A Tribute to MS Subbulakshmi

S. Aishwarya’s initiation into music began directly under the tutelage of M.S. Amma and Radha Viswanathan when she was 4 years old. Over a period of 20 years, the huge repertoire of songs which was part of the MS Bani was painstakingly taught to her by her Grandmother Dr. Radha.

Aishwarya has also been learning from Karnataka Kalashree Vidushi, Jambu Kannan for the last 17 years. She is also a proficient Veena player training in the reputed Karaikudi style from A. Shankar Raman and B. Nagalakshmi.

Aishwarya has won various awards from many organisations most notably being designated as the Ambassador of Classical Arts by the Connecticut State Assembly in 2016. She was named the rising star of Carnatic Music by the AMN Global Group in March 2017. She has also won the Vocational Excellence Award from the Rotary Club of India and the Young Achiever Award from the A3 Foundation – Chandigarh in the year 2016 and recently bestowed with the “Pride of India” Award by the Maharashtra Journalists Foundation.

S. Saundarya has been a student under the guidance of Sangitha Kala Acharya, Neela Ramgopal for 5 years. She is also training on the violin under the tutelage of Anuthama Murali and Vishwajith Mattur. Saundarya is an upcoming Bharatanayam dancer too training under the Vazhuvoor Bani from Sumitra Nitin. She is extremely accomplished in Western Violin as well, having completed her Grade 5 with distinction from Associated Board of the Royal School of Music – London (ABRSM) in Nov 2019. Saundarya has been conferred with the “Pride of India” Award by the Maharashtra Journalist Foundation

B S Prashanth is the disciple of Vidwans Sri K N Krishnamurthy and Sri C P Vyasa Vittala presently under the tutelage of Mridangam Maestro Sri Patri Satish Kumar. He is A Grade artiste of the Prasar Bharathi and has been performing with legendary musicians of the country for the past 24 years. He has been awarded the Best Mridangam Artiste award by the Madras Music Academy four times. He has received the best Mridangam accompanist award by Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts Mumbai. He has been honoured with the “Asthana Vidwan” of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. He has received many titles namely “Nandi Vidya Visharada”, “Sunaada Vidya Nidhi” and many more from reputed Sangeetha Sabhas.

Vishwajith Mattur is an accomplished Violin Vidwan who began learning from Sri Hosahalli Subba Rao (a direct disciple of Violin Legend Lalgudi G Jayaraman). Vishwajith has since accompanied many leading artists and is currently learning from PadmaSri Awardee Rudrapatnam Thyagarajan and Sri H V Raghuram.

Shamith started learning initially from Vid. H L Shivashankaraswami and is currently learning Ghatam under Vid Giridhar Udupa. He got the first rank in Karnataka State level Talavadya Junior exam and 3rd rank in Talavadya Senior exam. He has received the Karnataka Sangeetha Nrutya Academy scholarship and CCRT Young Artist scholarship for the year 2023 by the Ministry of Culture. He has performed at prestigious stages and sangeetha sabhas in Mysore, Bangalore, Mangalore and Chennai. He also took part in the Spirit of youth festival conducted by Music Academy of Madras and has accompanied senior vidwans such as Mysore Manjunath, Sandeep Narayan, Sakethraman, Sriranjani Santhanagopalan, Bangalore S Shankar, H S Sudhindra, Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma, Mysore Chandan Kumar and many more.