Forty-one-year-old Jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer was named among 23 others who received the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship 2013.

Vijay's parents were Indian immigrants to the U.S. Vijay was born in New York and grew up to be a composer, pianist, bandleader, writer and electronic musician. Vijay innovates with jazz and other American music. Vijay has learned Western classical music since he was 3. He started playing the piano way back in his childhood. He is equally skilled at South Indian classical music.

Vijay is an acclaimed musician in New York. He is renowned for creatively rearranging musical works by Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein and M.I.A. among others.

Vijay did his BS from Yale College in 1992. He did his PhD from the University of California in 1998. He has already performed at prestigious venues like Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, Köln Philharmonie and Teatro Manzoni di Milano. He is going to join the Harvard University as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts in 2014.

"I make music. I make it in a lot of ways. I play piano. I improvise. I compose for myself and my ensembles. And I also compose for others" - Vijay talks about himself in the official MacArthur video. Vijay trained for a career as a scientist. His major was Mathematics and Physics. Jazz, according to him, is a method of communication. It is a way of connecting with people, he said.

He informs in the video that he was standing at the sink opening a can of salmon when he got the call to be informed that he had been selected for the fellowship. He says that he felt a "riot of emotions" while receiving the information. He looked blank, he says. He searched for the list of musicians who had received it in the past. He got overwhelmed to be a part of the list of musicians he truly admires.

The grant is typically called as the "Genius Grant." The names of 24 'geniuses' who received the MacArthur Fellowship were announced on Wednesday, Sept 25. The fellows are supposed to receive $625,000 stipend which they are allowed to spend whichever they may want to.

Video courtesy: YouTube/macfound