Growing up next to a drums school in Bengaluru, India was enough to trigger a passion and yearning to seek a career in music. A desire that was fueled and supported by his mother. Being the quintessential child prodigy, Manju started his musical adventure at the tender age of 11.
Today, Manjunath's expertise ranges across pan-Indian rhythm forms.
A skill, he has ably demonstrated alongside legends like S.P. Balasubramanyam, Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, K.S. Chitra, Sonu Nigam, Sadhana Sargam, Shaan, Vijay Prakash, Raghu Dixit; renowned Indian Cinema music directors like Hamsalekha, Guru Kiran, Arjun Janya, two time Grammy awardee Ricky Kej and many more also bear testimony to his abilities.
Manjunath has also performed with classical and world music artists like, Guru Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, Vishwa Mohan Bhat, Drums Shivamani, Ranjit Barot, L. Shankar, Kadri Gopalnath, Ganesh Kumaresh, Rajhesh Vaidya and many more. This being said, he is a maverick seamlessly traversing between various musical genres.
Manjunath has performed at prestigious international venues, to include arenas like The London South Bank Center, London Jazz Festival, Strathmore Theatre Washington D.C., Sweden Octavium Theatre, Kings Place London, BBC Radio and others, in more than 25 countries.
In his most recent stint, he was one among the 52 hand-picked musicians around the world and the only percussionist from India, who was invited to perform for six months in the mega œExpo 2020-Dubai.
Manjunath along with his widely accomplished artists and friends now collaborate as œManju Drums Collectiive, to showcase the best of Indian music. œMDC the brain child of Manjunath, serves a musical platter to its audience, with an exceptional variety of music, having an interlace of traditional Indian classical art forms, Indian folk music, Indian Cinema and World music. A true amalgamation of Raga(Melody), Taala(Rhythm) and Nritya(Dance), MDC is truly the top favourite bands among the music and art connoisseurs in his country today.
