Uppalapu Rajesh is an Indian

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

player of

Carnatic classical music Carnatic music, known as or in the South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka. It is o ...

, a music producer, and a composer.

Career

His work with John McLaughlin's album ''

Floating Point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic that represents real numbers approximately, using an integer with a fixed precision, called the significand, scaled by an integer exponent of a fixed base. For example, 12.345 can be ...

'', received a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nomination in 2009. He was the youngest participant in the Magic Mandolin Festival, (Germany), has performed at the

Lincoln Centre Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

, New York City, and has given concerts in BBC Live at London,

Melbourne Concert Hall Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...

Cité de la Musique The Cité de la Musique ("City of Music"), also known as Philharmonie 2, is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the Parc de la Villette, 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was designed with the nearby Conservatoire d ...

, Paris, Greece, Canada,

Middle-East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europea ...

, United States, and Europe. He has performed live with the

Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra The Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) is Johannesburg's leading Philharmonic Orchestra. The chair of the Board of Directors is Mr Justice Dikgang Moseneke, and the CEO and Artistic Director is Bongani Tembe. Tembe was appointed in 2015. H ...

(with

Dominique Di Piazza Dominique Di Piazza, born in Lyon, France, in 1959, is an bass guitar, electric bass player. Di Piazza discovered the bass in 1979. Already a self-taught guitarist, Di Piazza developed a distinctive, but unorthodox 'closed palm' technique of pick ...

), KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, and Closer home (with

Stephen Devassy Stephen Devassy (born 23 February 1981) is an Indian musician hailing from Palakkad, Kerala. He started his career at a very early age, and has performed on stage around the world. Stephen is the founder of Musik Lounge, an audio technology sch ...

). His music performance at New York in 2006, was voted among the best concerts of the year, by ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. He was specially honored by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

, in April 2007. He has released solo albums, namely – ''Coromandel Duet'' (with A.K.Palanivel), ''Amalgamation'', ''Vikku Vinayakaram'', ''Spirits'', ''Following My Heart'' and ''Into the Light''. The musical album ''Samjanitha'' included himself, U.Srinivas,

Zakir Hussain Zakir Hussain ( ur, , link=no) is the name of: * Zakir Husain (politician), an Indian politician and former president of India * Zakir Hussain (actor), Bollywood actor * Zakir Hussain (field hockey) (1934–2019), Pakistani field hockey player * ...

Sivamani Sivamani (1 December 1959), commonly known by his stage name Drums Sivamani, is an Indian percussionist. He plays many instruments including drums, octoban, darbuka, udukai, ghatam and kanjira. He performed drumming during the IPL Championships ...

, and George Brook. U.Rajesh has been involved in tours and recordings with many music artists in both

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

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 ...

, such as Ustad Zakir Hussain,

Ustad Sultan Khan Ustad Sultan Khan (15 April 1940 – 27 November 2011) was an Indian ''sarangi'' player and classical vocalist belonging to ''Sikar Gharana''. He was one of the founding members of the Indian fusion group Tabla Beat Science, with Zakir Huss ...

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian music director and classical flautist, who plays the bansuri, in the Hindustani classical tradition. Early life Chaurasia was born in Allahabad (1938) (officially called Prayagraj) in th ...

Shankar Mahadevan Shankar Mahadevan (born 3 March 1967) is an Indian singer and composer who is part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio that writes music for Indian films. Personal life and early career Shankar Mahadevan was born in Chembur, Mumbai into a Tami ...

, Hariharan,

Louis Banks Louis Banks (born Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi on 11 February 1941) is an Indian film composer, record producer, keyboardist, and singer. He has often been referred to as the 'Godfather of Indian jazz'.Ranjit Barot Ranjit Barot (born 1959) is an Indian film score composer, music director, music arranger, drummer and singer based in Mumbai, India. He is a longtime associate of A. R. Rahman. He has been described by guitar legend John McLaughlin as "one of ...

, Mike Marshall, Sivamani and

Pete Lockett Pete Lockett is an English percussionist and recording artist. Lockett is known as a versatile and prolific percussionist, collaborating with many artists. He is well-versed in percussion traditions from music cultures around the world, from tradit ...

Karsh Kale Karsh Kale (pronounced ''Kursh Kah-lay'', ''कर्ष काळे'' in Marathi; born 1 November 1974) is an Indian-American musician born in England. Known primarily for his experimental tabla playing within electronic music contexts, Kale' ...

and Greg Ellis,

Bickram Ghosh Bickram Ghosh is an Indian classical tabla player. Early life He started learning tabla from his father, Pandit Shankar Ghosh, who had played with Ali Akbar Khan. Career Ghosh has performed with Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar. Ghos ...

Kamal Sabri Kamal may refer to: *Kamal (name), a male given name and surname with multiple origins *Kamal (navigation), a navigational instrument for measuring latitude *Kamal, Jhapa, a rural municipality in Nepal *Alfa Romeo Kamal, an SUV by Alfa Romeo *Oper ...

Niladri Kumar Pandit Niladri Kumar is an Indian sitar player and music composer. Early life He was born to sitar player Kartick Kumar, a disciple of Ravi Shankar. He started learning sitar under his father at the age of four. Kumar gave his first public per ...

etc. U.Rajesh in 2014, teamed with singer Karthik to form the band Srishti.

Personal life

U.Rajesh was born on 17 May 1977 at Palakol, Andhra Pradesh, as the youngest child of U.Satyanarayana ''(father)'' and Kantham ''(mother)''. He is the younger brother of late U.Srinivas, a notable mandolin player in Carnatic classical music, in India. 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

Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, also called the Sri Kanchi Matham or the Sri Kanchi Monastery or the Sarvagna Peetha, is a Hindu institution, located in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. It is located near a temple dedicated to Goddess Sri Kamakshi (Durg ...

in the presence of Shri. Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi. U.Rajesh is an ardent devotee of the Paramacharya of Kanchi. He is also a follower and devotee of Sri Sathya Sai Baba and has performed before him on several occasions. 110] He and his brother have performed in concerts together, and have released musical albums together. He is one of the directors of the music school, ''Srinivas Institute of World Music (SIOWM, named after U.Srinivas),''

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, Tamil Nadu, which is providing free musical tuition to the students.

Controversy

In 2018, as a part of what was widely considered as India's #MeToo movement, singer

Chinmayi Chinmayi Sripaada is an Indian playback singer, working mainly for the South Indian film industry. She is also a voice actor, television presenter, radio jockey, and an entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of a translation services company ...

shared an account of a minor who accused Rajesh of sexually harassing her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajesh, U. 1977 births Living people Carnatic instrumentalists Indian mandolinists Jazz fusion musicians World music musicians Indian male classical musicians Indian male composers Carnatic composers 20th-century Indian musicians 21st-century Indian musicians Musicians from Andhra Pradesh Indian music educators Telugu people English male composers English jazz composers Male jazz composers People from West Godavari district 20th-century British male musicians 21st-century British male musicians