Bio

A protégé of famed saxophonist Bobby Watson, 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 Emmanuel Ax, 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 by the Swedish DJ, 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 750,000 video streams.

 

Dinakar continues 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" playlist, and his RnB mixtape "Moonlight In The Redwoods" is a sparkling collaboration with a dozen artists across varying genres.

 

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, and 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.