Durga Krishnan

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Durga Krishnan is a graduate of Carnatic Music College of Madras, India. She holds the degree “Sangeetha Vidwan” – Scholar of Music and is also a certified teacher of Carnatic Music. Durga is also one of the primary disciples (student) of the legendary veena player the late Dr. Chittibabu. She has accompanied him on several of his CDs and LPs. She is also a composer who has composed, arranged, directed and played music for several productions such as Sakunthalam, Ramayanam, Dasavatharam and Festivals of India by the dance teachers in the local area. Durga Krishnan has been performing solo concerts and also concerts with other artists in and around Boston and in many other cities in the USA and Canada. She has given numerous lecture demonstrations on Carnatic music - its' origin, history and development in several universities including Harvard and Tufts Universities and Berklee College of Music in Boston. These lecture demonstrations always include the history of Indian music in general and the development of Hindustani and Carnatic systems and also the similarities the Carnatic music has with other systems.

Durga Krishnan is a very popular veena and vocal teacher in the Boston area and is committed to the promotion of the fine arts. She has arranged several successful concerts and workshops by the most famous artists from India. Bringing Carnatic Music to the mainstream population in the Boston area has been her mission for the past few years. She has arranged and also conducted several teaching workshops aimed exclusively at the students of the Western Music in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The unique feature of these workshops is to give Western notation for the Carnatic songs, which makes it much easier for them to learn the totally unfamiliar songs in less than two hours. Durga Krishnan also conducts summer music camps at her house that are attended by her students and also Western professional musicians. Durga Krishnan also arranges and performs at several charity concerts to raise funds for various causes including the earthquake that hit Gujarat a few years ago and more recently for the Tsunami victims of India and Srilanka.

At present Durga Krishnan is collaborating with Western classical violinists and Jazz artists. She has also been performing fusion concerts with Marc Rossi who is a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he teaches classical jazz and various music in their World Music Department. All the pieces that are performed at these concerts are their own compositions. She has been learning under the guidance of Padmabhushan Sri Lalgudi G. Jayaraman for the past five years. She teaches both veena and vocal at her house in Marlborough. She has been on the staff at Learnquest Academy of Music in Waltham since its beginning 12 years ago and is in charge of developing the Carnatic Music program there. She recently joined its board of directors team. Several of her students have won prizes at the Cleveland Thyagaraja festival.