Nagaraj Hegde was born in a music loving family in 1974. During his college days he was attracted to hindusthani classical music, particularly the flute. He continued his education along with flute learning. He has M.Sc. (Agri.) in Horticulture with gold medal from University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, to his credit. He had been selected and appointed for the post of agril.field officer by a premiere Indian public sector bank. Nagaraj resigned from the bank within a very short period and afterwards committed himself for music/flute.