Early Life

K. Bhaskaran was born on 30th April 1961 to Lakshmi Krishnamurthi and K. Krishnamurthi, and brought up in Mylapore

Mylapore

Mylapore is a cultural hub and neighborhood in the southern part of the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. Earlier, Mylapore used to be called Vedapuri....

, in the city of Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

. Bhaskaran started formally learning flute from Mayavaram Saraswathi Ammal (popularly known as Mayavaram Papaa) when he was 10 years of age, after picking up the basics through family guidance. He performed his first public concert at the Madras Music Academy

Madras Music Academy

Madras Music Academy, or simply Music Academy, is one of the premier and early Music Academies in the South Indian city of Madras, now Chennai. It plays an important role in encouraging and promoting primarily the Carnatic Music south Indian art form. It also played an important role in revival of...

, on September 26th 1978. He also learnt from other vidwan

Vidwan

A vidwan is a person who has vidya of a particular science or art. This term is usually used for Indian Classical Musicians to denote their scholarship and experience in performing classical music concerts. Vidwan may also be referred to as a doctorate in layman's terms....

s formally, including S. Rajam

S. Rajam

Sundaram Rajam was an Indian actor, painter and Carnatic musician from the state of Tamil Nadu. He was a student of the Carnatic musician Papanasam Sivan and the elder brother of Tamil film director and musician Veenai S. Balachander. Rajam made his Tamil film debut in the 1934 film Seetha Kalyanam...

 and professor T. R. Subramanian of Delhi University. He had also undergone basic mridangam training for a brief period from Kumbakonam Rajappa Iyer. He also has a long association with renowned flute maestro N. Ramani

N. Ramani

N. Ramani is a renowned Indian Carnatic flautist.-Early life and background:N. Ramani was born in Tiruvarur in Tamil Nadu. Aside from the influence of his place of birth, Ramani was born into a musical family...

, and has performed concerts in his flute academy. His initial education was at P.S. High School (North), Mylapore, and he did his P.U.C. at Vivekananda College

Vivekananda College

Ramakrisna Mission Vivekananda College, named after Swami Vivekananda, was inaugurated on 21 June 1946 by professor, philosopher, and politician, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. It is in Mylapore, the centre of Chennai, India on 20 acres . The principal of is Dr. S...

. This was followed by a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Career

Bhaskaran has been a regular Kutcheri performer in Chennai, and has been playing concerts since 1978 during the annual Madras Music Season

Madras Music Season

Madras Music Season is an event hosted every December–January in the present-day south Indian metropol of Chennai. Spanning some six weeks, a number of large and small kutcheris are performed by highly competent musicians...

 every December. Besides this, he has given concerts in Mumbai, Nagpur, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and several other places in India. He has also performed in USA during the 1993-1994 period. His next tour of the US is scheduled to be held in June 2011. He has been accompanied by several stalwarts such as M.S. Anantharaman, A. Kanyakumari, Umayalpuram K Sivaraman, T. V. Gopalakrishnan

T. V. Gopalakrishnan

Tirupanithurai Viswanatha Gopalakrishnan is a Carnatic and Hindustani musician from Chennai.Gopalakrishnan hails from a family of musicians, spanning over two centuries; his father was a court musician for the Cochin Royal Family. He is a vocalist, plays the violin and is also an exponent of the...

, Guruvayur Dorai

Guruvayur Dorai

Guruvayur Dorai is one of India's senior-most exponents of the South Indian classical percussion instrument, the mridangam. He had his initial training under Palghat Subba Iyer and E.P. Narayana Pisharody, and later from the legendary master Palani Subramaniam Pillai...

 and other renowned Carnatic musicians.

Apart from traditional Kutcheris, Bhaskaran has also played at other events, such as the ProShow at Saarang

Saarang

Saarang is the annual social and cultural festival of IIT Madras. It is a five-day long event held towards the end of January every year and is attended by around 50,000 students. Called Mardi Gras when it was started more than thirty years ago, the fest has gone on to become an integral part of...

, the cultural festival of IIT Madras, in 2005. He has also given a performance organized by the Centre for Ethnomusicology Chennai and the Japanese Consulate in Oct 2009, and performed for visiting Japanese musicians (organized by the Japanese Consulate, India) in 2010. In May 2010, he performed a fundraiser concert, Akshaya 2010, accompanied by Special Thavil artiste Haridwaramangalam A. K. Palanivel. This was in aid of Udavum Karangal

Udavum Karangal

Udavum Karangal is a philanthropic organization based out of Chennai, India. This organization does service taking care of orphans and other needy people helping them in all forms of development. The founder of this organization is Mr...

.

Bhaskaran, an 'A' graded radio artiste, has performed several times on national radio and television. The most notable of these include National Sangeet Sammelan programmes on All India Radio

All India Radio

All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

 in 1997 and 2000, AIR National Programme of Music in 2004 and National Programme of Music on Doordarshan

DoorDarshan

Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...

, in 2008. He also appeared on DD Podhigai TV

Podhigai TV

DD Podhigai is Doordarshan's Tamil language regional channel. It is broadcast both terrestrially and via satellite.-History:Doordarshan Kendra Chennai's Regional satellite Network, DD-5, was launched on 15 April 1993. This service is viewed in India and some parts of the world...

in the fortnightly interactive lecture-demonstration show, Kalaiodu Naan.

Innovations and Research

Bhaskaran has done a lot of research on the use of computers in music. He created a mathematical model for the creation of Kalpanaswara through software, and developed a computer program for it. He published a technical paper on this in the Computer Society of India Communications, in 1986 and presented the music aspects of this work, in the Annual Musicians conference at the Karnataka Ganakala Parishat Bangalore, Jan 1984. He has written articles on this topic in several publications.

He has received two fellowships from the Department of Culture, Government of India, the Junior Research Fellowship awardee for outstanding artistes - 1992 – 1994, for research in arts, ‘Fabrication of fibre-glass flute and research in other areas’ and Senior Research Fellowship awardee for one year 2002-2003, from Dept of Culture, in technology and arts, Interactive Multimedia CD project on mathematics in laya and pallavis.

Recently, he has successfully used the Shankavadyam (conch), an ancient Indian instrument, as a concert instrument. He has given demonstrations about this on radio and television.

Some released works

1. BILVA MUSIC – Winds of Peace (2002), Pranaam (2003), Winds of Rhythm (2008), Winds of the Spirit, Winds of the Soul (2009), Raga of sleep - Nilambari (2011)
2. AVM Audio, Flute, 1990
3. Saragam Cassetes – Flute, 1994
4. CBS Records : Flute Melody, 1988. (no longer marketed under this label, since the company CBS has been sold)
5. Sangeetha Tapes - ‘Flute’ – 2 volumes, 1991
6. 2002 release, 'Winds of Peace', was unique for having been the first album to have Carnatic and Hindustani flutes played simultaneously by the same artiste, using multi-track recording.

Other

Apart from being a performer, Bhaskaran has also worked in the software industry in India for over 20 years. Recently, he has started creativity modelling programmes for employees and students under the banner 'Mindware', using extensive inputs from music. He also held a patent for an improved Murukku making machine, which he invented when he was in college.