MUMBAI: Academy Award-winning short film Smile Pinki's music composer and guitarist Prasanna proposes to launch a residential Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in partnership with Marg at Chennai.

The academy will open in July 2010, initially offering a one year diploma course in music and has plans to subsequently start a full-blown four year degree course. In a press conference on Wednesday, Prasanna said,"Today, the youth are heavily into music and we need to connect with them, and raise the bar on music education."

Students at the academy will be taught both Indian and Western music by an international faculty  "Irrespective of style, you need to unlock the musician in every student and help him in the journey of self-discovery, and that is where the challenge lies for us," says Prasanna. The Academy is coming up at Knowledge park at Marg Swarnabhoomi. It is a 633 acre project which will include the 18,000-sq ft residential music.

As an initiative, a workshop will be held on contemporary music from 17 to 21 August with the international faculty in attendance.

Prasanna's latest live concert DVD Live in Sedona, a DVD recorded at a live concert in Arizona featuring Prasanna performing both traditional Carnatic music and his original compositions from his Jimi Hendrix tribute album Electric Ganesha Land, was released on the occasion. It was my dream to give back to the society what I can as I was fortunate to get the best education in music,... said Prasanna, an IITM alumnus.