Top Music School in Mumbai, India

Our objective of setting up the Whistling Woods International School of Music is to create music directors of high calibre, by equipping them with the required knowledge necessary for producing music perfectly suited for films. This is to be achieved using the medium of music technology, and by providing exposure to the intricacies of various genres of music (Indian classical, western classical, folk).

The course is accredited by the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development

Courses offered

BA in Music Production & Composition | (3 years)

Department Overview

Mandar Deshpande

Programme in Charge

Mandar Deshpande

Programme in Charge

Mr. Mandar Deshpande is an educator, playback singer, and performer from Mumbai, India. Innovation in music education and industry aligned technology is something drives him. Holding a post graduate Business Management degree, Mandar is dedicated to skill based & employable music education curricula for India’s most popular music institutions. Mandar is driven by different music styles and have been influenced by sounds of India. He is been in music education since 2013. He is certified with Berklee College of Music online and Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was recently honoured with the membership of ISME (International Society for Music Education) which is, working for music education along with UNESCO. His work in background scores and songs for Indian theatre is appreciated and awarded in experimental as well as commercial sector.

Milestones:
1. Author and Developer – Bachelor’s degree program in Hindustani playback and performance.
2. Author and Instructional designer of a certificate program ‘Art of voice in Bollywood music’
3. Author and Content creator – Indian Music content for music learning app ‘Learn to Sing’
4. Playback singer – T-Series and Times Music
5. Independent work and collaboration – Symphony of India, Tips Music, Eros Now, Spiritual Mantra and YouTube

Dee Wood

Faculty

Dee Wood

Faculty

D. Wood is an American musician, a composer, instrumentalist and educator based in India from the past 35 years. He has been teaching music at Whistling Woods International since its inception and has guided and mentored hundreds of aspiring film makers and musicians.
Wood began his career in music performing in blues and rock bands in the Chicago area and went on to earn a BA in Music at Berklee College of Music. After graduation, Wood performed in Jazz and Latin groups and conducted workshops in varied institutions including Boston Ballet, MIT, Harvard, Whitney Museum of American Art and Berklee College of Music. He went on to earn a MA from Beacon College studying West African drum ensemble music in Togo West Africa, and Hindustani music in Bombay India. He went on to do extensive musical research in Mumbai on a Fulbright research scholarship.
Wood has collaborated internationally with various musicians. His film credits include composing original music for films with Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Kabir Mohanty, Nilita Vachani, Anand Patwardhan, Victor Banerjee, Dev Benegal and Ruchir Joshi. Currently D. Wood performs as a bassist / composer and takes masterclasses in India and abroad.

Vijay Thomas Kurien

Faculty

Vijay Thomas Kurien

Faculty

Mr. Kurien is a pro audio professional with over 14 years’ experience in education, training, sales, installation & technical support. He graduated from Chetana Sound Studios and Directions, Thrissur, in Recording Arts (Audiography). Mr. Kurien began his career as an assistant sound recordist and has worked with some of the best clients in the industry like Yash Raj Films, NDTV, Star Network, Sahara India TV Network, Sony Entertainment Television, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and Films Division, Mumbai, Govt. of India and so on. An AVID certified Pro Tools Music operator, Mr Kurien was the part of jury & committee member for the Indian Recording Arts Awards 2012 and 2014 held at the Palm Exhibition, Mumbai. He pioneered in integrating the Digital Audio Denmark AX 24 192 PTHD I/O Box with an Avid Pro Tools HD 3 Accel PCIe, at ‘In the Mix Studios’ – A Hariharan Enterprise. This studio was certiﬁed to Dolby E speciﬁcations. He is one of the ﬁrst persons in India to execute multi-track recording of live shows on non-linear media on Avid Pro Tools LE Digi 001. Recently, he has been awarded with the Dronacharya Award for teachers in audio education.

Sabapathi Rajan Pillai

Faculty

Sabapathi Rajan Pillai

Faculty

Sabapathi Rajan Pillai has been a part of the Indian Music Industry for the past 35 years. He is also a member of the Cine Musicians Association. He has played with Legendary Music composers like Kalyanji Anandji, R.D. Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal to name a few.
He has worked with some legendary playback singers of the industry like Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosale, Lata Mangeshkar, Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu, Kavita Krishnamurthy and also accompanied them for their LIVE shows both in Indian as well as overseas.

Ajeet Pathak

Faculty

Ajeet Pathak

Faculty

Ajeet Pathak is an eminent Tabla player, who began his training at the tender age of six under the guidance of his father Shri Deochandra Pathak. Thereafter, he had the privilege of learning under the guidance of Tabla Maestros Padma Vibhushan Pt. Kishan Maharaj and Ustad Sabir Khan.
Ajeet Pathak has performed at various national and state-level musical events and is a recognized artist by All India Radio and Doordarshan. He has performed extensively in India, Europe, the Middle East, and the USA and has accompanied many world-renowned artists such as Pt. Siyaram Tiwari, Pt. V.G. Jog, Dr. N. Rajam, Pt. Ramnarayan and Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali. He has been awarded Taal Mani from Sur Singar Samsad Mumbai, HMV Golden Talent award, and Taal Ratan from Los Angeles, USA.

Shankar Lakshmanan

Faculty

Christus Stephen

Faculty

Bijin Mathew

Faculty

Bijin Mathew

Faculty

Mr. Mathew worked as a Recording, Mixing and Mastering Engineer for Film OST, Albums, Music Videos, and Singles in multi Genre & multi-language projects. His career highlights include working as Engineer/Producer for artists like Hariharan, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Colonial Cousins, Akshay Hariharan, Ilayaraja, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Ghoshal and many more. Bijin started his career as a Studio Assistant Engineer (Intern) at Chetana Sound Studios Thrissur, Kerala and then as an Assistant Film Mix Engineer at Four Frames Sound Company Chennai. He is currently working as an Engineer/Producer at In The Mix Studio (A Hariharan Venture) and Front of house (FOH) and monitor Mixing for various concerts.

Mayank Singh Rawat

Faculty

Mithilesh Patankar

Faculty

Mitilesh Patankar

Faculty

A music director and arranger by profession, Mitilesh Patankar took Vocal Indian Classical training from Pt. Gajananrao Joshi. He pursued his career as a music director under the guidance of his father Vishwas Patankar, a well-known music director.
As a music composer & arranger, he has worked on several projects in Hindi and Marathi cinema. He has conceptualised and composed music for a fusion band called Mithaavin and actively participated in ‘Sangeetkar Sammelan’ since 2008 for eight years.
Mithilesh Patankar has also conceptualised a musical series of 26 episodes called Sugam Riyaz for All India Radio, which was based on the elements of light music. He has worked as a music arranger and a judge for Zee Marathi’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.
He was awarded MICTA Award for the Best Background Music for Marathi play, ‘Aamhi Sau Kumud Prabhakar Aapte’ in the year 2014. The following year he also received Chitrapadarpan Award as the Best Music Director for the Marathi album, ‘Ghanachimba’ in the non-film category.
He was also an on-screen mentor for a musical reality show on ETV Marathi. He has performed old Hindi songs as a singer at Kresge Theatre Boston, Berklee College Auditorium and Southern Theatre Columbus in the U.S.A for three consecutive years from 2015-2017 with a band of 22 musicians.

Alumni Speak

Abhishek Bonthu

Abhishek Bonthu

Before joining Whistling Woods International I had only dreamt to compose, produce and direct film music, but I did not know anything about it. After studying here, I am confident enough that I can tackle any musical situations. Thanks to Whistling Woods International for providing with such an amazing course, faculties, masterclasses taken by industrial professionals, modern-technologies and much more which paved a clear path for my career.

Akhil Jain

Music Composer

Akhil Jain

Whistling Woods International is a place that provided me with an all-round knowledge about relevant subjects and I got so much exposure through various workshops, masterclasses, film forums and 5th Veda. It has the latest technology and allows students to collaborate with students from different streams of filmmaking on different projects and enables one to learn from industry professionals regularly which is very inspiring.

Rakshit Malhotra

Rakshit Malhotra

Whistling Woods International has helped me with my both personal and professional development. It is not a place, it is a vibe, an opportunity to grab and become what you want to and show the world the best version of yourself. Apart from the skills I gained while studying music from our world class faculty musicians, I got chance to meet and interact with various musicians working in the industry professionally. Mr. Ghai makes sure that his music students get to perform and showcase their talents in front of these celebrities. The unique course curriculum covers every aspect of music in an amazing way. There’s a blend of Indian, Western and technical aspect. This kind of course formation and teaching would help any beginner musician to reach a professional level. We had to submit projects and musical compositions of different world music genres which is fun. Overall, my 3 years at WWI would always be the most memorable ones!

Sadaf Musani

Whistling Woods International is an institute which gives me a lot of opportunities to collaborate on various projects. The students have an opportunity to collaborate with students from other schools especially the filmmaking school students on the diploma film projects. I learnt from experienced industry professionals who visit for masterclasses, guest sessions and 5th Veda sessions.

Vaishnavi Shriram

Vaishnavi Shriram

I wanted to be a competent and confident musician and with this dream I joined Whistling Woods International. The expert faculty at WWI help give shape to my dreams by sharing their knowledge to fill our thirst for learning. It is a place you feel like home. We were fortunate to have been guided by SG Sir or the “Show Man” of Hindi Film Industry. He has in fact paved the way for us to become known in every household through the songs which have seen our contribution from ‘Swachh Ganga’ to ‘Vote dene jayenge’.
Confidence to face celebrities, performing in front of names we have revered like Asha Bhosle ji, Ankit Tiwari ji, Alka Yagnik ji, Pt. Anuradha Pal ji, Anu Malik ji, etc. I am thankful to 5th Veda and Celebrate Cinema, industry interactions and workshops which has given us a scope of being sought by experts who see potential in us. Thanks to Whistling Woods International!

Tejas Havlimane

Music Composer

Tejas Havlimane

There aren’t many institutes that cover a vast array of specialities so thoroughly like Whistling Woods International. Under the guidance of such experienced and motivating faculty, as well as countless masterclasses from industry professionals my musical abilities have taken a huge stride towards excellence.