Karthik Mani hails from a family of musicians – his father, legendary TAS Mani is a renowned percussionist who is the founder of “The Karnataka College of Percussion”, and his mother Vid RA Ramamani is a reputed ground breaking Carnatic vocalist who has performed Worldwide and has pioneered the Indo-Jazz fusion.
Karthik is a World Percussionist/Drummer with a solid foundation in South Indian Classical Music. As a kid, he was mostly surrounded by music as there used to be a lot of students from all over the world who learned at their school “Karnataka College of Percussion”. He started learning Vocal from his mother and Mridangam from his father. After few years, he showed more interest in Mridangam and other Percussion Instruments. At the age of 13, he got third rank in the Karnataka State Junior Mridangam Examination. Karthik had an opportunity to tour with the first fusion band “Sangam” along with all the legendary musicians. He was introduced to a drum kit by his friend in his early twenties. After playing the drum kit, he immediately realised his passion for drumming and has never looked back since then. Karthik is a self taught Drummer/World Percussionist who draws inspiration from everything and everyone.
He has performed in various prestigious festivals in India, China, Spain, Germany, USA, Turkey, Bangkok, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Indonesia and Australia. He has performed with musicians like Padmashri Shankar Mahadevan, Dr L Subramaniam, Carnatic Maestro Mandolin U Sreenivas, Dr M Balamuralikrishna, Dr S P Balasubramanyam, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Hariharan, Carnatic flute Maestro N Ramani, Mridangam Maestro TAS Mani, RA Ramamani, Guruvayoor Dorai, Shrimunshum Rajarao, Violinist Mysore Manjunath, Shashank Subrahmanyam, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Aruna Sairam, Praveen Godkhindi, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma, Sitarist Ravi Chary, Pt Vijay Ghate, Louis banks, Karl peters, Keith Peters, Amith Heri, Ranjit Barot, Dr Prakash Sontakke, Ronan Guilfoyle, Zoltan Lantos, Okay Temiz, Ramesh Shotham, Mike Herting, African Singer Mory Kante, Tunisian Singer Dhaffer Yousuf, Afro-Cuban Percussionist Mokhtar Samba, Japanese Guitarist Paul Shigihara, Lucas Niggli, Trombonist Nils Wogram, Philip Shaufberger, Kai Eckhardt to name a few. He has performed shows all over India with various renowned Carnatic, Hindustani and World Musicians.
Karthik has been a part of internationally-renowned percussion ensembles such as “Tala Tarangini”, Nandi Talavadya, Laya Lahiri, Vrushti, Laya Taranga and Laya Milana and many more. He started performing with the band “Arya” founded by the famous vocalist Vasundhara Das and drummer Roberto Narain. He has the privilege of playing with the internationally renowned Jazz legend Saxophonist “Charlie Mariano” for the album “Om Keshav”, which was a huge hit Worldwide.
He has performed concerts Worldwide and participated in various International Music Festivals. ”Bangkok Jazz festival”, “La Marde Musicas”, “Kispiox Valley Festival”, “Islands Folk Festival”, ”Pacific Rim Festival”, “Tunisian Jazz Festival”, “Harrison Festival of the Arts “, “Pacific Rim Summer Festival”, “Java Jazz Festival”, “Delhi International Arts Festival” and “Ruhr Triennale” are some of the festivals where he has received huge accolades from the audiences and the musicians there.
Karthik has worked with the Spanish Symphonic Orchestra “OSCYL” along with the legendary Violinist Dr L Subramaniam and toured with the German Youth Orchestra called Bujazzo.
He is the highly-acclaimed percussionist of the Indo-Canadian band “Lehera”. He is the first Indian Percussionist to win the “Independent World Music Award” for World Fusion with Lehera. He has toured with the renowned percussion group “The Family of Percussion” with Peter Giger. He has also played with the legendary DJ Cheb-i-Sabbah and also toured with Canadian DJ Adam Sheikh.
Karthik has worked extensively in the field of Carnatic, Talavadya, Pop, Jazz, Funk, Light Music, Folk, Jugalbandhis, Theatre, Movies, Jingles, Fusion, World Music, Traditional Dance, Contemporary Dance, DJs and many more. “Megham” and “Monologue” are two of the projects he has worked along with Dancer Rukmini Vijaykumar. “Sphinx” project with German Choreographer Sasha Waltz and many renowned dancers from India and World.
He has been a part of bands like Zoom, Swiss Indian Orchestra, Sarah Bey Project, Raghu Dixit Project, Vasu Dixit Collective, Swarathma, Bangalore Dreams, Moonarra, Dr Prakash Sontakke Group, Esperanto, Shoonya, Mystik Vibes, Bosque-Magico, Portrait in Rhythm, Subramania to name a few and has bands of his own – “The Karthik Mani Group”, “Taalization”, “The Naada Project”, “The Ramamani Quartet”, “Projekt Maya” and “The Mani Sontakke Duo”. Karthik recently worked for the Kannada movie “Nathicharami” with music director Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy which won a Filmfare Award.
Karthik also has students globally and trains them in Congas, Drums, Ghatam, Mridangam, Cajon, Khanjira, Konnakol, Frame Drums, Drum Pads to name a few.
