Some artists choose music, and then there are rare ones like Guitar Prasanna – born Prasanna Ramaswamy – who let music choose them and shape their destiny against all odds.
Early Life of Prasanna Ramaswamy – A Childhood Defined by Curiosity and Sound
Prasanna Ramaswamy grew up in the vibrant city of Chennai, India. His love story with the guitar began at the tender age of five, the moment he heard his neighbor strumming its strings. That innocent spark became a life-defining flame when, at ten years old, he finally received his first guitar. As a young boy, he spent endless hours experimenting, trying to translate Tamil and Hindi film melodies onto the fretboard and even replicate the complex Carnatic vocal phrases sung by his sister.
The foundation of his musical worldview expanded when his father’s colleague gifted him cassette tapes of the Bee Gees, Toto, ABBA, the Pointer Sisters, and Peaches & Herb. These Western pop treasures quietly planted the seeds of global music in his mind, years before he would travel the world with his art.
Teenage Years – A Guitarist Unleashed
In high school, he became known locally as the guitarist of the band XIth Commandment. His sound evolved faster than most musicians his age. While pursuing naval architecture at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-Madras), he joined high-energy rock bands like The Haze and Shakuni & the Birds of Prey.
He spent his college years performing fiery covers of Santana, Led Zeppelin, Scorpions, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Rush, and Steely Dan – and composing originals like “Peaceful” and “Blues for Saraswati,” pieces that hinted at a young soul searching for a sound no one had yet imagined.
It was only a matter of time before blues, jazz, and improvisational music infiltrated his heart and changed his definition of what the guitar could be.
Prasanna Ramaswamy: Courage Over Conformity – Leaving Engineering Behind
Armed with a Bachelor’s degree in Naval Architecture from IIT-Madras in 1992, Guitar Prasanna initially stepped into corporate life as a software consultant. But the world of engineering could not contain the music roaring within him. Rejecting the path that society expected him to take, he resigned from his job, moved to Boston, and enrolled at Berklee College of Music – a bold decision that transformed him forever.
At Berklee, he majored in Jazz and Classical Composition and graduated magna cum laude. More importantly, he discovered that his destiny was not to play music, but to reimagine it.
The Pioneer of Carnatic Guitar
Guitar Prasanna is globally honored as the pioneer of Carnatic music on the guitar. For six years, he trained with vocal guru Tiruvarur Balasubramaniam, and for twenty-six long years, he remained a devoted student of the legendary violin maestro A. Kanyakumari. While the world saw him as a genius, Prasanna always saw himself as a learner – a servant of a divine art form.
His devotion to this classical tradition and his ability to reinvent it on a Western instrument earned him the Lifetime Achievement Award in Carnatic Music from H. H. Sri Jayendra Saraswathi in 2006. For thousands around the world, Guitar Prasanna became the first doorway into discovering Carnatic music.
Global Success – Music Without Borders
Few musicians have lived multiple musical lives in one lifetime. Guitar Prasanna has released 16 albums as a leader, performed worldwide, and collaborated with legends across genres, including:
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A. R. Rahman
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Illayaraja
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Umayalpuram Sivaraman
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Airto Moreira
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Jordan Rudess
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Victor Wooten
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Dweezil Zappa
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Dave Douglas
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Omar Hakim
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Trilok Gurtu
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Howard Levy
He is a member of groundbreaking groups, including:
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Raga Metal Conversations
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Ragabop Trio
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Tirtha
His jazz composition “Falsehood” is featured in the textbook Essentials of Jazz – The First 100 Years, placing him alongside the most influential composers in jazz history. In 2014, he won the International Songwriting Contest for his piece “Springtime in New York.”
A Film Composer with Global Recognition
Guitar Prasanna belongs to the rare group of Indian composers, along with A. R. Rahman and Pandit Ravi Shankar, whose music has graced Oscar-winning films. His film scoring credits include:
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Academy Award-winning documentary – Smile Pinki
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Sundance film – After the Garden Grows
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National Award-winning Tamil film – Vazhakku Enn 18/9
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Multi-award-winning film – Algorithms
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Hollywood feature – Framed
His creative alliance with A. R. Rahman includes performances on:
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Lagaan (string orchestration arrangement)
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Million Dollar Arm
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A Hundred Foot Journey
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Puthiya Mugam, Jeans, Highway, and more
The Visionary Educator – Shaping the Future of Music
Education is where his heart beats strongest. Guitar Prasanna founded Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in 2009, a world-class institution blending Indian gurukula traditions with Western pedagogy. As President, he helped shape one of the largest music colleges in South Asia.
He has taught at or lectured in:
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Harvard University
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MIT
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Tufts University
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Berklee College of Music
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Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
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New School NYC
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University of Arizona
Students he has mentored include world-renowned artists such as Dweezil Zappa, Marc Rossi, Dave Fiuczynski, and many more.
Among his most recent cultural contributions, Guitar Prasanna serves as mentor to prodigious 10-year-old guitarist Maya Neelakantan, whose Carnatic-infused audition stunned America’s Got Talent audiences in 2024.
Prasanna Ramaswamy: Awards & Honors
In 2010, Open Magazine named him among the Top 50 Creative Indians alongside Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan, Arundhati Roy, and Viswanathan Anand.