A. Kanyakumari, an outstanding and versatile violinist, will get the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy this year. The executive committee of the Academy held on July 24 unanimously chose her for its coveted award.
According to N. Murali, president, Music Academy, Ms. Kanyakumari is the first woman violinist to get the award and she will preside over the 90th annual conference of the academy to be held between December 15, 2016 and January 1, 2017. The award will be given to her at the Sadas on January 1, 2017. “It is God’s grace that I have been selected for the award at an appropriate time. I am very happy because it is considered as the highest award in the field of Carnatic music,” Ms. Kanyakumari, a student of M.L. Vasanthakumari, told The Hindu .
A native of Vijayanagaram in Andhra Pradesh, Ms. Kanyakumari had her initial training under Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao. Later she learnt from noted violinist M. Chandrasekaran, another Sangita Kalanidhi awardee. She became a student of MLV in 1971. “I was with her for 19 years learning and accompanying her,” said Ms. Kanyakumari.
She is yet another student of the G.N. Balasubramaniam (GNB)-MLV school of music to win the award. Others who had already received the award are vocalists Sudha Ragunathan and Tiruchur V. Ramachandran.
A composer who constantly experimented with music, she created seven ragas under the title Saptadri, seven names of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati. “I used Annamacharya’s compositions to give expression to the seven ragas,” said Ms. Kanyakumari.
“I have teamed up with nagaswaram and veena players and my Vadhyalahiri was popular in the late 1980s,” said Ms. Kanyakumari, who had accompanied saxophone player Kadri Gopalnath along with thavil player Haridwaramangalam A.K. Palanivel and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain.
She also played for M. Balamuralikrishna, ‘Flute’ Ramani and Bombay Sisters for many years. She teaches a lot of students in India and abroad, but does not accept money from them.
Mr. Murali said the Sangita Kala Acharya awards will be presented to Rudrapatnam brothers — R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan, and K. Venkataramanan, a vocalist and music teacher.
Likewise, the TTK awards will be given to vocalist Nirmala Sundararajan and Thevaram singer M. Kodilingam. The Musicologist award would be given to Rama Kausalya, and the Pappa Venkatramaiah award to violinist Sikkil Baskaran.
The Nataya Kala Acharaya award will be given to Malavika Sarukkai on January 3, 2017, at the inauguration of the dance festival.
