Murugaboopathi aka Boopathi is one of the world most celebrated mridangam players of today. His techniques and creative ability in accompaniment, solo renditions, and jugalbandhi programs with his North Indian brethren have earned him a critical acclaim around the world.
Sri Murugaboopathi was born 19th April 1965 in Madras, India and hails from a family of musicians and artistes of several generations. He has the unique honor of staying with his Guru and learning via the age old tradition of ‘Gurukula’ with his Guru Tanjore Upendren.
He had his initial training under Sri T R Srinivasan (Mridanga Vidwan and Lecturer) at the Tamil Nadu Music College Chennai. Sri Murugaboopathi was conferred the “Vadya Visharada” with distinction by the Music College. After about two years of stage experience, he underwent further training in the gurukula tradition under the late Mridangam Maestro Tanjore Upendran for over 10 years.
His percussion career has been a colorful spectrum of accompaniment to a legion of reputable virtuosos in Carnatic Vocal and Instrumental music.
Prominent vocalists among them are Padma Vibhushan Sri M Balamuralikrishna, Padmabhushan Madurai Sri T N Seshagopalan, Padma Bhushan T V Sankaranarayanan, Sanjay Subramanyam, P Unnikrishnan, T M Krishna, Sudha Raghunathan, Aruna Sayeeram and Nithyashree Mahadevan.
Renowned instrumentalists supported by Sri Murugaboopathi include the renowned and respected Flautist Dr N Ramani, Mandolin Sri U Srinivas, Saxophonist Sri Kadri Gopalnath, Violinist brothers Sri Ganesh & Sri Kumaresh, veena player Nirmala Rajasekar and Flautist Sri Shashank.
He has besides collaborated with several Hindustani (North Indian) musicians on Jugalbandi concerts, including Ustad Sultan Khan, Ustad Shahid Parvez and Sri Gaurav Majumdar.
His concert performances outside of India have included the Public Broadcasting Service and the United Nations in the United States, the Royal Albert Hall in London.
He has the honor of being one of the first Carnatic musicians to be showcased on the international music scene in Turkey accompanying veena artiste Smt.Nirmala Rajasekar in 2011.
He has participated and conducted outreach programs in various countries including the United States, Europe, Australia and East Asia, which has enabled him to disseminate his knowledge to art lovers through lecture demonstrations, music conferences and seminars.
He has been instrumental in providing support direction and guidance towards incubating several arts organizations in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Sri Murugaboopathi travels extensively to countries like USA, Scotland, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, Turkey, Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hongkong for Concert performances, Lecture demonstrations and on Teaching assignments.