The residents of G.A. Road in Washermanpet are accustomed to the sound of melodious music around them. Seventy four-year-old V. Padmasini has been running Sri Sathguru Sangeethalaya from the age of 20 and has taught over 2,000 students from the neighbourhood, some of them big names now.
Having learnt music from her childhood, it came naturally to her. She says, “Music is in my blood. Everyone in my family is a singer, mother, father and brothers. I started training under my brother G.V. Krishnamurthy. Over the years, I have kept the passion alive. I have sung for many Bharatanatyam and mridangam arangetrams. I sang in movies before marriage. I also sang in All India Radio as a B-grade artiste,” says Padmasini, who has also learnt music from Subramania Iyer, S. Rajam and others.
She believes that one has to have a strong foundation in music to succeed in the field. She emphasises on the importance of shruthi and swaram . “Unless the students’ voice is trained and they have picked up the nuances, I don’t teach them big songs. I don’t want my students to sing as if they were repeating rhymes. Only when they have understood the techniques do I go to the next level. Till then I teach them smaller tunes and bhajans to keep them interested,” she says.
Because of this, many of her students have performed extremely well at music reality shows. “My student Srinisha won the Jaya TV Little Superstars title and was also a semi-finalist in Vijay TV’s Airtel Super Singer Season 2. Another student of mine Jayashree has taken to teaching and now runs her own music school in Madipakkam where she teaches over 50 students.”
Conferred with the title of arangetra kaviyarasu , her music school is one of the very few in the neighboured that provides such extensive training. “At present, I am teaching over 140 students from Washermanpet. The area lacks quality teachers,” she says.
Sri Sathguru Sangeethalaya is at 158, GA Road, Washrmanpet.
