The Online Music Education and Community platform will offer customized performance driven training in South Indian Popular Film Music and Carnatic Classical Music through courses designed by Music Maestros who will also don the roles of Faculty heads
Chennai, 30th November 2021: Online Music and Community platform Artium Academy today announced the launch of its South Indian music learning courses, and presented the newest members of the Artium Academic Board:
- Smt. KS Chitra, Faculty Head, South Indian Popular Film Music
- Smt. Aruna Sairam, Faculty Head, Carnatic Classical Music
- Shri. . Ananth Vaidyanathan, Chief of Pedagogy and Faculty Head – Voice Training
Artium Academy is proud to offer unique performance driven music courses designed by these Music Industry stalwarts, catering to the South Indian Diaspora spread across India and the Globe who are culturally deep rooted in Music Learning.
Speaking on the occasion, Ashish Joshi, Founder and CEO, Artium Academy said, “South India is a vibrant cauldron of brilliant music traditions, talent, creativity, innovation, commitment to learning and growth; where families and communities venerate the arts as expressions of God, where artists have inspired us to place the pursuit of musical values above self. To this Southern India, Artium Academy feels privileged to bring a unique platform of technology supported, performance oriented music training, and is honoured to have the impeccable trio of Smt. KS Chithraji, Smt. Aruna Sairam and Shri Ananth Vaidyanathan as a part of the Academic Board to instil and impart a love for their music amongst eager learners across the globe. Under the leadership of these maestros, Artium feels proud to have created novel methodologies of training for popular and light music genres. At Artium Academy, every student is guaranteed quality education from a passionate instructor. Apart from training in classical techniques of swara, tala, raga, form and improvisation, students will get voice, repertoire and performance training and the guidance to discover their own artistic individuality. Our goal is not only to provide students with the holistic knowledge of music but to convert them into true performers.”
Said K. S. Chithra, “Talent is God given. But knowledge, techniques of skill development, understanding of standards and musical values – all can come only through proper training. I feel happy to be able to infuse my learnings of a lifetime into the courses of Artium, which are novel initiatives, designed to serve a wide generic variety of learning aspirations of students in today’s ever changing popular music scenario.”
Aruna Sairam added, “Carnatic music is a highly crystallized precipitation of generations of extraordinary sadhana, inspiration, dedication, surrender to ideals and divinely inspired creativity. Training in this art at the highest level continues to be the preserve of the guru shishya parampara. Yet, we have to make continuous and relentless efforts to capture the nebulous and mysterious values and principles of traditional training into institutional systems and achieve the best results possible. This is my vision for Artium.”
Shri Ananth Vaidyanathan further added, “The human race is a singing race. The human voice is a singing voice. You are a human being – so you can sing. To have one’s natural singing potential unlocked and placed on the path of development and self-expression is the greatest gift any music lover or aspirant can receive. I feel privileged to be able to bring this truth and an entire science of voice development to all levels of aspirants through Artium Academy.”
The Academic Board comprises of some of the industry’s renowned singers and composers like Sonu Nigam,
Patron-in-Chief who along with Shri Anant Vaidyanathan, India’s leading voice expert & the academy’s Chief of Pedagogy, will be framing the academic policy and the accreditation process. In addition, Artium’s Academic Board comprises music maestros like Shubha Mudgal (Hindustani Classical), Aruna Sairam (Carnatic Music), KS Chitra (South Indian popular film music), Louiz Banks (Keyboard), Aneesh Pradhan (Tabla ), Raju Singh (Guitar) and Gino Banks (Drums) acting as Faculty Heads, driving the curriculum for their respective genres
The platform aims to enable Indians across the globe to not just listen but also learn music through a structured performance driven curriculum designed by music maestros, taught 1:1 by certified teachers on a digital platform that provides learners with personalized dashboard, learning tools, learning graphs, virtual auditorium to perform live for audiences & practice studio.
Artium Academy is India’s first online academy to have music maestros collaborate as faculty heads for a performance driven curriculum especially designed by them. Students across all age groups can attend live and interactive classes on Artium Academy’s own platform which are delivered by highly qualified music teachers who are trained and certified by the academy.
Providing highest quality video lectures with a flexible schedule suitable for all, Artium Academy endeavours to make music learning easy. The courses are structured to be a stepping stone towards a bright and musical future.
About Artium Academy
Artium Academy is India’s first online music education platform with a performance – driven standardised curriculum designed by music maestros. Artium Academy offers 1:1 learning through live and interactive classes on its platform. With a united vision and driving force to democratise music, Artium Academy endeavours to make music learning available to everyone. While technology is the brain power enabling innovative ideas to engage with its students and teachers, music is the very core of Artium Academy. Eminent music virtuosos such as Sonu Nigam (also the Patron in Chief), Shubha Mudgal, Aruna Sairam, KS Chithra, Louiz Banks, Gino Banks, Raju Singh, Aneesh Pradhan are the Faculty Heads and form the Artium Academic Board along with Ananth Vaidyanathan, who is the Chief of Pedagogy , to oversee the curriculum and teaching methods.
About the South India Academic Board Members
A trained Carnatic vocalist, Smt K.S. Chithra is among the most popular female playback singers from South India. She has six National Film Awards (the highest won by a female singer), eight Filmfare South Awards and 36 different state film awards. The recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 2021 and the Padma Shri in 2005, Chithra has been the first Indian woman to be honoured by the British Parliament in 1997 and the only Indian singer from India to be felicitated by the Government of China. She has recorded more than 18,000 songs in more than 10 Indian languages and with foreign languages like Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, English and French. This feat has been achieved by her in her career spanning over 4 decades. The iconic singer has collaborated with renowned playback singers such as KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubramaniyam, AR Rahman, Ilayiraja, Hamsalekha, MM Keeravani and others. Regarded as a cultural icon of Kerala, she is fondly called ‘The Melody Queen’ and ‘Nightingale of South India’
Trained in the Veenai Dhanammal style of Carnatic Classical music, Smt Aruna Sairam epitomises the genre completely with her purity of voice, adherence to traditional values and profound music expression. Little wonder really, as she was trained by the legend Dhanammal’s own granddaughter, T. Brinda. Aruna trained in different forms such as improvisation, swara singing, variations of pitch on a note (gamakas) and ragam-thanam-pallavi, with some of the greats. Her ability to oscillate between traditional Carnatic classical singing and improvisation, earned her the sobriquet of ‘the new queen of soul’ from the London Evening Standard. Little wonder then, that she was the first Carnatic Classical vocalist to perform at the BBC Proms in 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Aruna remains a student of her craft today even as she teaches and conducts mentoring programmes nationally and with institutions in Germany, the UK, France and Canada. Bestowed with the Padma Shri in 2009, she was also awarded the
Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 2018 among several other honours and is the Vice Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Academy.
Shri Ananth Vaidyanathan is a classical vocalist trained in both Hindustani and Carnatic styles, a pedagogue with a unique approach combining Cognitive Psychology and Anthropology, a gifted trainer and public speaker, and is known as India’s leading Voice Expert. He is credited with taking Scientific Voice Research and Training in Indian music to a new level, and has repeatedly established the power of his techniques and voice methodology over a range of television programmes globally. As a man who firmly believes that every Human being has the voice, the fundamental capacity and right to sing, he has dedicated his life to inspiring people to find the singer within themselves and embrace the joy of this Gift of the Universe. Ananth Vaidyanathan is a Management Graduate from XLRI, a behavioral expert, a communication trainer and an actor.
