top of page

Considering music as an auditory phenomenon, it stands to reason that it is best experienced, felt and understood by listening to it in all its myriad facets. Having been exposed to it in so many forms and genres, from the days of my youth, one can say that my ears received their ‘education’ early on. Being the daughter of a military man, I had the privilege of traveling extensively and frequently in my younger years. This proved seminal in my growth, as I was exposed to so many varied forms of music, in all their encompassing sensibilities and nuances. It is entirely natural then, that having had such exposure, many of these sensibilities influenced me and found their way into my repertoire and style; shaping my way of singing, composing, arranging and scoring alike, over the last decade.

 

When I was fifteen, I gained invaluable impetus in the form of opportunities for playback singing. This was largely due to my involvement with a highly successful and popular Malayalam Television Show on the local network. I soon became sought-after in the world of playback singing and had opportunities further to work alongside venerable stalwarts of note within the South Indian Film Industry. I was in a world that belonged to the likes of Vidyasagar, Ramesh Vinayakam, Joshua Sridhar, Sabesh Murali, Deva, D Imman and several notable others.

Kalyani Nair Melodica

After receiving my training in Western Classical Music under the tutelage and guidance of Augustine Paul, I was well equipped to tread the path of an arranger, and started conducting small vocal groups and choirs locally. My experiences here propagated an interest towards orchestral writing and arrangement, finally culminating in working with composers of national renown. I had the privilege of collaborating with the likes of Santhosh Narayanan, Sean Roldan, Pradeep Kumar, K, Dhibu Ninan Thomas and Sushin Shyam. By entering the world of film scoring, I was given the means to amalgamate several disciplines and bring them all together. Having helmed the scores of over twenty films, I was able to dive headlong into arranging music for several orchestral ensembles, all across the globe, a few of my favourites being The Budapest Scoring Inc, Fame’s Macedonian Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Orchestra, Studio Orchestra of Sydney, Chennai Strings, A.R Rahman’s Sunshine Orchestra and several others.

 

Apart from the mainstream film productions, I have also been passionately involved in projects of ‘independent’ nature. My first project as a conductor and orchestral arranger for an independent musical production with ‘Poorvaa’, for a documentary named “Arunagiri Perumale” featuring a 16-piece orchestra based out of Boston, received critical acclaim. Since then I have worked as orchestral and choral arranger on several notable independent and non-film projects, alongside musicians like Sean Roldan, Pradeep Kumar and several others, Coke Studio Season 1 & 2, Anbenum Peruveli to name a few in the list.

 

 

The last 3 years has opened another facet of my musicianship with me having co-founded ‘The Indian Choral Ensemble', a Chennai based 40-piece mixed vocal group along with my friend Karthik Manickavasakam. We strive to bring about tasteful, choral-style arrangements, interwoven with intricate harmonies and lilting melodic fluctuations through our original compositions, whilst still retaining the essence of the Indian-ness within it. Currently, I actively work as a composer on my own independent projects and commissioned ones.

bottom of page