KARTHIK MANI
Inspired and tutored by his illustrious parents – T.A.S.Mani, renowned percussionist and founder of The Karnataka College of percussion and his mother, ground breaking vocalist and pioneer of Carnatic-jazz fusion R.A. Ramamani, Karthik has been playing and studying music since the age of five. Blessed with a virtuosity and musical maturity far ahead of his years, at the age of 13, the passionate and dedicated percussionist/drummer, achieved third place in the Karnataka State Junior Mridangam Examination. Recently he performed at the “Ruhr Triennale” festival with the African singer Mory Kante, Tunisian singer Dhafer Yousuf and Carnatic Vocalist Mrs Ramamani and also with Afro-Cuban percussionist Mokhtar Samba and Japanese guitarist Paul Shigihara In the same festival. In Switzerland he did a project with the band “Zoom” with Lucas Niggli, Trombonist Nils Wogram and Philip Shaufberger and toured with the renowned percussion group “The Family of Percussion” with Peter Giger. He has performed with musicians like Louis banks, Karl peters, Keith Peters, Amith Heri, Ranjit Barot, Ramesh Shotham, Mike Herting, Carnatic maestro Mandolin U. Sreenivas and Carnatic flute Maestro N. Ramani, Vasundhara Das (Arya). He performs in a number of percussion ensembles including the internationally-renowned Carnatic percussion ensemble “Tala Tarangini” (of the Karnataka College of Percussion) and has recorded with the legendary Saxophonist “Charlie Mariano” for the album “Om Keshav”.
He recently accompanied German choreographer Sasha Waltz and her troupe at a performance in Bangalore and has composed and played ‘themed percussion’ as part of a musical production called ‘Bangalore!’; a lively 45-minute show on the history of the city.
