Visakhapatnam-based veena player Ramavarpu Madhuri Devi is a torchbearer of a rich tradition of Andhra Pradesh that takes instrumental music closer to the gayaki or vocal style. The style she practises is called Vijayagaram bani. Music-lovers will be treated to this style when she performs here on April 19 under the auspices of Sree Thyagabrahma Sangeetha Sabha and the Navaneetham Cultural Trust.
Many famous vainikas (veena-players) of Andhra Pradesh follow the Vijayanagaram bani. Madhuri Devi’s mother Ramavarpu Vijayalakshmi was an exponent of the style. She picked up its nuances from Pattrayani Narayanamurthy and Kavirayani Joga Rao and passed them on to her daughter.
Ms Madhuri trained with maestro Emani Sankara Sastri for a while.
“A little after I started taking lessons from him, he passed away. But all that I learnt from him for a year changed my outlook towards music. He taught me how to touch the depth of the raga by avoiding frivolous passages. I also learnt from him the technique of sustaining the nadam (sound) on the strings,” she says.
Her urge to learn did not stop there. She did her post-graduation in music in the University of Delhi. She had a natural academic orientation, her father being a professor of Sanskrit in Andhra University. She went on to research on rasa element in Telugu musical compositions.
From the age of 14, she has been giving concerts. She has performed in different parts of the country and abroad, sharing the platform with stalwarts. A recent concert of hers was a jugalbandi with Mohan Veena maestro Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.
Music studies
She points out the need for strengthening Indian classical music studies in school curriculum. “Music is an integral part of school curriculum in the West. So, why don’t we make our students listen to Indian classical music?” she asks.
