Vivek Rajagopalan (India)
Date: Friday, 5th December, 2014
Venue: IndiEarth Stage
Time: 8:00pm
Vivek is an iconoclastic musician & composer. His music is a seamless blend of Carnatic, Hindustani, Jazz, Folk, Electronic and Drum-n-Bass to create edgy & global soundscapes. He began his career befriending the Mridangam under the guidance of renowned Guru, Shri. T. S. Nandakumar. Vivek’s involvement with music won him a handful awards at the collegiate & state levels.
He performed at the International Jazz Festival ‘96, Thailand along with Dinshaw Sanjana and a host of talented Jazz artists. Vivek also recorded on the album Sifar with Lucky Ali and toured with him as part of the band for almost a decade.
He represented India at the Common Wealth Concert Tour 2002 with Music director, Courtney Pine and other respected musicians from Commonwealth Countries. At the 2003 Jazz Yatra, Vivek performed with ‘Ragatronik’, consisting of world music stalwarts like Bugge Wesseltoft, Shri (Badmarsh & Shri), Per Martinsen and Dhruba Ghosh.
He released two albums Dancing with Shiva, 2007 and Moving Images, 2008. ‘Snake in the City’ also won the ‘most mind blowing music video award’ at AVIMA 2009. He was invited to perform at the prestigious Le Suds a Arles ’09, France and received a stupendous response from the audience.
Over the years he collaborated, performed & recorded with artists like Richard Bona on ‘Ten Shades of Blues’, and Bauchklang’s ‘Live in Mumbai’ album. His other collaborations include Bulgarian Folk Artist - Djaima, Beat-boxing genius - Shlomo and Punkt Festival, Norway.
He won Best Folk-fusion artist award at the Radio City - Freedom Radio Awards 2013 for his single ‘Quest’. He collaborated with artists from Africa, Nepal & Brazil on a project titled ‘In place of War’ along with British artists John McClure, Louis Barabbas and Hey Moonshaker at Bestival, Festival No.6 & Shambala Festival 2013, UK. Vivek is part of the ‘OK World Ensemble’, curated by Bugge Wessltoft, a world music project produced by Oslo World Music Festival.