Shanker Krishnan grew up in a musically inclined family—his sister, vidushi Geetha Raja, is a noted Carnatic vocalist, his father wrote on music and culture, and his mother led devotional groups. Shanker was trained in Carnatic and Hindustani traditions under eminent gurus such as vidwan Bombay S Ramachandran and Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan respectively. 

Krishnan’s Western classical music training was more unconventional. After coming to the US for graduate study in applied mathematics, he discovered the world of Bach and Bartók, and spent as much time on music study at UC Berkeley as on math. While working in New York, Krishnan took private lessons from composer Nils Vigeland (later Chair of Composition at the Manhattan School of Music). During his 25 years at…