Arun over the years, has carved a niche for himself in the world of percussion as one of the few drummers who does inter-disciplinary music. Arun trained in Carnatic percussions under Sri. S.V.Giridhar and Sri. Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma. He also has trained for jazz drumming under his father B.S Sukumar and the renowned drummer Ranjit Barot.
For the past fifteen years, Arun has been sharing the stage with Indian classical music’s geniuses like Ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram, Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, Tavil maestros Haridwaramangalam A K Palanivel, Mannargudi Vasudevan, Mutthu Kumaraswamy, Ghatam maestro V Suresh and Khanjira maestro Selva Ganesh.
Arun also has been performing with India’s renowned Jazz musicians like Ranjit Barot, Amit Heri, Karl Peters, Louis Banks, Gino Banks and Keith Peters.
Arun, along with a few like-minded musicians has formed a percussion band ‘Layatharanga’. They have over the past fifteen years, gathered a lot of appreciation and support for their experimental ventures.
Arun has toured the world with his performances. Some of the memorable concerts are-
Barbican Centre concert with a 48 piece orchestra.
The Algerian Jazz Festival, Constantine with Dr L Subramaniam.
The International Percussion festival held at Krakow with Layatharanga.
The Barcelona Music Festival, with the famous Spanish guitarist Pepe Habichualla.
The Lakshminarayana Global Festival at Leipzeg Germany.
With Shankar Mahadevan at the Anando Bazzar Patrika Fest, New Jersey.
With the Raj Hans Orchestra, Belgium.
The Coin Street Festival, London.
With Hariharan, at the Sadelers Wells Festival, London.
At the Birmingham Museum, Birmingham
The concert for The United Nations, New York- with Dr L Subramaniam
The concert with George Brooks.
The concert at the Berlin Congress Hall.
The Europe Yoga Conference concert at Zinal, Alps Mountains.
50th Year Indian Independence concert at Netherlands.
Arun has collaborated with many illustrious musicians. A few collaborations are-
With Padmashree S.P Balasubramanyam for series of concert in the Middle East.
With Guru Sri S V Giridhar for a series of concerts in Europe.
With Moby Duck, a U K based company for an inter-cultural collaborative storytelling project that was performed in South Africa with the South African dance company ‘Tribhangi’
With the Chitralekha Dance Company,U.K, for a dance-theatre project 'Tears of Fire'.
With the Annapurna Dance Company, UK for workshops and tours.
With Poland’s Indo Lucia.
Arun has also been active in the recording industry. Some of his recording projects are-
‘Carnatic Chills’ with Ganesh Kumaresh.
‘Colours of India’ with Ganesh Kumaresh.
Thandava- his solo album
Punarnava- a fusion CD with Layatharanga.
His drumming for the soundtrack of the film ‘Morning Raga’.
‘Jhoola’ with Amit Heri.
A Jugalbandhi live concert album- ‘Ninaada’ with wife Pallavi Arun.
Arun is a graded artist in the All India Radio- one of the oldest promoters of Indian classical music. Arun is an active member of the music fraternity in the South Indian Film Industry.
“Give Arun any solid object, he will tap music out of it” says Michael Patro in one of his reviews in the Deccan Herald.
“Arun’s talent along with the urge to experiment is a testimony to his work”, says Sanjitha Rao in The Hindu.
Cymbal Setup 1 (left to right)
13” A Mastersound HiHats
14” K Custom Dark Crash
18” K Custom Dark Crash
16” A Medium Thin Crash
14” A Zildjian Fast Crash
22” K Constantinople Medium Ride
20” Edge Total China
Cymbal Setup 2 (left to right)
14.25” K Custom Hybrid HiHats
14” FX Oriental China Trash
16” A Custom EFX
9” and 11” K Custom Hybrid Splashes
15” and 17” Hybrid Crash
22” K Constantinople Medium Ride
14” ZXT Trashformer