Natarajan Ganesh Kumar, popularly known as ''Kanjira Ganesh'' (born June 1, 1964) is an Indian

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, teacher and music composer. He develops new techniques to play the

kanjira The kanjira, khanjira, khanjiri or ganjira, a South Indian frame drum, is an instrument of the tambourine family. As a folk and bhajan instrument, it has been used in India for many centuries. The kanjira's emergence in South Indian Carnatic m ...

and is the first

south India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

n percussionist to receive a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

award, given by the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

. He has also invented a synthetic Kanjira, released by Cooperman Frame Drums in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, under the "artist innovation" series.Ramachandran, K. (2004)
A new frame drum is here
, ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', 22 December 2004, retrieved 2011-03-13 He has accompanied south Indian musicians including MS Subbulakshmi, Balamurali Krishna, KJ Yesudas, Mandolin Srinivas, L Subramaniam and Ravikiran.

Awards and honours

* Best Kanjira Artist - Krishnagana Sabha * Best Kanjira Artist - Indian Fine Arts * Best Kanjira Artist - Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer Trust * Asthana Vidhwan of Sri Kanchi Kamakotti Mutt * Yuvakala Bharathi - Bharath Kalachar

References

External links

Official Website
Indian percussionists Living people 1964 births {{India-musician-stub