The son of renowned Carnatic vocalists Alamelu and H.A.S. Mani, Hariharan inherited his parents’ musical talents. Alamelu was Hariharan’s first guru from whom he learnt Carnatic music. He was also exposed to Hindustani music from a young age. Later, he started training in Hindustani music from well-known Rampur-Sahaswan vocalist Ghulam Mustafa Khan.

Hariharan is known as much for his live performances as for lending his voice to film and television. In 1977, he won the All India Sur Singaar Competition and was signed on by the late music director Jaidev to sing for his new Hindi film Gaman (1978). He won the Uttar Pradesh State Film Award, as well as a National Award nomination for his song in this film.

Hariharan is one of India’s foremost ghazal singers. He has sung and composed for more than thirty albums. He received the Diva Award for the Best Album of the Year in 1994.

Hariharan has sung in many languages like Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and Bengali. Hariharan received the best male playback singer award in the 1995 Tamil Nadu State Government Film Awards. In 1998, Hariharan won the national award for the best playback singer and got another National Award for a Marathi song in the year 2009.

In 1996, Hariharan formed the band Colonial Cousins with Mumbai-based composer and singer Leslie Lewis. Their first album Colonial Cousins won several awards including the MTV Indian Viewers’ Choice award.

In 2004, Hariharan was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri and Yesudas Awards for his outstanding performance in music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hariharan_(singer)

Israel Mera, known as “Katumba”, studied percussion since the early age of eight and began his first steps in the world of Flamenco at age nine accompanying artists from the Andalusian province of Cadiz. In 2007 he began to perform and record percussions with pianist Sergio Monroy and his Sonora Big Band from Cadiz. At the same time he started to accompany Flamenco singers such as Carmen Linares, David Palomar, Jose Anillo, Jose Merce, Miguel Poveda, La Susi, Moy de Moron, El Gayi, Argentina, etc. In dancing he has collaborated with the likes of Rosario Toledo, El Junco, Ramon Martinez, Sonia Poveda, Joaquin Grilo, Juan de Juan among others. With guitarists he has worked with Dani Mendes de Moron. Jesus Guerrero, Oscar Lago, Keko Baldomero, Ricardo Rivera and Juan Diego.

Israel “Katumba” Mera will accompany Juan Diego’s performance at Baajaa Gaajaa 2011. Their performance has been facilitated by Fernando Casas, World Music Madness

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Learning the way of guitar playing or toque Jerezano from native maestros such as El Carbonero and José Luis Balao, Juan Diego delved into the study of flamenco guitar scarcely at the age of ten. He completed his training with Manolo Sanlúcar and, in the branch of harmony, with Luis Balaguer. Enrolled in the Albarizuela Children’s Ballet, he went on his first international tour. He thus began a solid career in dance accompaniment, which he developed after moving to Madrid around 1989. Juan Diego then joined the Rafael Aguilar Company, performing ‘Carmen’.
Later on, he worked with Luisillo in ‘Luna de sangre’, whose music he wrote; and then joined the Joaquín Cortés Company, coinciding with the premiere of ‘Cibayí’. He has also composed dance scores for Antonio el Pipa -‘Herencia gitana’- and for Antonio Vargas -‘La casa de Bernarda Alba’-. Moreover, he has accompanied dancer-bailaores such as Joaquín Grilo, Juana Amaya, Merche Esmeralda and Antonio Canales, among others.
As a studio guitarist, Juan Diego has recorded with Remedios Amaya, Jorge Pardo, Sorderita, Pepe de Lucía, accompanying many of them live. Artists such as Tomasito and María Jiménez call on his guitar playing or toque from time to time. Juan Diego launched his first solo album, ‘Luminaria’, in autumn 2003, with the collaboration of musicians such as Jorge Pardo, Carles Benavent, Remedios Amaya and Diego Carrasco. The record received the flamenco critics’ award in 2004.
The international high-quality audio company Bose Audio Corporation has chosen the Jerez-born guitarist and his music as the stars of the demo DVD to be used to promote their new home cinema equipment beginning in summer 2007.
His new album titled RESPIRA! is now released.

Juan Diego’s performance at Baajaa Gaajaa 2011 has been facilitated by Fernando Casas, World Music Madness

www.wmmglobal.com

Son and disciple of sitar maestro Kartick Kumar, Niladri Kumar started learning the sitar at the tender age of four and had his first public performance at the age of six. He belongs to a lineage of five generations of sitar players and has incorporated artistic aspects and nuances of diverse styles.
In addition to his classical concerts, Niladri Kumar is a frequent performer for intercultural collaborative music concerts.
In March 2007, Niladri won the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi’s “Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar” for Instrumental Hindustani Music. “The Sanskriti Award”, “The Jadubhatta Puraskar” and “The MTV IMMIES for the Best Classical/Fusion Instrumental Album” for his album ‘IF’, are some of the other awards he has won besides having valued titles like “Shanmukha Shree” & “Surmani” to his credit.
His recitals have received worldwide recognition and he has been featured on many albums.

Born in Assam, Papon (Angaraag Mahanta) is a singer, composer, programmer, and producer. He was introduced to music at an early age. His mother Archana Mahanta and father Khagen Mahanta are two very popular and respected musicians of the region. He was inspired by a wide variety of music, ranging from traditional Vaishnav devotional songs of Assam to new-age electronica.

His initial training has been in Indian classical music and traditional music (religious and folk) from Assam. His experiments include elements of ambient electronica, acoustic folk, ghazals, new-age, and Indian classical music.

Papon released his first album ‘jonaaki raati’ in Assamese. He also jams with MIdiVal Punditz and with Susmit Sen of Indian Ocean. He has recently completed the background score for a film.

Tabla player Satyajit Talwalkar is the son and disciple of noted tabla player Suresh Talwalkar. Satyajit has also inherited his musical talent from his mother Padma Talwalkar, well-known vocalist. He started learning tabla at the age of four and gave his first performance at the age of nine.

Satyajit has accompanied many reputed vocalists and instrumentalists and has also presented tabla solo recitals. He has traveled in India and abroad for concerts. His concerts have also included collaborative projects with jazz.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, Suresh Wadkar’s talent was noticed by Parshwanath Digrajkar. He taught Suresh Wadkar for four years, after which he joined Jiyalal Vasant’s Sangeet Niketan. Jiyalal Vasant trained Wadkar in Hindustani classical music and also offered to take care of his formal education. Wadkar got an opportunity to perform across the country with other child artistes trained at the Niketan. During this period he also learnt the tabla. He graduated with vocal music and tabla from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad, to which the Niketan is affiliated.
Suresh Wadkar also learnt to play sitar and learnt Kathak dance as well.



In 1976, he joined his guru’s daughter, Prem Vasant, to accompany her for performances on the sitar and also perform as a vocalist for concerts in Europe. On his return from Europe, Suresh Wadkar was invited by Sur Singer Samsad to perform as a classical singer in the Haridas Sangeet Sammelan. He also won the coveted Madan Mohan Best Male Singer Award and was promised a break in one of his forthcoming films by composer Ravindra Jain.

Since then, Suresh Wadkar has had the good fortune to sing for stalwarts as well as the budding music directors. He has received many a coveted award, including nine for Maharashtra, three for Gujarat, two for Punjab State Best Male Playback Singer awards, to mention a few. He has also received Lata Mangeshkar award from Madhya Pradesh and the Vikramaditya Award from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.

He has lent music to films. His maiden venture Ashi hi Dnyaneshwari won him the Best Music Director Award from the Government of Maharashtra. 



Suresh Wadkar has been a judge on various television reality shows and has been a jury member on many panels.