Penn Masala is the world’s first Hindi a cappella group, pioneering the fusion of Western Pop and South Asian melodies, using their voices as instruments. In both the United States and abroad, Penn Masala has performed at a range of notable occasions, from President Obama’s Diwali celebration to the International Indian Film Academy Awards. They have released 11 full length studio albums and achieved over 60 million listens across the Internet, entertaining fans from around the globe. Furthermore, Penn Masala was featured in the comedy film American Desi and in the major motion picture Pitch Perfect 2.
Hailed as "the new king of Indian classical violin" by The Times of India, Ambi Subramaniam began his training at the age of three under his father and guru Dr. L Subramaniam. He gave his first performance at the age of seven and was awarded a ‘Golden Violin’ from Shri Jayendra Saraswati when he was 18. Along with his sister Bindu, he runs the SaPa in Schools programme, which teaches music to over 30,000 students across the world. He also co-hosts The SaPa Show on Sankara TV, which teaches global music to young children.
Formed by his singer/songwriter sister Bindu Subramaniam and himself, SubraMania fuses traditional Indian music with elements of Pop, Rock and Jazz, to create contemporary world music. In addition to creating their own material in English and traditional Indian languages, SubraMania works with well-known classics and jazz standards to interpret them in a completely new light.
Bindu Subramaniam is a singer/songwriter, entrepreneur, author, and music educator. Described as a “third generation prodigy” by the Hindustan Times, she first performed on stage at the age of 12 with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway. Since then, she has composed and performed multiple original tracks. In 2011, she released her first solo album, Surrender, which was nominated for a GiMA (Global Indian Music Awards).
She is the Dean of the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (SaPa), an Institute that trains musically inclined children to become professional performers. In 2013, along with her brother and violinist/composer Ambi Subramaniam, she started a fusion band - SubraMania. SubraMania has performed live in many cities across India and toured in seven European countries.
Subramaniam holds a masters’ degree in law from London University, a masters’ certificate in songwriting and music business from Berklee College of Music, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Education.
Karthik Mani hails from a family of musicians, with his father, Tas Mani, being a renowned percussionist of The Karnataka College of Percussion, and his mother, R A Ramamani, a reputed Carnatic vocalist who has performed all over the world and pioneered the genre of Carnatic-Jazz fusion. Mani has worked extensively in the genres of Folk Rock, Jazz, Carnatic, Hindustani, and Percussion ensembles and is a part of SubraMania.
He has performed at various prestigious festivals across the world and with musicians such as Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Hariharan, Padmashree Dr. L Subramaniam, Shankar Mahadevan, Padmashree Kavita Krishnamurthy, and Carnatic maestro Mandolin U Sreenivas. He is the first Indian percussionist to win the Independent World Music Award for World Fusion.
Vivek Santhosh is a part of SubraMania and hails from Kerala’s cultural capital, Thrissur. He started learning Carnatic music and piano at the age of 12 and since then, has been a passionate performer, composer and programmer. A postgraduate in Carnatic music, he is the first person in the state of Kerala to have acquired an LTCL (Licentiate of Trinity College, London), a performance diploma in piano.
In the year 2009 he was awarded the ‘Upcoming Musician of the Year’ fellowship by an organisation called Piano in Kerala. He has worked with several music directors and musicians, and founded an experimental jazz and contemporary music band called Vivek Santhosh Trio.
