Join percussionist Rohan Krishnamurthy for a discussion and demonstration of his original hybrid drum kit blending South Indian carnatic percussion and the Western drum kit. Rohan will take audience members through the history of the hybrid kit and his inspiration for developing a cross-genre, inclusive paradigm that is central to the history of the drum set. Technical aspects will be covered to enable artists to develop their own setup, including the process of aesthetically combining multi-modal textures with hands, sticks, and feet, and idiomatically translating repertoire between traditions. Rohan will perform musical examples with his Indo-jazz-funk ensemble, The Alaya Project, featuring hybrid kit—mridangam, khanjira, snare, bass drum, hi-hat, and cymbals— plus saxophone and keyboard/accordion. New textures will be demonstrated such as split-finger techniques on snare and cymbals, and several hand/stick/feet linear combinations. These examples will highlight how the hybrid kit can seamlessly traverse genres and bring us closer to a universal approach to percussion. All musical levels are welcome.
Indian-American percussionist and composer Rohan Krishnamurthy is one of the leading voices of Indian classical and cross-genre music in the South Asian diaspora. Acclaimed a "musical ambassador" by The Times of India, he received mridangam training from the esteemed Indian guru, Sri. Guruvayur Dorai. He studied jazz and funk drum set with Alan Hall at the California Jazz Conservatory and tabla with Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar College of Music. Distinguished as a soloist, composer, and collaborator, Rohan performed with legendary Indian classical musicians and cross-over artists. Rohan holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the Eastman School of Music and directs the RohanRhythm Percussion Studio. Rohan is the recipient of prestigious international awards and grants including recent commissions from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Foundation, and Goethe Institute (Germany). He has taught at renowned institutions and his patented RohanRhythm drum tuning system is available worldwide. Learn more at www.rohanrhythm.com