The Dhiren Panikker Trio

The Panikker Trio will perform original compositions, inventive arrangements of standards and world famous pianists.
About this Event

Dhiren Panikker is a Los Angeles–based pianist, composer, scholar, and educator whose work bridges performance, research, and pedagogy. An active pianist, he has appeared at venues across Southern California including Libretto, The Jazz Bakery, Blue Whale, and the Catalina Jazz Club. His recent solo piano album Moonlight Becomes You (2024) features reimagined works by popular American composer Jimmy Van Heusen. As the leader of Trio Sangha, Dhiren integrates concepts from Indian classical rhythmic practice within a contemporary jazz framework (Lost Locations, 2012). A dedicated educator, Dhiren currently serves as a visiting lecturer at Scripps College and Mt. San Antonio College, where he teaches courses in jazz piano, improvisation, popular music, world music, and ethnomusicological methods. In addition to his academic work, he is the co-founder of Innovation Music Studio, Inc., a boutique music school offering personalized instruction in pop, jazz, and improvisation. Through his teaching and mentorship, Dhiren empowers students of all ages to develop technical fluency and creative expression.

Marcello Carelli is a drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator. He has shared the stage with Grammy award-winning musicians such as John Daversa and Brian Lynch in small group and big band settings. He has also played with Eric Reed, Tamir Hendelman, Russell Ferrante, Dave Liebman, Ira Sullivan, John Beasley, and Shelly Berg, to name a few. Carelli earned his master’s in jazz studies at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. He was the teaching assistant for 2-time Grammy award-winning drummer and composer, Peter Erskine. Prior to this, Marcello received his undergraduate degree in Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. He was a Stamps Distinguished Ensemble Scholar there, having been chosen out of many applicants to play in a jazz quintet for four years with some of the finest young musicians in the country.

MARLONIUS (they/he) is a virtuoso upright bassist and composer from Los Angeles whose musical expression transcends conformity and limitation. Marlonius’s curiosity began as a classical music student at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. Soon after, classical-rock tours with Stewart Copeland’s “Off The Score” and Bowie-meets-jazz with Mike Garson. Later, Marlonius studied jazz in New York City with the legendary bassist Ron Carter. An active Hollywood studio musician, Marlonius has played in orchestras with Justin Hurwitz, Michael Giacchino, Anthony Parnther and John Powell. A protégé of bass visionary Stanley Clarke, Marlonius and their 17-piece big band Marlonius Jazz Orchestra opened for Clarke and Hiromi at BroadStage in 2023. Marlonius Jazz Orchestra performs Marlonius’s thrilling compositions, while revitalizing newly discovered masterpieces by Billy Strayhorn, a queer black icon and personal hero in jazz. Current album releases include “The Strayhorn Sessions, Vol.1” with Bay Area collective FAGJAZZ, and “Julius Eastman, Vol. 5: Gay Guerrilla” with Los Angeles new music ensemble Wild Up. Marlonius Jazz Orchestra awaits a debut album release produced by Stanley Clarke, featuring the dazzling vocalist Olivia Kuper Harris.