A fifteen-year-old from Powai/Mumbai won ten awards at the Music Competition 2026 conducted by Sri Shanmukhananda Bharatiya Sangeetha Vidyalaya and Natya Vidyalaya, competing in both Carnatic vocal and Mrudangam.

Sriram Kartik, a Class X IGCSE student at Podar International School, received the awards at the prize distribution ceremony on the occasion of Shanmukhananda's Carnataka Sangeetha Pon Mazhai Thiruvizha, at the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha in Matunga. The prizes were presented by Shanmukha Sangeetha Shiromani Vidwan Shri Sikkil Gurucharan, the eminent Carnatic vocalist, who presided over the ceremony.

Sriram won 9 individual prizes — five first prizes, three second prizes and one third prize. He was also awarded a cash prize for being the Best Junior contestant winning the maximum number of prizes in the 10-to-15 years age category.

The Vidyalaya's 70th annual Competition, was held on 7^th and 8^th February across Carnatic vocal, violin, veena, mrudangam, Hindustani vocal, sitar and tabla. It drew more than 300 participants from across India and overseas, contesting in three age groups: 10 to 15, 16 to 28, and 29 and above.

Sriram won two Mrudangam prizes — for taniavartanam in roopakam and misrachaputalams, and for aditalam with five jathi mohras, awarded under the T.S. Nandakumar's Percussive Arts Centre Endowment and the Guru T.S. Nandakumar Endowment respectively.

His seven vocal prizes spanned first places in compositions of the Trinity, varnams, Purandaradasakritis; the Silver Lamp Prize for keertanams and kritis; second places in Subramania Bharatiyar compositions and Tamizh compositions; and a third in G.N.B. kritis.

Sriram began learning the mrudangam at the age of five, under Acharya Ratna Vidwan Mumbai Shri Shankaranarayanan at Powai Fine Arts. A decade on, he has kept at it through the school years in which most students of classical music quietly stop — the age at which coaching classes, board examinations and the ordinary pull of everything else tend to close the practice room door for good.

Continuing his journey to strengthen training in classical arts, Sriram now receives higher tutelage in Mrudangam from Padma Vibhushan and Sangeet Natak AcademiAwardee Vidwan Dr. Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, and trains in Carnatic vocal music under Acharya Ratnakara Vidwan Sherthalai Dr. K.N. Renganatha Sharma and Vidushi Dr. Mohana Sharma. He holds a CCRT Scholarship for Mrudangam from the Ministry of Culture, and presented his mrudangam arangetram in June 2025.