Dr. Prasanna Rao, a Mechanical Engineer by Profession, is a Senior Project Engineer at Electro Motive Diesel, a manufacturer of Diesel Electric Locomotives. A great lover of Music, Dr. Rao attributes his knowledge and love of music to his Maanasika Gurus,  ‘the Greats of  various styles of Music’,  that he had the pleasure of listening to as a Youngster growing up in Bangalore. Dr. Rao pays particular attention to ‘Laya’,  and  to bringing out the ‘Bhaava’ or ‘Spirit’ of  the compositions of composers in different Indian Languages.

Prasanna Rao has about a dozen of his own compositions in Kannada in the Carnatic style of music and has set the Raaga and Thaala for a large number of Compositions of other composers.  He has given  a number of  performances   in different cities of  US, Canada and India and teaches Classical Vocal Music.