Pranav Swaroop B N
Pranav Swaroop is an upcoming violinist trained in Carnatic music from Bangalore, India. Observing his interest, he was initiated to formal classical music training by his parents at the tender age of ten under gurus Mattur T Gopal (Vocal) and Vid M E Nataraj (Violin). He has been learning for the past 13 years and is presently under the tutelage of gurus, Lalgudi Krishnan, Dr. Karaikudi Subramanian, Vid. H S Sudhindra and Vid. Bangalore S Shankar.
Well qualified in his academic career, Pranav holds his Bachelors degree from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore and is presently pursuing MS in Music Technology at Georgia Tech, Atlanta. With interests in Acoustics and Signal processing, Pranav presently works for the Audio solutions team at Motorola. Pranav has been performing Carnatic Violin solo concerts and has had the privilege to accompany many senior artists has performed over 700 concerts till date across India, United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa.
As a national level prize winner and graded artiste of All India Radio, Pranav has been performing regularly across India and abroad and has bagged many prizes, awards, and recognition. Pranav is a State first-rank holder in his 'Vidwat' examination in both Carnatic Vocal and Violin and has been the recipient of Karnataka Sangeeta Nritya academy fellowship from Govt. of Karnataka for both Carnatic Vocal and Violin consecutively for two years (2014 and 2015).
In addition, Pranav has won several awards such as ‘Kishora Prathibha’ from Govt. of Karnataka (2012), Veene Sheshanna Memorial award and Swaramurthy V N Rao memorial award from MES Foundation (2016) to name a few and has been the recipient of MHRD Scholarship from Govt. of India (2014) and NTSE Scholarship from Govt. of Karnataka (2010).
Pranav has been regularly performing in the United States and has been accompanying artists from India in both Classical music and dance. Under the auspices of Ministry of External Affairs and ICCR, Pranav has performed at the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in addition to a workshop on ‘Appreciating Indian Classical music’ at the Embassy of India in Reykjavik, Iceland which was well received among the western audience. Recently, Pranav performed at ‘Uchisaiwaicho India Festival-2020’ organised by the Embassy of India in Tokyo, Japan alongside other Japanese musicians. In addition, Pranav has also performed for the Sri Lankan National Television network- Nethra TV.
Pranav has played for audio albums such as ’Sharanam Prapadye’ by Bangalore S Shankar, ’Devotional songs’ by Mysore Nagamani Srinath to name a few and was privileged to be part of Amrutagurukula - Carnatic Music tutorial series on AIR - Amrutavarshini under his guru, Vid. Bangalore S Shankar. Pranav was also one of the finalists of Sangeet Yatra (2015) and runner up at Sangeet Samrat (2016), reality shows in Carnatic music aired on Sri Sankara TV.
In addition to performing Carnatic concerts, Pranav has been regularly accompanying Bharathanatyam and Kuchipudi productions and performances in India and the US. Pranav was privileged to be a part of ‘VedaBharathi’, thematic dance presentation on the compositions of the famous Tamil poet Subramaniya Bharathiar, music composed by the Lalgudi’s at the Kalakshetra Foundation and Narada Ganasabha, Chennai and recently for ‘DrisTi’, an initiative by Sri Sankara Netralaya USA.
Thanks to his versatility, Pranav plays for ‘Project Mishram’, a Bangalore based progressive Carnatic fusion band. An amalgamation of the western genres centered around the Indian classical music, Pranav has had the opportunity to perform at prominent venues across India and abroad such as Music Mojo at Kappa TV and has won at inter-collegiate festivals and band competitions, as many as 35, Yamaha Swagbash (2017) and Forum Rock-On (2018) among others. Pranav has had the privilige to play with his band and open for stalwarts like Sid Sriram and Shaan at IIT Madras, Thaikkudam Bridge at IISc, Sunidhi Chauhan at XIM-Bhubhaneshwar, Anushka Manchanda at RVCE 8th Mile, ’The Local train’ at NIT Suratkal and so on. The band was invited to perform at the official launch of 'Monster Energy' in India and at TEDx NitteDU and Hyderabad.
Mishram made its debut international concert tour last year in the United Kingdom, playing 13 shows over 15 days including at the prestigious UK Tech Metal Fest-2019 among others supported by SAMA Arts Network, Kannadigaru UK and Air India. Pranav was privileged to present a masterclass on Carnatic music with Shivaraj Natraj at the UK Tech Fest and also be interviewed on the BBC Asian Network during the tour.
Pranav is one of the proud winners of the prestigious Maruti Suzuki-Colors of Youth-Season 7, a reality show for entertainment acts across the country on MTV judged by Benny Dayal, Shakti Mohan, Neeti Mohan, and Soha Ali Khan. Pranav performed with Shivaraj Nataraj and Sanath Shanbogue of 'Mishram' as a trio set, held across India in multiple rounds. A brand new Maruti Suzuki-Vitara Brezza was gifted to the winners of the show.
Pranav has toured with the popular contemporary folk-rock band, ‘The Raghu Dixit Project’ across the country for headliners and corporate shows such as the Volvo XC-40 launch at Bangalore, Chennai, and Lucknow; the launch of Sennheiser Evolution G4 wireless microphones in India at Mumbai. Pranav performed with the Raghu Dixit project at the ‘World Rainforest Music festival’ in Malaysia held in July-2018 and also did a workshop on Carnatic violin playing- ’The turn of the wrist’ alongside acclaimed musicians from all over the world.
Pranav has played for a couple of theatre productions for ‘Satvika-Rangapayana’ under Rajguru Hoskote and has played background scores for Kannada films, recorded jingles for radio and commercial ads. Pranav was privileged to sing a small duet with renowned playback singer KS Chitra for ‘RedAdda- The life-changing show’, with RJ Raaj on 93.5 Red FM.
Pranav has had the privilege to work with artists from across India and abroad such as Maharastra’s KC Loy for the JCB’s Dancing digger show at ExCON-2018, Alice Barron, violinist from the UK at Croydon Mela-2019, ‘Argenil’, the EDM Duo for their EP, ‘She Did It’ to name a few. In 2018, Pranav performed at the Indian Fine Arts Society in Lagos, Nigeria with the child prodigy Rahul Vellal, with whom he has played extensively and also played a series of promotional shows for NEXA Ignis by Maruti Suzuki, the launch of Shell V-Power Diesel in India to name a few.
Pranav was invited to judge the Instrumental solo events during MVJ Swayam-2017, Voice of 8th Mile at RVCE and the Battle of bands event at VIT Riviera-2018. He was selected to attend a Music Production and Performance workshop at SAM, Chennai under eminent musicians from all over the world such as Thomas Juth, Esther Rojas from Berklee and Sid Jacobs to name a few.
Pranav performed with Praveen D Rao's team, 'Chakrafonics' featuring Ajay Warrior and Varijashri Venugopal for the 45th Anniversary celebrations of Atlanta Kannada Koota and was invited to perform a Carnatic Violin solo concert by the Consulate General of India, Atlanta during 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi at its premises.
While being in college, Pranav worked for their annual fest, BMSCE-Utsav as an Organizing committee member, as a coordinator of the college music team- Ninaad and represented BMSCE at various intercollegiate solo events winning as many as 10 competitions, including a Gold medal twice and a Silver medal at the VTU Fest. He was awarded the BMSCE Alumni Association scholarship in 2018 and was featured in the Dec 18 edition of the Indian Talent magazine.