Welcome to Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music

Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM) is a modern gurukula commune of learning, about 80 km from Chennai in Swarnabhoomi. SAM’s 4 acre campus is located in beautiful lush green surroundings where the soul of rural India shines. The breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, an awe inspiring night sky and a magical quietude will be your backdrop for making creative music. In the centuries old traditional Indian gurukula system of learning for classical music, the student lives together with the teacher and acquires a much deeper educational experience that is as much learning about life as it is about music. Blending this concept with a modern western educational system of learning and driven by a uniquely designed curriculum that focuses on true multiculturalism in music, SAM is a quintessential globalmusic school. At SAM, learning happens 24 hours. To find an impromptu Clave-meets-Carnatic or Samba-meets-Kopanitsa jam sessions on tables with knives, spoons and forks in our dining room at any time of the day is part of everyday life here. All students, staff and faculty live in the apartment complex next to the main campus and dine in our gourmet multi-cuisine facility. The access our students get every day in a focused environment for months together with our world class faculty in it makes it a transformational learning experience.

SAM Academic Block

SAM's faculty is among the best you will find in any music institution. Our faculty are among the world's top performers, composers, arrangers, producers and teachers. Dafnis Prieto - MacArthur Fellow, Grammy and Latin Grammy nominee , Magos Herrera - Grammy nominated Mexican diva, Benny Greb - one of the world's most sought after drum clinicians, Rubens De La Corte - Musical director for African world music superstar Angelique Kidjo, Jason Lindner - celebrated Pianist and composer hailed by the BBC as one of the US's brightest Jazz hopes, Carmen Staaf - ex-Piano faculty at Berklee College of Music are just a few of the extraordinary talents that have taught full time in the Diploma Program.

“Prasanna plays guitar, quite simply like nobody on the planet” –Allaboutjazz.com
“I have never heard an electric guitar sound like that” – Utah Statesman, USA

"Shyam Rao brings a wealth of business management and music performance experience to SAM. A well known drummer from Chennai, Shyam was a student at SAM's first residential workshop and it was a transformational experience for him. He has an MS in Business Management from Texas Tech University and was previously Vice President at Melstar Information Technologies"