Violin maestro Lalgudi Srimathi is a performer, composer and teacher for over five decades. A protégé of her famous brother, Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, and father, Lalgudi Gopala Iyer, Srimathi's firm grounding comes from a family of musicians devoted to professional music for five generations.
Tradition bound, Srimathi never goes in for unorthodox deviations. But there is no limit to her performing skill. In her lofty flights of imagination she can take the discerning listener to musical heights of undiluted delight. It can be authentically stated that there are few stalwarts like Srimathi, who can render an intricate Ragam Thanam Pallavi with effortless ease showering cascades of varied ‘swara raga prayogas' soaked in pure melody interlaced with unerring rhythm.
As a child, Srimathi received rigorous training in vocals and violin from her father. Over the years she has also imbibed the art of teaching music from him. Gopala Iyer was a versatile teacher who taught vocals, veena, violin and mridangam. An authority on rhythm, he gave young Srimathi a sound base in it. By then Jayaraman, her brother, had already blazed ahead as a violin accompanist to giants such as G.N. Balasubramaniam, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Madurai Mani Iyer, to mention a few.
Spartan training
An opportunity opened up for Srimathi when her brother decided to train her for his solo recitals. It should be said to the credit of the virtuoso that he taught his sister to play in tandem. This called for extraordinary rendering from the second violin, as it is by no means second fiddling. The spartan training turned Srimathi into a peerless performer in a short time.
The first solo of Jayaraman and Srimathi was held in 1957 at T.Nagar Arts Academy when she was 16 years old. For the next decade and half, the brother and sister recitals were reverberating in the halls of all the music associations across the country.
Under her brother's guidance, Srimathi gained an all India reputation as an expert violinist. The All India Radio heralded the achievements of the duo by broadcasting their recital in 1972 for their National Programme of Music. Leading dailies called it the most outstanding violin recital ever broadcast by the AIR. Srimathi continued her career as a solo violinist without resorting to being an accompanist. She trained her daughter Anuradha in violin in the same tradition of her father and brother, and their first duet was held in 1975 at Balasubramania Sangeetha Sabha (Chennai) when Anuradha was 12 years old. Ever since, Srimathi and Anuradha have been giving recitals in India and abroad. They have performed in Singapore, Malaysia, UK, U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
She has given solo performances in the leading sabhas in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. The Music Academy, Chennai, recognised her as the ‘Most Outstanding Artist Instrumental' in their December 2000 Series. Besides, for decades Srimathi has been a regular performer for AIR and Doordarshan. She has been placed in the ‘A TOP' grade by AIR , a position reached by her continuous exemplary performance.
An expert teacher, Srimathi has trained many disciples to a performing level. They are scattered all over the globe, excelling as soloists or accompanists to leading musicians. Srimathi taught violin to students in the Pittsburgh Temple, U.S. for three consecutive summers. Her daughter Anuradha Sridhar, who has been teaching music in California for the past 22years has groomed stellar students who are sought after young performers in the U.S. and India. Anuradha has won the Best Teacher Award in 2009 from the Cleveland Aradhana committee. Srimathi visits her daughter's music school in CA and mentors the students in advanced lessons. Srimathi is often sought after for giving lecture-demonstrations in the U.S.
Srimathi has composed many varnams and thillanas. She has set several Bharathiar compositions and ancient Tamil poetry, Thirukkural to music. In 2009, she set to tune 12 new compositions of Annamacharya and the CD was released by Silicon Andra, U.S. She is the guiding spirit of music in the animated CD ROM ‘Thyagaraja, the evolution of a Musician Saint' released by her daughter and son, Shriram Brahmanandam, a well known mridangam artist.
(The author, a professor of journalism at California State University in Los Angeles, now a Chennai resident, is a trained vocalist. )
