Biography

Navneeth Sundar Ensemble is a fusion/jazz/pop/rock LIVE band based out of the capital city of Tamil Nadu, Chennai. The ensemble is led by Navneeth who was born in Trichy and brought up in Tuticorin and Chennai. The first signs of his interest in music started to show up when he was six years old. At such tender age, he could play jingle melodies, that he would hear on TV, on button-based musical toys. At 8, he started learning from Selvaraj Kumar, a music troupe leader and keyboardist from Tuticorin who honed up Navneeth's skills and got him perform on stage for the first time when he turned 9. Later, he added him into his own musical troupe, which gave Navneeth's performing-career a kick start. At 16, Navneeth formed a band in Chennai, called Trinity, with his college friends, which won several inter-college competitions. He also began freelancing, playing fusion music, and performing with leading classical and fusion musicians like Padma Vibhushan Dr M Balamuralikrishna, Oscar-nominee Bombay Jayshree, Kalaimamani Rajhesh Vaidhya, Drummer Sivamani, tabla-maestro Bikram Ghosh, ghatam-player Umashankar, Selvaganesh, sarod maestros Aman Ali Khan and Ayaan, and several others from India and abroad. In 2004, Thiru Vaigai Gnanaskandan honored him with the title of 'Sangeetha Bhaskara' at Narada Gana Sabha, Chennai, for his excellence in Indian Carnatic music. Navneeth began writing and composing for TV promos, jingles, corporate anthems, and his own songs. Simultaneously, his progress as a performer furthered from strength to strength. He started featuring as a guest performer in TV shows like Airtel Super Singer, Hariyudan Naan, and many others. Presently, Navneeth is an upcoming film music director and a prominent music composer in the indie music industry. His first movie was in Malayalam, titled 'Buddy', a multi-starrer feature-film. He is currently giving background scores for 'Guppedantha Prema' in Telugu, and for 'Ticket' in Tamil and English. Navneeth has collaborated with other singers and musicians to compose tracks; popular ones being 'Chandrachooda' for the movie 'Karmayogi' with Anoop Sankar, 'Dhik Dhik' with Vandana Srinivasan, and 'Chinnanchiru Kiliye cover' with Shweta Mohan. Navneeth also holds the record of being the first musician in the world to have performed Carnatic music on an iPad. which he made through his performance video of 'Desh Thillaana', a composition of Lalgudi Jayaraman. The video was shared by musician AR Rahman, and it became viral thereafter. Later, he did a Carnatic musical performance on iPad for TedxMylapore at Hotel Clarion, Chennai, and was acknowledged by the Limca Book of Records as the first ever Carnatic music performer on the iPad. Navneeth now runs an indie band, titled 'Navneeth Sundar Ensemble', which focuses on indie music. The band also covers famous songs, and got featured on the TV show 'Music Mojo' on Kappa TV. Films: Karmayogi (Malayalam – 2011) (Composed the promotional song) Buddy (Malayalam – 2013) Guppedantha Prema (Telugu – 2016) Ticket (Tamil and English – 2016) TV title songs: Madhavi (2009) Pokkisham (2012) Albums: Jungle Book (2009) (Indo-Western dance ballet) Dhik Dhik Ena Adikkum (2012) Chinnanchiru Kiliye Cover (2013) iPad Kucheri (world's first Carnatic album, played on iPad) Jingles and TV promos: Music Carnival (Asianet) Limelight (Asianet Plus) TRS Toor Dal Woodpecker Hayagrivas Silk house TRS Food Products Talk Home Royal Sweets Bands: Navneeth Sundar Ensemble Karthik Music Experience