User:Vinodjoe/sandbox

Varun Sunil
Varun Sunil
Born	May 10, 1987 (age 37)
Origin	Kochi, Ernakulam, Kerala
Genres	Classical, Indian, world music, latin,spanish,Fusion
Occupation(s)	Percussionist, Music Producer, Arranger
Years active	2005–present

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Career

Stephen's first major break came when he was just 18, through Johny Sagarika, for whom he did the music orchestration of six songs on the album Ishtamannu. He then went as an accompanying artist to play the keyboard for Hariharan on his European tour. He has also accompanied the violin maestro L. Subramanian at the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival.^[1]

At age 19, he started a music band called Seven, with singers Franco Simon and Sangeeth. A Hindi pop band, they released an album titled Yeh Zindagani.

Stephen, who started performing at a young age, has done the music arrangement for many films. Some of the films he scored were Majaa, Thambi, Nammal, Azhagiya Thamizh Magan and Hariharan's album, Waqt Par Bolna.^[2]

Hariharan Pillai Happy Aanu (2003) was his maiden music directorial venture in Malayalam.

He is one of the regular band members in Rexband, a Christian contemporary band singing gospel fusion, a musical outreach of the Jesus Youth Movement. He performed with the band before Pope John Paul II during World Youth Day performance in 2002 at Canada. At the time, it was the only catholic band invited from India. Stephen has orchestrated an instrumental version of the popular Rex Band melodies called Different Vibes.^[3]

In association with Kosmic Music, Stephen has also set to tune to a background of Western music, Sanskrit slokas, mantras and verses from the Upanishads, called Sacred Chants of Kosmic Music, and albums of holy chants on Ganesha, Shiva and Vishnu.^[4]

He has also assisted Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan with his album of Christmas carols, Breaking Barriers..

He has released his album Romanza, which was a mix of world music sprinkled with the flavor of piano. Indian ragas have been treated with the rich use of contemporary piano. Hariharan, Ouseppachan and a Russian vocalist appeared as guest artists on the album.

Stephen’s solo stage shows have propelled him to the top league of onstage performers.^[5] Recently, Stephen Devassy made his first appearance on a Tamil channel by playing for the contestants and playback singers Srinivas, Chinmayi, Sujatha Mohan and Unnikrishnan in the unplugged round for the famous Tamil reality music show Airtel Super Singer 2008.^[6]....

Stephen performed at Shakthi foundation's annual fundraising concert, Ghananjani 2009, along with Zakir Hussain, U Shrinivas, Sivamani and Dominique Piazza.On March 10, 2011,he performed in Ragam'11,the annual cultural fest of NIT Calicut And then he also went to perform for NMAM Institute of Technology(Nitte Mahalinga Adyanthaya Memorial)on 4 Of November in the TechFest also called Technidarshan.].^[7] On march 12,2011,he performed in the popular cultural fest Spring Spree,held by NIT Warangal.On February 26, 2012 he performed at TKM College of Engineering,Kollam for the technical festival Conjura^[8] where he was accompanied by Blaaze and Haricharan.

He appears as pianist in popular reality music show in Mazhavil Manorama television channel.

Achievements

Stephen holds a record as Asia’s highest scorer in solo piano exams from Trinity College of Music, London^[5]^[9] with a score of 92.2%. He also holds the record of completing the course in three years’ time. Sam George is currently en route to beat his record.

Personal life

Stephen is married to Jesna Joy.

Discography

Film	Director	Actors	Year	Language
Hariharan Pillai Happy Aanu	Viswanathan Vaduthala	Mohanlal, Jyothirmayi	2003	Malayalam
KQ	Baiju Johnson	Parvathy Omanakuttan, Baiju Ezhupunna	2013	Malayalam

References

^ "The Hindu : Life Chennai : Village boy from Palakkad climbs the music ladder". hindu.com. Chennai, India. 12 June 2005. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
^ "Key notes". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 15 August 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
^ "Stephen Devassy profile". Webindia123.com. 23 February 1981. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
^ "The right keys to success". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 12 May 2006. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
^ ^a ^b Rasheed, PMA (14 January 2008). "My efforts are to change the colour of music". khaleejtimes.com. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
^ "Unplugged for Round". Forum.indya.com. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
^ Ragam Website
^ Conjura Website
^ "He keys in music". The Hindu. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

External links

Category:Living people Category:Indian pianists Category:Malayalam music directors Category:People from Palakkad Category:Indian Christians Category:Composers for piano Category:Keytarists Category:1981 births

[1] "The Hindu : Life Chennai : Village boy from Palakkad climbs the music ladder". hindu.com. Chennai, India. 12 June 2005. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

[2] "Key notes". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 15 August 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

[webindia2-3] "Stephen Devassy profile". Webindia123.com. 23 February 1981. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

[4] "The right keys to success". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 12 May 2006. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

[khaleejtimes1-5] Rasheed, PMA (14 January 2008). "My efforts are to change the colour of music". khaleejtimes.com. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

[6] "Unplugged for Round". Forum.indya.com. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

[7] Ragam Website

[8] Conjura Website

[keysinmusic-9] "He keys in music". The Hindu. Retrieved 25 August 2010.

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