Dr. R. Suryaprakash was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu to N.Ramachandran and Alamelu. At the age of seven, Suryaprakash started learning music with his uncle, Tirukkodikaval V Rajamani and M A Venugopalan (both disciples of the doyen Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer).

He received advanced musical training from Padma Bhushan awardee, Sangeetha Kalanidhi T V Sankaranarayanan, nephew and disciple of the legendary Madurai Mani Iyer, for more than a decade

His music was dubbed by the well-known critic MVR as “traditional, yet original”. Suryaprakash’s repertoire has also been enriched by musicians Tambaram Sundaresan and T P Vaidyanathan as also eminent musicologists Dr. V V Srivatsa and Smt. Sulochana Pattabhiraman.

Suryaprakash holds a doctorate degree from University of Madras, awarded in March 2020 for his thesis entitled “Structured and Systematic Approach to Manodharma Sangeetham (Creative Improvisation in music)”