Ragaphonia

2001 – 2009

Ragaphonia composed, recorded and performed together between 2001 and 2009.

Ragaphonia’s most current lineup:

Dr. Purna Prasad (mrudangam, electronic percussion)

Shuba Gunapu (vocal, veena)

Robert Edgar (vocal, guitar)

Roger Winkelman (bass)

Dr. Prasad was trained by Vidwan Vayyapuri Devar, who was one of the doyens in his field of percussion instruments. He has composed music for several dance dramas and has been an assistant conductor with renowned musicians such as Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Vijaya Raghava Rao. Some of the famous dance dramas which Purna contributed are Punyakoti, Srinivasa Kalyana, Mohini Bhasmasura, and Sri Krishna Vyjayanthi.

Subhashini Gunapu began her vocal training at the age of five with her mother Shyamala’s guidance . She was fine tuned by Guru Vidwan Ramachandra Rao. Concurrently, her Veena training began under the guidance of her Grand Father, Vidwan Gopinatha Das (founder of PAMPA) and continued with Smt. Usha Shastry. Subhashini gave her first stage performance at the age of seven for the Japanese International festival in India. As a child, she accompanied renowned artists such as Dr. Balamurali Krishna in his well-known musical album ‘Narasimha Suprabhatha,’ composed by Vidwan Gopinatha Das. She has performed for several major productions of PAMPA both in India and in the US.

Roger Winkelman and Robert Edgar met through Ragaphonia, and have continued playing and recording together as a duo and with 14 Bindlestick Frank.

Ragaphonia played a range of South Indian Classical and Western song structures. It played and recorded throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2006 it released “Floating Glacier Music“, a set of CD recordings under the name Ragamala.