Table of Biography
Early Life and Childhood
Vijaya Iyer was born in Albany, New York, in the United States, on October 26, 1971, and is 50 years old currently. However, he grew up in Fairport, New York. He was born in the United States and is of Indian ancestry.
His surname is Raghunathan, but after college, at Yale, he changed it to Iyer. Raghu Raghunathan and Sita Raghunathan are his parents. Pratima, his older sibling, works as a chemist in Georgia.
He was born in India but moved to the United States with his parents in the mid-1960s. At the time, his father was studying for a doctorate in pharmacology at the University of Florida.
In terms of his education, Iyer got his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and Physics from Yale University. He went on to the University of California, Berkeley, to obtain a doctorate in physics. Iyer’s parents enrolled him in a violin class when he was three years old, and he got 15 years of Western classical violin instruction.
He started to follow his musical interests after graduating, performing in groups led by drummers E. W. Wainwright and Donald Bailey. In the same year, he collaborated with Steve Coleman and George E. Lewis.
Professional Life
The band recorded several albums with Steve Coleman and George E. Lewis, including Break Things, Accelerando, Historicity, and others. In 2003, Vijaya and American hip hop artist Mike Ladd released their joint studio album, In What Language, on PI Recordings.
The Asia Society commissioned the album, which is about airports, fear, and surveillance before and after 9/11. Still Life with Commentator (2007) and Holding to Down: The Veteran’s Dreams Project are most likely his main collaboration albums with Ladd (2013).
Caption: Vijaya Iyer playing piano at an event (Source: Instagram)
Vijaya Iyer began working with Rudresh Mahanthappa, a New York-based jazz alto saxophonist and composer, in 1996, and the two collaborated on eight recordings, five under Iyer’s name and three under Mahanthappa’s name. He has also performed as a composer for classical ensembles and soloists, with the string quartet Ethel choosing and premiering his composition “Mutations I-X” in 2005. His other piece, “Interventions,” was commissioned and premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in 2007.
In addition, for the 2019-2020 season, Iyer was the Composer-in-Residence at Wigmore Hall in London, England. In 2018, he was named the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard’s Department of African and African American Studies for the rest of his life.
Awards and Achievements
Break Stuff, a jazz record was named one of Time’s best albums of 2015. In addition, the album got five stars (the highest rating) in Down Beat magazine’s best March 2015 issue. Likewise, He won the Alpert Awards in the Arts in 2003. He was also named one of GQ India’s “50 Most Prominent Global Indians.” He won the Special Excellence Publisher’s Award from India Abroad in 2010.
Vijaya Iyer has also won several prizes, including the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award (2012), the Greenfield Prize (2012), and the ECHO Award (2013), among others.
Networth
Vijaya Iyer has an estimated net worth in the range of $1 million to $3 million as of other authorized online sources. However, his yearly income, salary, and other assets are still under review.
Vijaya Iyer – Body Measurement
The guitarist will be 50 years old in 2022. Vijaya Iyer’s hair is purple, and his eyes are dark. His height, weight, and other body measurements are currently hidden behind closed doors.
Vijaya Iyer – Social Media
Vijaya Iyer has a large following on Instagram, with over 16.9k followers. He most likely has more than 31.3k followers on Twitter. Iyer’s Facebook profile has almost 26 thousand likes. He also has a self-titled YouTube channel, of which he has only posted 11 videos so far. He has over 2k viewers on his YouTube channel despite only having 11 episodes. However, he is now inactive on his YouTube site.