Manickam Yogeswaran

Yogeswaran singing with a tanpura made by Deutz-Klangwerkstatt in Berlin, photographed by Peter Engelke

Maanikkam Yogeswaran is a Sri Lankan Tamil musician and exponent of Carnatic music. He was born 1959 in Meesalai, Sri Lanka, where he attended Jaffna Hindu College before moving to London. He currently lives in Berlin and is co-artistic director of the Global Music Academy.[1]

As a classical singer of Carnatic music, he trained under S. Balasingam and P. Muthukumaraswamy Sarma. His guru was T. V. Gopalakrishnan[2] He has contributed to film scores and dance and theatre companies in and outside the United Kingdom and performed with European classical orchestras. He performed at BBC Proms,[3] the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra,[4] the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra,[5] Glastonbury, Arts and ideas Festival, Spitalfields, Womad and with Jocelyn Pook for the Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.[6]

Besides being a member of the London-based band The Shout,[7] he has performed with the German world music band Dissidenten.[8]

As part of the AIUME[9] educational project, he has brought Indian music to new audiences. The 2008 world conference of ISME[10] in Bologna familiarized educators from different cultures with his approach.

He has sung on the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's film Eyes Wide Shut in a piece composed by Jocelyn Pook, thus becoming the first Tamil singer whose work has been featured in a Hollywood movie.[citation needed] He was featured throughout the Spike Lee's film 25th Hour, Sarah Gavron’s film Brick Lane[11] and has recorded the Tamil Thirukkural in 133 different ragas.

Yogeswaran dedicated his 2005 album Peace for Paradise[12] to human rights, peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

  1. ^ "UNSER TEAM". Global Music Academy (in German). Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  2. ^ "Manickam on the inspiring classical notes". The Hindu. 5 January 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Prom 20: National Youth Choirs/Brabbins Prom 21: BBC". The Independent. 31 July 2006. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  4. ^ Hall, George (5 August 2006). "Voices of approval for the Proms". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Stemmer (Voices & Votes), Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway – review". Financial Times. 25 May 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  6. ^ "Welcome to Embassy of India, Berlin(Germany)". indianembassyberlin.gov.in. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Orlando Gough: director". The Shout. Archived from the original on 3 March 2010. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  8. ^ "Home". dissidenten.com.
  9. ^ "Home". aiume.carnaticstudent.org.
  10. ^ "About - International Society for Music Education". Archived from the original on 4 May 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  11. ^ Jocelyn Pook - Brick Lane (Music From The Motion Picture) (in German), 2007, retrieved 31 May 2023
  12. ^ "Peace4Paradise on Myspace".