Born as Gnanadesikan, Ilaiyaraaja is one of India's pioneer film composer, singer and lyricist and was the first Indian to score a symphony. A gold medalist from the Trinity College of Music, London, Ilaiyaraaja started his music career as a guitarist and worked for many music directors. After this he was hired as a musical assistant to composer G.K. Venkatesh. During this period he worked on more than 200 projects and also started writing his own scores.

His first film composition came for the 1976 Tamil film, Annakkili. His use of latest techniques and fusion of western beats with Tamil percussions gained him much popularity. By the mid 80s he had composed music for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malyalam and Hindi films. Ilaiyaraaja also came out with non-film albums which were mainly an exploration of the fusion of western and Indian classical music. Some of these are How to Name It? Nothing But Wind and Symphony.

He rarely performs in concerts and this can be derived from the fact that in the last 25 years, he has only done 3 concerts which have been broadcasted live. He is recipient of a National Film Award, a Golden Remi Award and a Lata Mangeshkar Award for his fabulous compositions. He has also received honorary degrees and awards of appreciation from many institutions.
Some of his most compositions are for Saagara Sangamam, Sindhu Bhairavi and Rudraveena. International pop stars like Black Eyed Peas and M.I.A. have also sampled from his musical compositions.