Shiama Vasant Srikantan is currently in 11th grade at Cupertino High School, Cupertino, CA. Born in San Francisco, he has grown up in the Bay Area. Even as a baby, Shiama gravitated towards the mridangam, which he started learning formally since the age of seven from his own paternal uncle, N.R. Srivatsan. More recently he has been receiving advanced training from Dr. K. R. Ganesh. While mridangam is his first love, he has also been learning Carnatic vocal from Maestro Sri O.S. Thiagarajan for several years. This vocal training has expanded his knowledge of Carnatic music and enhanced his accompanying skills. In addition, Shiama learned to play the Western classical and jazz piano for several years. Apart from his musical interests, Shiama is an avid reader, and loves science, math and computer programming. He is also a competitive tennis player and a captain for his high school varsity team. Shiama is fortunate to have had incredible love, support, and encouragement from his gurus on this musical journey. It is a special honor for him to accompany his vocal guru for his mridangam arangetram!