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
Department Overview
Dr. Sangeeta Shankar
Head of Department
Dr. Sangeeta Shankar is a World-renowned violinist, Grammy award nominee, and daughter of the violin virtuoso Padmabhushan Dr. Smt. N. Rajam. She first started performing on television when she was 8 years old, and her career has been forging ahead ever since. She has performed across the globe and follows the style of ‘ Gayaki ‘-the technique of reproducing the human voice on the violin. Dr. Sangeeta Shankar is also the founder and director of a record label ‘Legendary Legacy Promotions Pvt. Ltd’. She also produced a ‘Swar-Sadhana’ TV serial in 1991.
Dr. Shankar is a visionary educator who created a project for young children called ‘Milap’. Since 2009, she has been educating students to become composers, music directors, and producers at Whistling Woods International.
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
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 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 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.
Ragini Shankar
Faculty
Ragini Shankar is a professional Indian classical violinist & Composer and has been a stage performing artist since the age of 11, performing concerts all over India, US, Canada, Europe & South-east Asia. She has performed in leading prestigious music festivals in India such as Sawai Gandharv, Saptak, Doverlane Music festival and more. She has collaborated on musical projects with acclaimed artists in diverse genres like renowned lyricist Irshad Kamil’s ‘Ink Band’, noted French composer Thierry Pecou’s ‘Sangata’ and Sangeeta Shankar’s innovative fusion ‘inStrings’. She is a recipient of the Aditya Vikram Birla Kala Kiran award and the Jashn-e-Youngistan award presented by the Vice President of India. She has appeared on the platform of TEDx. She has done her master’s in music from SNDT university. Ms. Shankar has composed music for a few short films of WWI and has taught music at The Bandra Base of Whistling Woods International.
Shankar Lakshmanan
Faculty
Nandini Shankar
Faculty
Ms. Shankar started learning hindustani classical violin from grandmother Padma Bhushan Dr. N. Rajam and mother Dr. Sangeeta Shankar at the age of 3. Since then, she has performed in various prestigious locations/ festivals/TV programs across like Carnegie Hall, New York, Temple of Fine Arts, Singapore & Malaysia, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in various countries in Europe & in Canada, MTV Indies (Indi Pop Collaboration), Zee TV (Idea Jalsa), Doordarshan, and Pogo TV. Nandini Shankar was lead violinist in the first ever all-girl Indian classical musical band (Sakhi) conceptualised by Kaushiki Chakraborty. In the year 2012, she was presented with Jaya Smriti award by Hema Malini. She has also been the recipient of cultural scholarship awarded by Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Ms. Shankar is learned in Opera Singing technique from highly acclaimed Soprano Singer Celia Lobo. An alumnus from SNDT university with a master’s in music, Nandini Shankar has undertaken a workshop on Indian Music at University of Chicago, USA (2015) and been a Tutor at Music India 2016, Milapfest (An International Summer School at Liverpool Hope University, UK).
Christus Stephen
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
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
Akhil Jain
Music Composer
Rakshit Malhotra
Sadaf Musani
Vaishnavi Shriram
Tejas Havlimane
Music Composer