biography

Konarak Reddy is a pioneer and legend among music aficionados in India. He is renowned for his finger-style playing, as well as for integrating Hindustani and Carnatic styles of improvisation into his guitar technique. He first studied western classical theory on guitar, and then became proficient on the sarod, which he studied with Gurus Debi Prasad Ghosh and Rajeev Taranath. His much talked about pulling technique on guitar and his beautiful alaaps come from his skill on the sarod. He studied jazz improvisation at Berklee College of Music and graduated with Honours from the Guitar Performance Program at Musician's Institute, Hollywood. His teachers have included guitar greats such as Joe Diorio, Scott Henderson and Peter Sprague. Over the years, Konarak has performed and toured with a range of world-class musicians including Claus Boesser-Ferrari, Jacques Stotzem, Peter Finger, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Ahmed El-Salamouny, Antonio Forcione, George Laval, Maynard Fergusson, Embryo, and Orexis. To create awareness around the guitar and its diverse styles, he initiated the idea of World Guitar Nights by hosting Peter Finger (Germany), Dylan Fowler (Wales), Claus Boesser-Ferrari (Germany) and Bob Bonastre (France), Don Ross (Canada) Sandor Szabo (Hungary) Masa Sumide (Japan) to perform in India every year from 2004 to 2009. This year WGN has invited Andy McKee (USA), Kevin Eubanks (USA) Peter Sprague (USA) for World Guitar Nights to be held on dec 3rd and 4th with a workshop at Infinite Souls Artist Retreat on the 5th.