES WITH SOME HEAVY WEIGHT (NOT IN THE LITERAL SENSE) VOCALISTS THUS BRINGING OUT A VERY DIFFERENT FEEL TO EVERY GIG. LISTED BELOW ARE SOME OF THE GIGS, THE BAND HAS DONE AND THE ARTISTS THAT THEY HAVE COLLABORATED WITH. I’m every Woman - bFlat The Moksha Academy live - Opus Friday night live - blueFROG Moksha All Stars - blueFROG Sunday night live - bFlat Unplugged – Urban Solace Friday night live – Take5 Live at BGC Concert for a cause - Chai 3:16 Under the Stars - OO Heaven Party nights - BGC Annual Concert - bFlat Artists: Sanjay Chandrakanth is a corporate executive turned guitarist and mentor. His musical expertise is built on a solid foundation of formal learning plus over 30 years of performance experience across a wide repertoire of musical styles. He has been an integral part and founding member of several bands in South India since the early 80’s like Legends, Burn, Dravids, City Limits and many more. Mr. Chandrakanth has also authored a digital guitar tutorial, ‘Learn To Play The Guitar Like a Pro’. Avinash Mario Grubb started learning the piano at the age of 5 under the guidance of his mother. He completed graded piano exams with Trinity and Royal Schools of Music as well as completed his Diploma in Piano performance from Trinity college of Music when he was 15. He was formerly a faculty member at the Bangalore School of Music for piano and electronic keyboards. He has performed with numerous international visiting artists and is also an organist at St. Marks' Cathedral. Richard Andrew is a music mentor, an entrepreneur and a startup consultant. Music being in his DNA, he is a multi-instrumentalist and singer, with experience in mixing and assisting as a technician for MLTR, Jethro Tull, A.R.Rahman, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Zakir Hussain, Sivamani, Viku Vinakayam and Remo Fernandez; as well as performed with Moksha, Xodus and Jus Frendz. His passion for music ensures that education, creation and collaboration bring out the best in each of his students at Moksha Academy of Arts. Jaime Dudley started playing the drums before he could even walk! He is all of 15 years and as the drummer for The Moksha Academy, he has already shared the stage with tenured musicians, at various venues like blueFROG, Take5, bFlat, Bangalore Golf Club and so on. He is also the drummer for the band in his school, where he exhibits not just incredible musical talent but is also an outstanding student, having recently won a prize for outstanding excellence in economics; besides being a star football player. Give Jaime any tune and he will instantly get you moving to the beat of the drum. Shalini Mohan is a Bangalore based Bassist. She started her foray into music with the piano before turning her passion towards the bass. She completed her Music Theory exams in ABRSM, and plays the Trumpet. She is now also the Vocalist/Bassist and front man of her own band Ginny & the Bottle. Shalini is a core member of the Bangalore based Folk Rock band Lagori, and the acoustic Folk band Allegro Fudge. Besides these projects, she sessions regularly for Vasundhara Das and Roberto Narain. Shalini has performed at prestigious venues such as NH7 Weekender, MAD Festival, INK Conference, several televised programs in English as well as regional channels, and events outside the country as well. Joshua Costa has been playing keyboards and piano from the age of 8. Joshua plays with various bands and artists, like Colin D’Cruz and Jazz Junction, The Gerard Machado Network, Riverman Band, The Beer Puppets, retro setup The Butterfingers as well as Quad and Classic Wild playing Classic Rock and some progressive rock. Off late, he is also part of an interesting music project fusing bollywood classics with the elements of jazz and R&B called MaJa. He has two albums of his Own (Always there and Aikya). He has also performed at various national and international music festivals like Jazz Yatra, Delhi and the Sri Lanka International Jazz Festival, Colombo. Tanya Shanker began her journey with music at the age of 7. She was adjudged the most talented vocalist in school, while she was in the 2nd grade. For a brief period, while in America, she did a solo performance on Veterans’ day in school, which was much admired by the audience. Now, back in India, she performs in the school band, as one of the lead singers. Under Richard's able guidance, at the Moksha Academy, she has performed in various gigs all over the city, like blueFROG, bFlat and Bangalore Golf Club. Girish Pradhan founded Girish And The Chronicles (GATC) in 2009. GATC was the 1st Indian Rock Band to participate in the Sun cane Skale International Music Festival, Europe, in 2010. Their recent video ‘The Endless Road’ for ‘MYNTRA’ has crossed 10 million views on Facebook and YouTube combined. GATC has also performed in Dubai, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand. Girish Pradhan was awarded the Best Vocalist in India at the 'Yamaha Asian Beat Competition' in 2011. Critics have dubbed Girish Pradhan as one of the best glam rock voices, which is surely ratified, when one listens to Girish croon. Arati Rao Shetty - Having been an ad film and music professional, producer of music videos, as well as being an artist, curator and singer-songwriter, Arati Rao has constantly been reinventing herself. She fronted her own jazz and blues quartet and eventually created her own band, Kaya – which today, presents her own lyrics and compositions in a style that is a melange of all her musical influences. Arati has been responsible for encouraging independent music by creating a live music platform for musicians. She is one of the founders and does the curating and concert programming at Bengaluru’s BFlat Bar, a highly respected live music venue, that has acquired a great reputation with its careful selection of bands and excellent acoustics. Kaya Rao Shetty - make way for the new kid on the block, Kaya who is all of 16 years and has the voice of an angel. Talking about her voice, she states, “My singing is mostly self- taught as well as a result of watching my mother Arati Rao and aunts perform. But I have been playing the guitar for four years.” Kaya uses music as a stress buster. She sings mostly blues songs as her voice has a sort of blues undertone. Kaya has performed to packed houses at Humming Tree and bFlat. Mathangi Jagdish got the opportunity to sing her first solo song and her first duet for music director Deva in the film Choklet. Due to her eclectic upbringing and ability to speak Hindi, English and Tamil fluently, she has sung in over 17 languages in her career. She sang the song X Machi in the superhit film Ghajini. In 2011, she was a part of the legendary show Coke Studio@MTV. Over the last 11 years she has had the privilege of singing for Oscar-winning A. R. Rahman. She's also worked with leading music directors Harris Jayaraj, Vidyasagar, Bharadwaj, S. A. Rajkumar, D. Imman, Ramesh Vinayakam, Sabesh-Murali, Sirpy, Bharani, Dhina, to name a few. She was also a part of first season of Music Mojo on Kappa TV. Debjeet Basu - Born in Kolkata, India in 1979, Bangalore based guitarist and composer Debjeet Basu is one of the most exciting players in town. His passion for rock and for all the other genres of music he came across while growing up as a musician in Kolkata and in Bangalore has allowed him to create a unique voice on his instrument. Currently he plays lead guitar for Perfect Strangers, one of the leading rock bands of Bangalore. Perfect Strangers was awarded 8th best band in India in the prestigious Sennheiser "India's top 100 bands' competition, judged by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Sidharth Bharadwaj’s versatility in different genres of flute playing and composition ability make him one of the most desired flautists for studio sessions in the city. He also plays a variety of other instruments that include the Guitar, Mandolin, Drums and other Indian instruments like the Tabla and the Veena. He enjoys experimenting with adding Indian elements into western music. Sidharth’s has been a music director for 9 plays, 6 short films and 1 Kannada Feature film. Sidharth currently plays for Indian Fusion Act- Aathma. Apart from this band he has played with blues and funk bands. Sidharth’s versatility in different genres of flute playing and composition ability make him one of the most desired flautists for studio sessions in the city. Sylvester Pradeep is a Bangalore based musician, a multi-instrumentalist, singer songwriter and a composer. He has been part of bands like Solder, Windoze and the Sylvester Trio. Having been around for seventeen years in the music circle, he has performed in most of the popular art and music festivals, corporate events and venues in different parts of the country.