Ghatam Udupa


Ghatam Giridhar Udupa is an Indian percussionist and a leading exponent of the ghatam. He is one of the members of Layatharanga, a team of Indian classical musicians who have embarked on the task of blending different forms of classical, folk and world music. In 2015 he founded and has since served as the director of The Udupa Foundation, a registered charitable trust with the aim of promoting music, performing arts and culture.

Early life and tutelage

Giridhar Udupa was born into a family of artists, and was exposed to music and literature from a very young age. He began his musical training at the age of four, under the guidance of his father and well known Mridangam artist Vidwan Ullur Nagendra Udupa. He ventured into the world of Carnatic music learning all the traditional percussion instruments, but it was the Ghatam that struck a chord with his musical personality,. He has since taken advanced lessons from Vidushi Ghatam Sukanya Ramgopal and Vidwan Ghatam V.Suresh mastering the finer aspects of the fingering techniques of the instrument.

Education

Giridhar Udupa holds a graduate degree in commerce from Bangalore University.

Performing career

For Carnatic music Giridhar Udupa performs primarily on the Ghatam, but for other genres he incorporates varied South Indian percussion instruments into his performance, including Mridangam, Kanjira and Morsing. He is also adept at rendering Konnakol, the vocal rendition of percussion syllables. He has accompanied artists of different syles of music, including Sarvashree Dr. L. Subramaniam, Dr. M.Balamuralikrishna, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, R. K. Srikantan, T. N. Krishnan, T. K. Murthy, Palghat Raghu, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, A.K.Palanivel, Ganesh and Kumaresh, Mysore Nagaraj & Mysore Manjunath, Mandolin Srinivas, N.Ramani, K. J. Yesudas, R. K. Padmanabha, T. V. Gopalakrishnan, T.V. Sankaranarayanan, Madhurai T.N. Seshagopalan, Trichur V. Ramachandran, Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh, R.K. Suryanarayana, Sudha Raghunathan and others. He has undertaken several overseas musical tours, since 1998.

Awards and accolades