Siva

Sivabalan S.Shanmuga Sundram

Sivabalan S. Shanmuga Sundram joined the Temple of Fine Arts, Kuala Lumpur in 1987 Under the tutelage of Guru Sri Suresh Ramachandran for mridangam. He was also privileged to have been under the tutelage of great masters such as Shri Thamarakudi K.R Vijayakumar and Palghat S.V Ramani. He performed his graduation debut otherwise known as the Arangetram in 1992. The Temple of Fine Arts awarded him the title ‘Layaanjali’. Kuala Lumpur. Sivabalan had then gone on to perform with the Temple of Fine Arts orchestra all over in Malaysia and Singapore. He was also appointed as a mridangam teacher at the Temple of Fine Arts Kuala Lumpur for a few years.

A regular feature in RTM's Radio 6 Carnatic music segment, Sivabalan was also very at home with playing other instruments such as Ghanjira, Ghatam and the Harmonium. He also had learnt the art of Carnatic Vocal music, and was celebrated with the title 'Yogyata Patra" for excellent performance in the examinations conducted for vocal music by the Temple of Fine Arts.

In years to come, Sivabalan had developed a keen sense to the art of mridangam playing for not only music performances but also to accompany Bharata Natyam or south Indian classical dance shows. He has to date performed for over 130 dance Arangetrams, Salangai Pooja's and performances showcasing Bharata Natyam in Malaysia, Jakarta, Singapore and Bangkok. He has also accompanied great nattuvanar's like Padmashree Adyar K. Lakshman and Tanjore Sree.B.Herambanathan and played for dancers in the likes of Mavin Khoo, Ramli Ibrahim and Dr. Chandrabanu.

As early as 1996, he saw the thirst in new sounds and collaborative work, making him part of the 'Rhythmic Fusion', the 1st big scale live collaborative work encompassing Indian Classical music and western instruments by Danosh Productions which was a huge success.

Sivabalan has also had the privilege to work with many different ethnic music groups to further develop the possibilities in creating new sounds and sense of rhythm. In Scotland, Sivabalan together with a group of musicians did performances on drums and rhythms all over Sterling, Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen during his stint there. He also had traveled to do Carnatic music calculation and lecture demonstration workshops in London, Wales and Dublin.

His return to Malaysia saw expanding horizons to the capabilities of the mridangam and other Indian percussive sounds and rhythms. That led to the collaborative works with the Malaysian Gamelan group called Rhythm In Bronze for the production entitled ‘Wujud Antara’ which won the BOH Cameronian Arts Award for Best Group Performance in 2005. Sivabalan had led the group through intrinsic calculations and was the 1st mridangist to have performed in the Malaysian Philharmonic Theatre. He was invited by the Java Synchrosound Group to conduct music theory lecture demonstrations and had performed with them a numerous times.

More recently, Sivabalan is part of the fusion ensemble, PRANA that has released their debut album called Life Breath. With PRANA, Sivabalan has done numerous gigs and concerts thrilling a varied audience with his mridangam and ganjeera playing, along with 'Kunnakol'- syllabic pronunciation of mridangam. The feature piece "Funky Indians" which featured the ‘Thani Avarthanam’ piece won Best Composition at the BOH Cameronian Arts Festival, 2005. Sivabalan is also noted for being the voice behind the Kunnakol for the critically acclaimed album Vallavan by Yogi B and Natchathra. Other achievements include emerging as champion for Indian Classical Music category for Music Fest 2005 organized by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Malaysia (Kementerian Kesenian, Budaya dan Warisan (KEKKWA)). Amongst the more extensive workshop held was the Indian drums clinic in collaboration with DIGI under the Amazing Malaysians Programme over Northern Malaysia and the collaborative musical direction for Guru Samarpanam, a musical tribute production. Sivabalan is also now the appointed mridangist of the National Traditional Symphony Orchestra, under the banner of Istana Budaya.

Not neglecting a career as a pharmacist, Sivabalan believes -prevention is better than cure, however, there is nothing like music as medicine for the soul-. He now has students brandishing his own style of playing and understanding the calculative measures of the music involved whilst heavily promoting the art form in various lecture demonstrations, discussions, performances and collaborative works.