He has regularly performed at all leading organisations in Chennai every December Music Season and continues to accompany a wide array of top ranked musicians.
[3] Born on 27 July 1942 in Thiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India, Sankaran had his early musical training first under his cousin, P. A. Venkataraman, and later became the star disciple of the legendary mridangam maestro, Palani Subramaniam Pillai.
[citation needed] For Radha Viswanathan's wedding (daughter of MS Subbulakshmi), Semmangudi presented a concert for which Pazhani Subramania Pillai requested double mridangam and Trichy Shankaran was the second player at the age of 15.
He has successfully trained many South Asian and North American students on the mridangam, kanjira, ghatam, tabla, and other Western percussion instruments.
He was the pioneer in starting the Thyagaraja Festival in Toronto which has flourished into an annual event hosting a series of concerts featuring top ranked musicians from India, identifying and promoting talented youth in North America and endowing scholarships to students pursuing a career in music.
In addition to his usual traditional settings, he has performed with gamelan, jazz, electronic, and African music ensembles, and World Drums in fusion concerts.
He has performed in jugalbandhi concerts with Ustad Vilayat Khan, V. G. Jog, Zakir Hussain, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shanta Prasad, and Swapan Chaudhuri, to name a few.
As a composer, Sankaran has to his credit numerous pieces in the genres of gamelan, jazz, traditional Western classical orchestra, and various instrumental ensembles respectively.