Kamalakiran Vinjamuri

Kamalakiran Vinjamuri, a 7th grader, had his initial training from his grand-father, Sri. Parthasarathy Iyengar. Then he had some training from Smt. Malladi Vijayalakshmi garu. Kamalakiran's first stage appearance was at the age of 2½, in a dance ballet. His father Mr. Subhash Vinjamuri, a violinist himself started teaching him violin at the age of 7. Kamalakiran plays Carnatic Classical music on the Keyboard, Mouth Organ (Harmonica) and Violin. He has given several performances in the U.S. and in India. He gets his training from his father and when visiting India, he is under the tutelage of Ms. Kanayakumari garu. He won several prizes in different music competitions, both in the U.S. and in India. He participates in Kuchipudi dance ballets choreographed and taught by his aunt, Smt. Mrinalini Sadananda. For a recent dance ballet, he composed a Thillana in raga Kaanada. He got in to Guinness Book of World Records for performing in a Kuchipudi group dance. Kamalakiran is also learning Western music on violin. He is a Black-belt in Karate and has been winning first prizes in Geeta chanting competitions conducted by Chinmaya Mission in the U.S for the past 7 years. Kamalakiran won best performer prize in Karate. Last year Kamalakiran won first prizes in Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri KV Narayanaswamy memorial music competition and another one conducted by Mahati Music Acadamy, held in Chennai. He accompanied several upcoming and leading musicians in Chennai during the December music festival, 2009 and 10 and performed in Thiruvaiyar St. Tyagaraja Aradhana. He is also learning Vedic chanting. His other interests are singing, Chess, Caroms and table tennis.