CHENNAI: Famous guitarist Angus Young once said, “I go where my guitar takes me” and now he is one of the renowned artists of our times. It is hard to find such daring remarkable people who not only had talent, but also courage. CE meets one such musician, R Prasanna, popularly known as ‘Guitar’ Prasanna, who brought together the world of Carnatic music and the strings of his guitar. He talks to us about his experience in Berklee College of Music (Boston), his journey with the Margazhi festival and his shift from an IIT-graduate with a degree in naval architecture to a full-time music composer.
“I fell in love with the guitar when I saw my neighbour playing the instrument. I was five then. That was the first time I had seen any instrument. But, then I started playing it only when I was 11,” remembers Prasanna.Thirty years of being a musician, he says his IIT tenure was not by accident but by choice. “I was a Naval Architecture graduate from IIT ‘92 batch. The career as a musician happened because I realised that my calling lies there. It can’t be called a shift of profession because I never worked as a naval engineer,” adds Prasanna.
The artiste, an innovator in the artform from the first day itself, did not realise that he was doing anything special when he started playing Carnatic music on guitar. Didn’t he fear that playing classical music in a western instrument may cause a loss in the aesthetics of the art? “When I started the guitar, I played anything and everything I heard. But the reason I started playing Carnatic music on my guitar is simple. I felt it was cool that time, I feel the same even today,” laughs Prasanna.
For the last 30 years, Prasanna had not missed the Margazhi season even once and his reason for that is more of a sentimental one. “Following up on the season has been a quite journey. I live in New York now, but performing during Margazhi connects me to my roots in Chennai and it has been overwhelming every time I perform here. This time also, during the concert at Phoenix MarketCity, I could still feel the Chennai boy in me,” he adds.
Is he a travel buff? “I love to travel and I travel extensively, but if you ask me which is my favourite place, then I don’t have an answer. If you ask me which is my pick in beaches and mountains, I don’t have an answer for that either. What I believe is, each place has its own beauty and when we travel to a certain place, we make dearly memories which are also owned by that particular place, so it is hard to pick,”
says Prasanna.
‘It’s natural’
Music is not something Prasanna needs to work on. He says it comes to him naturally, like sleep or hunger. “Sometimes, it’s spontaneous and sometimes it’s just a skill! It can be a subliminal experience or even a practical one. Sometimes it’s magic and at other times it’s just another project.”
This week...
● One-day personality development workshop, Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music on December 13
● A classical guitar concert at Arkay Convention Centre on December 15
For details visit: www.guitarprasanna.com/events