Who I Am

I am an American pianist, multi-instrumentalist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, and producer based in Cleveland, Ohio. I specialize in the rock, progressive, metal, classical, jazz, film scoring, pop, and folk genres.
I studied classical piano for ten years at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and in 2017 received my degree in music composition for film from Oberlin College and Conservatory.

​Some of my relevant experience includes:
- Live keyboards for Miles Davis Band alum Sam Morrison
- Pianist in cinematic duo Silent Skies, featuring Evergrey vocalist Tom Englund on vocals
- Keyboardist of veteran multinational progressive metal band Redemption, with whom I played
Progpower USA (the USA's premier melodic metal festival) as a co-headliner
- Keyboardist and composer for progressive rock/fusion trio Lux Terminus, with whom I
released a record in 2018, The Courage to Be, featuring guest appearances from famed
Dutch vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen, Delain guitarist Timo Somers, and touring
Leprous cello player Raphael Weinroth-Browne
- Alum of the Palomar Film Music Workshop (Larry Groupé, Roger Neill) and the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop
- Recorded guest keyboards for The Zenith Passage (feat. members of The Faceless, Fallujah)
- Recorded keyboard arrangements for Timo Somers (Delain, Vengeance) on his
tribute to Chester Bennington.
- Keyboardist in USA cinematic metal band Threads of Fate
- Winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs competition for classical composition
- Finalist in the ASCAP/Morton Gould classical composition competition
- Keyboardist for Cleveland progressive rock/metal band Gravity
- Guitarist for Cleveland symphonic/progressive metal band Meridian
- Recorded close to 100 piano arrangements of rock/metal/progressive music on my YouTube
- Released my solo prog/instrumental EP "The Hammertong Project" in 2017

What I Do

I am available for any kind of sessions work, including the following:
​- Sessions piano/keyboards studio work (including real mic'd piano!)
- Sessions electric guitar/bass guitar work
- Drum programming/arranging
​- Orchestration (programming or arranging for live players)
- Solo piano playing for your live event or function
- Live/touring keyboards/piano/guitar/bass/drums
- Mixing/mastering
- Songwriting/composition
- Composition for media (film, TV, etc.)

I am also available for lessons (Skype/in person) in the following fields:
- Piano/keyboards (classical, rock, jazz, etc.)
- Electric guitar
- Songwriting/arranging
- Mixing/mastering
- Music theory
Contact me at vikramashankar@gmail.com, and let's talk!

My Gear

I proudly use the following equipment: 
- Korg Kronos 88 
- Earthworks piano microphones
​- Boston grand piano
- Kurzweil PC3 61
- M-Audio MIDI controllers
- PRS and Schecter guitars
- Yamaha basses
- 360Infinite keyboard stands
- Focusrite and Audient preamps/interfaces
- A variety of industry-standard software plugins from Arturia, Fabfilter, Waves, SPL, Spectrasonics, Imperfect Samples, Synthogy, 
​Spitfire Audio, Cinesamples, and many more
- Shure in-ear monitoring