Born in 1998, Arjun Ayyangar began his piano studies in fall 2001.

 

Arjun was among the very few   and  the  youngest  at  age  4,  selected  to perform in a  NBC's  premiere   prime  time  series  show America's  Most Talented Kid, after going through  nationwide audition  process.  Arjun has been performing with the orchestra at International Music Festival, Ohio since 2003. He had master classes with Leon Bates (piano - 2005) and Cameron Carpenter (organ - 2010) at the festival. He received standing ovation initiated by the legendary opera diva, Licia Albanese, age 92, during a charity benefit concert in 2005. In Animal Planet's “The Most Extreme: Tough Babies” episode, to draw a parallel between the extreme learning ability of an octopus in the animal world and someone in the human world, Arjun was featured at age 6.

 

Arjun performed in the famed Kimmel Center, PA and in The War Memorial Auditorium, NJ during a fundraiser for UNICEF sponsored by Steinway and Sons. As competition winner, the venues he performed at  are: Merkin Hall, NYC; German Cultural Center, NYC; Weill Recital Hall  at Carnegie Hall, NYC; Field Concert Hall at Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia; Dicapo Opera Theater, NYC, Bechstein hall, NYC; and Bosendorfer Hall, Austria. He appeared on PAX TV's America's Most Talented Kid. He performed during halftime basketball games at Madison Square Gardens, NYC and at Continental Airlines Arena, NJ.

 

Arjun is a Goodwill Ambassador for Empower The Children - a USA registered charity organization that supports educational and food programs for slum-dwelling and disabled children in Calcutta, India and other parts of the world. Arjun has pledged to contribute US $2 to ETC (http://www.empower-children.org) for every subscriber to his youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/ayyangar

 

Other instruments Arjun plays are Organ , veena , Persian Santur and Tonbak  and violin.

 

His harp performance won him a competition award from Music Fest (2010); his veena performance won him competition awards from Carnatic Music Association of North America (2008, 2010), Thyagaraja Aradhana Festival, Cleveland, Ohio (2011,2012). He has played santur publicly several times with Persian National Music Ensemble. 

 

          Arjun won in 2009 an international piano composition competition from Golden Key of Vienna. He was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not (Comic Strip 2008) and holds a certificate from Limca Book of Records, 2008, 2009 and 2010 for playing national anthems from memory. Arjun can play anthems of ALL countries on the piano from memory. He has written piano music sheets for ALL anthems of the world.

 

He is currently pursuing undergraduate studies at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.