Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 202; Kanniks Kannikeswaran interview, part 3 of 7

Q: Tell us about receiving it and how that made you feel.

KANNIKS: It’s, it’s definitely an honor to receive the Ohio Heritage Fellowship. Umm, it was quite a surprise too, I got a call from the Ohio Arts Council, umm, one fine afternoon letting me know that I had won this award and I was delighted and honored to receive it. Umm, and more than that I want to acknowledge the fact that Ohio is a great place to live from the standpoint of the arts, there is so much ____ have been given to the arts and much is done by the state to foster the arts. Umm, I have gotten grant support from the Ohio Arts Council on so many different occasions and, uh, uh, my productions Shanti, a Journey of Peace which has made it’s mark in many different places in the United States and also my work, The Sound of Seasons where I collaborated with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra where, uh, funded with seed money from the Ohio Arts Council. So, I’m grateful for the support that I receive from these, so.

Q: Who are you musically? What does that entail?

KANNIKS: Umm, I’m a composer, a scholar and a music educator. Umm, I’ve... over the years I’ve created, uh, lots of original works and over the years, I’ve been teaching music, umm, both in terms of performance and also in terms of formal course work at the University of Cincinnati and I’ve done some serious research, umm, on music history and, uh, musicology unearthing, umm,...

Q: Go ahead and talk about your work as a composer.

KANNIKS: Yeah, umm, as a composer I have created works on many different fronts. One is, uh, studio recordings, umm, where, where I worked as an individual musician along with other accompanies in the studios, along with other singers and I’ve sung a lot of music also. I’m also a performing musician. Umm, as an educator... no... I’ve also created works for, uh, orchestra’s, so where I’ve written a score for orchestras to play. I’ve also... the bulk of my work that has received attention is in the realm of choral music. So, I’ve created many choral compositions such as choral arrangements which have been performed by people from, uh, which have been performed in many different cities, Cincinnati included and in other places like Tampa, Fort Lauderdale.

Q: Can we talk about how you compose? Do you write? Do you work on a computer? KANNIKS:

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