The summer of 2019 was jam-packed with remarkable musical experiences for Vasant Sundaresan.  He had a great opportunity to attend and collaborate at the famous GRAMMY Camp in Los Angeles and the highly selective Summer Electronic Music Institute (SEMI) at New York University.

Vasant has studied music his entire life, and it has recently taken on a new meaning for him as his biggest passion and career path. His prior experience studying tenor saxophone, mridangam, and piano significantly boosted his understanding of electronic music production. He began his YouTube channel about two years ago, and has accumulated more than 20,000 subscribers and over one hundred videos of his original instrumentals. Vocalists and other content creators can purchase his instrumentals to use in their own work. Recently, he created an LLC for his business for licensing instrumentals, which will be greatly beneficial for his growing channel.

The prestigious GRAMMY Camp is open to high school students across the United States, and is held in the middle of July in Los Angeles, CA.  This summer, Vasant attended GRAMMY Camp on the audio engineering track, where he was able to learn about the live recording of instruments, musical acoustics, working in music studios, and career opportunities in the music industry. “Pretty much everything I’ve learned about music production is self-taught,” he explained in his application video to the camp. “I think GRAMMY Camp would be a great formal education so I could learn different techniques or different approaches to doing things.” 

He was also accepted into the Summer Electronic Music Institute program at NYU Steinhardt, where he dived into music technology and live performance. Both opportunities provided him great environments for natural collaboration with other musicians. 

One of the instruments and styles that he said heavily influences his current work in creating beats is his experience as a mridangist accompanying Carnatic musicians. Vasant Sundaresan is a senior at St. John’s High School, Shrewsbury, MA. He plays tenor saxophone with his school band and with the Joy of Music Community Program at Worcester, MA. He also runs the electronic music production club at his school. 

Although he has played various instruments over the years, he asked for a beat-making software for his 12^th birthday and that sparked something in him, leading him to gather speed and popularity online as he accumulated subscribers and views on YouTube.

In the Central Massachusetts area, there are not many music producers and young entrepreneurs in the music industry. Vasant’s vision is to not only create music, but to also educate and inspire. Down the road, he wishes to educate students and children in the Worcester area free of charge, to teach them how modern music is actually created. 

YouTube channel - Versus Beats:

http://www.youtube.com/c/versusbeats 

Grammy Camp Announcements:

https://www.grammy.com/press-releases/grammy-museum%C2%AE-selects-students-and-announces-head-and-heart-and-jojo-guest-artists

https://www.grammy.com/press-releases/grammy-museum%C2%AE-selects-students-grammy-camp%C2%AE-los-angeles

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