Jump into Music! SAM will Do the Rest: Prasanna, President of Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM)

Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM) is India's first college for contemporary jazz, rock and world music. It boasts of an outstanding set of faculty member from around the world. The President of SAM, Mr. Prasanna  "plays the guitar, quite simply like nobody on the planet” according to allaboutjazz.com. Prasanna has performed and recorded with some of the world’s most acclaimed musicians  including Joe Lovano, A.R. Rahman, Victor Wooten, Vijay Iyer, Aka Moon, Larry Coryell, Anthony Jackson, Illayaraja, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Steve Smith & several others.

Prasanna holds an engineering degree and a music degree from two of the world’s most prestigious institutions - IIT, Chennai and Berklee College of Music, Boston.

Prasanna talks to click4college.com about the vision of SAM, its global faculty & talented students:

click4college: What is the inspiration behind setting up an institution like Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM)? Can you tell us something about the founders of SAM?

Prasanna: India deserves a world-class institution for music education that is second to none. We need to be on the global map of music education. Indian musicians have a lot more to offer to the world than just Bollywood or Indian Classical Music. We want to be catalysts of that movement to make India an alternative hub for global contemporary music. We have set the bar very high for Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM)

Although I founded SAM in concept, this place would not have been what it is if it was not for Mr. G.R.K.Reddy, Chairman of Marg Group of Companies and his colleagues in Marg. SAM is an integral part of Marg Swarnabhoomi which is a 1000 acre township 80 km from Chennai. Swarnabhoomi is Marg’s flagship project and will soon be filled with more educational institutions, IT park, shopping malls etc. Mr. Reddy helped me set up the college by providing the infrastructure and seed money and continues to be the Chairman of the Governing Board of SAM. I am also lucky to have some of the most dedicated staff I could have got, to run the operations of the college. My long-time friend and charismatic drummer Shyam Rao is the Vice-President of SAM and is in charge of the operations.

click4college: What are the programmes & courses being offered at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM)?

Prasanna: SAM offers a Single Semester, 1 Year and 2 Year Diploma Certificate Programs in Music. These Diploma programs are equivalent to a Degree program in educational scope and value. SAM’s curriculum is unique and is targeted towards making its students function effectively in the global market place for music by giving them top quality education that is well rounded. Students not only study with some of the greatest musicians from every corner of the world cutting across every genre of music, they also live with the faculty in campus apartments making SAM a true hybrid between a Gurukula Ashram and a top end educational institute of higher learning.


click4college: What are the eligibility criteria to get enrolled in these programmes at SAM?

Prasanna: Passion

click4college: Can you tell us something about the faculty at SAM?

Prasanna: SAM faculty has included Grammy Award winners and nominees, composers of Oscar winning Films, MacArthur Fellows and some of the most in-demand professional musicians in the world who perform and record with the world’s biggest names in music. In less than two years of inception, SAM has brought around 40 musicians from 21 countries to teach right here. It’s a tremendous achievement that any young music school can have. Our faculty are not only at par with some of the most prestigious institutions in the world but are also active performers, composers and educators at the highest level.

click4college: What instruments can a student learn to play at SAM?

Prasanna: Students learn the art and craft of music-making at SAM. So they can play any instrument they want. Most students who study at SAM end up majoring in guitar, drums, bass, piano and voice but we have also had students that are saxophonists, rappers and others.

click4college: Does the Academy organise workshops/ camps? Who can participate in these?

Prasanna: These camps are very popular and give a chance for many more musicians to come and spend a short amount of time here. We have one such camp coming up from 23rd Mar – 27th Mar 2012 with Sebastian Cruz from Colombia, Nicole Zuraitis from the US, Manu Koch from Switzerland, Panagiotis Andreou from Greece, Harvey Wirht from Suriname and myself as faculty.

click4college: What is the selection process at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music? Is an audition required? Can you give us important dates?

Prasanna: Students are selected purely on the basis of their passion, commitment and attitude. Auditions are welcome but are not required.
We currently have two programs a year – one in Spring and one in Fall. The Spring program runs from Feb to June and the Fall program runs from August to December roughly. We might start including a shortened summer program very soon. Admissions for the programs are open throughout the year.

click4college: How does a music academy like SAM equip a student for a career in music? What is the scope after studying the courses offered here?

Prasanna: The education at SAM is well rounded in music and personality development. Students are equipped with skills that will help them make a career in music as performers, composers, arrangers, producers, teachers and more. Students that graduate from SAM will also have a big advantage when they apply for Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programs in the US and elsewhere because of the world class education and exposure to some of the most high-end faculty in the world.

click4college: Any achievements by the academy/ students/ faculty members that you’d like to share?

Prasanna: SAM has certainly created a movement in India and has now been recognized as a Centre for Excellence in education by institutions and the music industry worldwide. SAM will be entering into a student exchange program with one of America’s largest music colleges McNally Smith College of Music starting this year. SAM is also working out possible student exchange programs with Berklee College of Music and other top schools in the US and elsewhere. In the last few months, the President of McNally Smith, the Vice-President of International programs from Berklee College of Music and several dignitaries from all over the world have visited SAM and discussed possible co-operation.

Faculty achievements are too many to talk about but we are particularly thrilled that our last drum faculty: Cuban drummer and composer Dafnis Prieto was awarded the 2011 Mac Arthur Fellowship, widely considered to be America’s highest honour given to creative artists, scientists and others.

SAM students have been rocking the scene in India and we are proud of them.

• Current SAM Diploma student Alyssa Mendonsa has created waves in Bollywood with a number of hit songs for Shankar, Ehasaan, Loy. Alyssa came in as number 4 in the list of top Bollywood female singers of the year 2011 alongside Shreya Goshal, Sunidhi Chauhan and others. She was nominated for the 2011 Filmfare Awards for ‘Best Playback Singer’.
• One of India’s most well known bands today – the Mumbai based ‘Something Relevant’ (STR) is comprised of several SAM Diploma graduates. STR have developed a huge following for their music are among the most sought after bands in the country.
• Another SAM band ‘The Family Cheese’ made up of current SAM Diploma students won the Chennai Live Band Hunt 2011. They also won the prestigious ‘India Today’ Mind Rocks Youth Contest. They have won either first or second place in top professional competitions in IIT Chennai, IIT Kharagpur, IIM Bangalore, Symbiosis, Pune and several other ones in the last couple of months. ‘The Family Cheese’ has already become one of the most talked about bands in the college scene in India.
• SAM Diploma student Divya Lewis worked and performed for the prestigious MTV Coke Studio series.
• SAM Diploma students are part of one of India’s most highly followed Hindi Pop bands ‘Kaash’ from Delhi.
• Apart from the achievements of our Diploma students, SAM workshop students such as Nandini Srikar, Mithun Puthanveetil, Sankarshan Kini and others have been on the fore-front of the music scene in India. Nandini is well known for singing ‘Bhare Naina’ in the film Ra.One, apart from her stature as one of the most versatile singers and composers of jingles in India. Mithun plays drums for one of India’s top Rock bands Avial. Sankarshan works with bands like Indus Creed and other top musicians.

SAM students are making us all proud!

click4college: Any message you’d like to give to students who are interested in music & would like to make a career in it?

Prasanna: Jump into it. Headlong! SAM will do the rest!

As told to Nishatha Abraham