This eight-year old boy even composes notes and jingles, say his parents. Wow! He wakes up in the morning to the strains of music. And then goes on to play Carnatic ragas.

On August 16, Serendipity Music Productions released a CD titled - Sathyanarayanan's Carnatic on Keyboard - Vol. I in Madras. The new CD has Embar Kannan on the violin, Ganapathy Ram on mridangam and Karthik on ghatam.

Mandolin U. Shrinivas, R. Krishnaswami(Secretary, Narada GAna SAbha), A.V.M. Saravanan and music director Deva were the guests of honour at the album release function, held at Narada Gana Sabha's mini hall, Madras. As part of the launch programme, there was a live performance of a few numbers from the album, played the artistes who have played in the album.

Born in 1995, Sathya was trained by Masilamani, a piano player, and passed the first level solo piano examination conducted by Trinity College.

Later, he trained under Alphonse, a keyboard player and cleared his 2nd Grade Electronic Keyboard Examination directly. He then moved on to attempt his 4th Grade exam and came out in flying colours. Sathya has been given an entry in the Limca Book of Indian Records 2003 as the youngest Indian to pass the 4th Grade keyboard exam conducted by Trinity College, London. He has secured 85% in the exam and the institution has felicitated him with a bronze medal for his achievement.

Sathyanarayanan hails from a family of musicians. His grandfather is Embar Sadagopan and uncle is Embar Kannan, a well known young Carnatic violinist. His mother, Lalitha and father, Krishnababu are singers.

Little Sathya says his grandfather taught him the swarams and varnams of classical music quite early. His father gave him an electronic keyboard when he was three years old and his priceless gift was a computer from his grandfather, K. T. Pathy. Sathya has the ability to play Carnatic classical music on the keyboard and has performed solo concerts at Chennai and Mumbai for sabhas like Bharat Kalachar, Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha and Bharathi Kala Mandram. Leading an orchestra, he performs light music concerts under his banner 'Rhythm and Raga' and has appeared on all major TV channels, Radio FM, and Chennai AIR stations.

Sathya has also sung few songs in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films under various music directors. Sathya says he loves Ilayaraja's music and plays his songs at ease on the keyboard. Recently, Sathya composed a jingle for the Cancer Institute and got his parents to sing the lyrics for it. The jingle is being aired on Radio Mirchi often.

Sathya has participated in 18 concerts in South Africa and Mauritius under the auspices of Indian Cultural Academy in the respective countries. He has composed eight songs in praise of The Mother of Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Sathya performs in concerts, parties, functions and in temples of the city. He has been recognised by Rotary Club of Anna Nagar with 'The Young Achiever Award'.

Sathya has also been trained on the violin by the wellknown artiste A. Kanyakumari and by his uncle Embar S. Kannan, and artiste Vittal Ramamoorthy.

Sathya now plays a few songs on his violin while he is giving performances on keyboard.

The young musician resides at No: 54, 19th Street (Off 4th Avenue)Ashok Nagar. He can be contacted over 23719276. Cell: 98411-42427/ 98841-03464. email: smpindia@indiatimes.com