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Dr L Subramaniam
Background information on Dr. L. Subramaniam | |
Birth name | Subramaniam Lakshminarayana |
Born | 23 July 1947 (age 65) in Chennai, India |
Genres | Classical, Carnatic, fusion, jazz,world music |
Occupations | Violinist, composer, conductor,multi-instrumentalist, arranger,record producer, pedagogue |
Instruments | Violin, percussion, synthesizers,vocals |
Years active | 1973 present |
Dr Lakshminarayan Subramaniam was born in 1947 on July 23 and has gained fame as a famous violinist from India and a composer as well as conductor, with training in the music of classical Carnatic as well as in Western Classical, who is also well known for his innovative and virtuous techniques of playing in the fusion orchestral manner.
"Music is a vast ocean and no one can claim to know it all. The more you know, the more you realize how little you know. It is an eternal quest" - Dr L Subramaniam
L Subramaniam was born to musician parents, mother Seethalakshmi and father V Lakshminarayana, belonging to Tamil traditions.
During his young days, L Subramaniam passed most of his time in Jaffna, where he started music lessons before he was five. He started with violin training under his father V Lakshminarayana. He was called fondly by his contemporary musicians and family members as ‘Mani’ and performed his first public rendition when he was 6 years of age. His brothers also were proficient in music, among whom, L. Shankar was a violinist and composer, as well as L Vaidyanathan. Subramaniam has done recording with his brothers also.
Subramaniam was interested for music and also science from a very early age, and went on to study MBBS from Madras Medical College. He started practicing as a general physician and then went to follow music with full dedication and time. Over the years, he got his master’s degree from California Institute of the Arts in Western Classical Music.
Biography
L Subramaniam is a senior violinist from India and is extremely talent also as a conductor and composer. He is well versed in Carnatic music, a classical form of south Indian musical tradition and also skilled in western classical music. Subramaniam is well known for compositions and musical renditions in fusion orchestra forms. To his credit, he has about 150 recordings and has collaborated with lots of big names in music such as Stephane Grappelli, Yehudi Menuhin, Ruggiero Ricci and plenty of others.
L Subramaniam comes from a family in Tamil region, and appeared before the public for the first time at the age of six. It is like he was having music in his blood from a very early period of childhood, because his mother V Seethalakshmi and father V Lakshminarayana, bother were skilled and famous musicians. Even though Subramaniam received his medicine doctorate, he went on to become a violinist. He got married first to Viji Subramaniam, but after her death, went on to marry Kavita Krishnamoorthy in the year 1999, who was a famous playback singer in India. L Subramaniam’s biography of career in music is very much impressive.
Career
From the year 1973, there are more than 200 recordings which have been credited to Subramaniam, including various solo music albums, collaborations in recording with Stephane Grappelli, Yehudi Menuhin, Jean Pierre Rampal and Ruggiero Ricci, and also has recorded albums and performed along with Herbie Hancock, Ruggiero Ricci, Jean-Luc Ponty, Joe Sample, Stanley Clarke and many others.
He also has been on stage along side highly revered Carnatic music vocalists like K.V.Narayaswamy, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Dr. Pinakapani, M.D.Ramanathan and M Balamuralikrishna. He has in many occasions been part of performances along with Palghat Mani Iyer on the instrument Mridangam, and collaborated with Hindustani musicians from North India as well as other musical artists.
He has done some writings for various ballets, orchestras, scores for Hollywood movies and has penned down music books one of which is Euphony and also has composed various Carnatic musical pieces and symphonies.
In the year 1983, he made a composition with flute and violin as Double Concerto, where scales from western music with intervals in micro range were included. He also released a homage named Spring-Rhapsody for Bach as well as Baroque music. He has some orchestra creations namely Fantasy on Vedic Chants in collaborations with New York Philharmonic, which had Zubin Mehta as Conductor, with The Swiss Romande Orchestra, the Turbulence, with Oslo Philharmonic, the Concert of Two Violins and along with Berlin State Opera, the Global Symphony, the last being broadcasted to 28 countries live. He went for a China Concert tour accompanying Beijing Symphony Orchestra.
Awards
L Subramaniam has received a number of accolades and awards during his career. He was declared by Governor of Madras as the Violin Chakravarthy, meaning the Emperor of Violinists and in 1981 had also received nomination for Grammy awards. He got the Best Composer Award/Commission by NRK P2 radio channel of Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in 1996 and was given the Special Medal of Honour in 1997 from Nepal HH King Birendra, after he gave a performance in honour of the king’s reign completing 25 years. In India, he received the Padma Shri award in 1988 and in 2001 was awarded Padma Bhushan. As a mark of his contribution to Indian music, he received Honorary Doctrates from Bangalore University in 2003, University of Madras in 2004 and University of Sheffield in 2008.