Draft:Dr. HS Anasuya Kulkarni

Dr HS Anasuya Kulkarni (born 10 May 1936) is an Indian musician and instrumentalist from Bangalore, Karnataka. Ganakala Bhushana and Karnataka Kalashri awardee, Anasuya has earned a Ph.D in Music from Annamalai University on Comparative study of Indian instruments with South East Asian Instruments. She was the disciple of Ganakalaratna R.R. Keshavamurthy and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Mysore T. Chowdiah

She has learned Hindustani music from Afghan musician Mohammad Hussain Sarahang. She became an A-Grade All India Radio vocalist in 1952.

She is the playback singer for Prahlada in Subbaiah Naidu’s Kannada film Bhakta Prahlada. She has been active in various well-known Music Sabhas.

Anasuya Kulkarni travelled the world along with her husband Narayan Kulkarni, who worked with the United Nations Development Program. During her stay in multiple countries, she learnt local music and purchased local musical instruments. Consequently, she owned a collection of over 300 musical instruments from around the world which, today, resides in the Vishwam Museum at Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Ashrama, Mysore.

Of all the instruments she heard in different countries, the tunes from the Angklung from Indonesia enchanted her the most. She learned how to play it and decided to bring it to the Indian concert stage because of its unique melodious sound. She modelled a solo-instrument version of angklung, called the Ankrang, by changing a few playing techniques and introducing a few innovations in the stand. The expertise came when she mastered to play Carnatic music on it. For this innovation, her name is added to the Limca Book of Records (2008)

Kulkarni has trained multiple students to play the Angklung.

Dr Anasuya Kulkarni received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Amrit Award from the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India on 16th Sept 2023 in New Delhi from the Vice President of India, Sri Jagdeep Dhankhar for her contribution to the field of Music.