MUMBAI: Pancham Nishad is soon to start a carnatic concert on an annual basis around the birth anniversary (28th February) of Mandolin U Shrinivas as a tribute to the late maestro. Carnatic Connect is a humble  tribute to the legendary artiste Mandolin U. Srinivas.

The concert is scheduled on Tuesday, 18th February 2020 at Nehru Centre, Worli 6.30 pm onwards and  shall feature U Rajesh – Mandolin and world renowned Carnatic classical vocalists Ranjani –Gayatri.

U Rajesh is one of the leading mandolin artistes in the country today, U Rajesh is the younger brother of the legendary mandolin virtuoso Mandolin U Shrinivas.

In his childhood, his father and brother were his tutors in music. He started playing Carnatic classical music on mandolin at the age of 6, and performed his first concert, at in the presence of Shri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi.

His work with John McLaughlin‘s album Floating Point, received a Grammy nomination in 2009. He was the youngest participant in the Magic Mandolin Festival (Germany).

Next up would be Ranjani and Gayatri whose musical talents were discovered at a very early age. Gayatri could identify ragas at a young age and Ranjani could delineate complex rhythm patterns. They started their violin training at the early age of nine and six respectively from Sangita Bhushanam Prof. T.S. Krishnaswami at the Shanmukhananda Sangeeta Vidyalaya, Mumbai.

They started their musical journey as violinists even before they reached their teens, performing in leading sabhas (music organizations) all over the country and abroad. Besides playing the violin duet, they have also performed along with musicians such as Smt.D.K.Pattammal, Sri M Balamurali Krishna, T.Vishwanathan.

He is one of the directors of the music school, Srinivas Institute of World Music (SIOWM, named after U.Shrinivas), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, which is providing free musical tuition to the students.