Bio

A protégé of famed saxophonist Bobby Watson, and an improvisational prodigy, Dinakar picked up his fiddle at the age of 3, and has since gone on to perform in some of the world's greatest performance halls with Valery Gergiev, Joshua Bell, & Denis Matsuev as a long-standing member of Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra of the USA.

 

Dinakar picked up early traction as a homegrown talent on YouTube, where his acoustic renditions of pop songs began to attract a following. His cover of Alesso's mega-hit "Heroes" was featured on the Swedish DJ's own Snapchat, and Dinakar's interpretation of Bruno Mars's "Versace on the Floor" picked up hundreds of thousands of views. His channel has since garnered over 650,000 organic views.

 

From his masterclass with Gil Shaham being featured in The Strad Magazine to signing an international music television contract with The QYOU, Dinakar has continued to shine as a multi-genre virtuoso, while actively exploring unique directions with his sound. His debut classical album "Daydreams" was featured in Spotify's handpicked "Top 50 Classical Releases", and his RnB mixtape "Moonlight In The Redwoods" is a sparkling collaboration with over a dozen multi-genre artists.

 

While at Stanford University, Akshay served as the Founder + Artistic Director of the Stanford Flashmob Orchestra. Also the creator of an line of electric violins & the Stikato music stand, Dinakar has gained international media attention and endorsements from The Violin Channel, The Strad, SlippedDisc (Norman Lebrecht). 

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Akshay founded Carnegie Hall's NYO-U project, which was featured at the League of American Orchestra's 2018 national conference in Chicago.