Author Biography

Originally hailing from Brockport, NY, Michael T. Balonek holds a Masters' Degree in Ethnomusicology from Bethel University (St. Paul, MN). This degree took him and his wife Amanda to Sri Lanka and India where they studied local music, specializing in indigenous drumming, with the renowned Piyasara Shilpadhipathi. In 2011, Mr. Balonek published the first ever English-language lesson book for the Thammattama - one of Sri Lanka's drums ("Sri Lankan Drumming: The Thammattama"). In India, Michael has studied the Sarod with Kalyan Banerjee, and the Tabla with Sudarshan Ram. Prior to studying ethnomusicology, Michael received his BM in Music Education from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam (NY). At the time of this publication, Michael is currently a Research Scholar, working on his DPhil at the Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad.

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