Violinist S R Mahadeva Sarma

Carnatic Musicians
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CRama
Posts: 2939
Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

S.R.MAHADEVA SARMA- VIOLINIST

Post by CRama »

A family of musicians is nothing rare in music world. But I honestly feel that this family of three violinists in Trivandrum have escaped attention of majority of the rasikas in Chennai. Hence my introduction of this family of violinists. The father is Prof. Subramania Sarma, the son S.R.Mahadeva Sarma and the daughter S.R.Rajasree.
S.R.Mahadeva Sarma-
The name of this violinist is always seen with Padmabhushan K.J.Yesudas for he is the stock violinist for KJY for many decades. Son and disciple of Prof M Subramania Sarma, a senior violinist who retired from the Swati Tirunal Music College, Trivandrum. S.R.Mahadeva Sarma aged 43, is a A Top Violinist of AIR and presently a staff of AIR, Trivandrum. He has been performing in the field of Carnatic music since 1984. His mother Smt K. Renuka is also a good music lover. Among all the senior artistes whom S.R. Mahadeva Sarma has accompanied, Dr.K.J. Yesudas gave continuous encouragement, guidance and patronage. This aspect has inspired S.R. Mahadeva Sarma to achieve excellence in his field of music. S.R. Mahadeva Sarma accompanied Dr.K.J. Yesudas in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Gulf Countries, Europe and United States of America. S.R. Mahadeva Sarma has accompanied on the violin many other great artistes like, Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna, Padmabhooshan K.S.Narayanaswamy (Veena), Padmabhooshan. T.V.Sankaranarayanan, Padmasri.Palghat K.V.Narayanaswamy, Padmabhooshan Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan, Padmabhooshan. P.S.Narayanaswamy, Padmabhooshan Trichur V.Ramachandran, Padmabhooshan. B. Rajam Iyer, Padmasri Kadri Gopalnath, Dr N.Ramani, Sri T.R.Subramoniam, Sri T.K.Govinda Rao, Sri K.G.Jayan,etc.

S.R. Mahadeva Sarma gave his first violin duet performance at the age of ten along with his sister S.R.Rajasree and there is no looking back since then. S.R.Mahadeva Sarma’s performance is marked by excellent command over the instrument, excellent gamakas, deep classical values, melody, fingering techniques and bowing techniques. He is giving importance to gamaka prayogas. He observes the Indian style of bowing technique where he is using the thaanavil style of playing where the gamakas add lustre and charm to the playing. There is considerable influence of the MSG style in his bowing which makes it very enjoyable.

He has violin duet cassettes & cds to his credit and has performed in many Malayalam movies. S.R. Mahadeva Sarma has done music direction to the music album "Ragasaagaram" of Malayalam film play back singer M.G. Sreekumar and has performed background music violin for many Malayalam films such as "Kasthooriman", "Thaandavam" and tamil film "Kaancheevaram".

S.R. Mahadeva Sarma has been bestowed with many awards such as,
1. 'Kalaasri' award by Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy 2015.
2. 'Maharajapuram Santhanam Memorial Meritorious' award from Maharajapuram Santhanam Trust, Chennai, on 24th June 2006.
3. 'Outstanding Violin Duo' from New Jercy, U.S.A. in September 2005.
4. 'Saraswathi' award from New York, U.S.A. in September 2005.
5. 'Sangeetha Isai Vidwan Award' from Detroit, U.S.A, in August 2003.
6. 'Jayammal Madhavachary Award' from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, in August 1996.
After many years, I got to hear him accompanying Prof K.Venkataramanan in Sastri Hall in this season. The melody, sense of proportion, manodharmam, zeal for embellishing the concert etc impressed me very much. Many other musicians who gathered there including Prince Rama Varma appreciated him. We should hear him more in the Chennai music circuit.

PROF M.SUBRAMANIA SARMA
Prof. M. Subramonia Sarma was born on 23rd march 1937 in a family of traditional musicians. His father K.Mahadeva Iyer was a mridanga vidwan (who was a disciple of mridanga vidwan Pudukottai Dakshinamoorthy Pillai). Prof .M. Subramonia Sarma started his career as a violinist at the age of 17 years old under the able guidance of his father and Dr.Semmangudi R.Sreenivasa Iyer. He has been performing from 1949 as a reputed violinist in the field of karnatic music, He has performed violin solo concert in the B.B.C.

He had also given violin accompaniment to Padmabhushan Dr. K.J. Yesudass at London in connection with World Tamil Conference in the year 1982 and in the first World Malayalee Conference in 1983 and other innumerable concerts world wide. Prof. M.Subramonia Sarma’ s performance is marked by gayaka style, excellent command over the instrument, purity of gamakas, deep classical values and melody. He has been performing in the field of karnatic music for the past 62 years i.e.; [from 1949. I have heard many concerts of his accompanying vidwans like Maharajapuram Santhanam, Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer, T.N.Seshagopalan, Dr.S.Ramanathan, T.R.Subramniam etc in 70s to 90s when I was in Trivandrum. He was serving as Professor in the Swati Tirunal Music College, Trivandrum during which period trained many students who have become accomplished violinists and vocalists now. When there was a pacucity of violinists in 1060s, Sarma encouraged many musically inclined students to enrol in the Swati Tirunal Academy and they later became accomplished vidwans. He even met their tution fee whenever required. He has many violin trio cassettes & cd to his credit.

S.R.RAJASREE
S.R.Rajasree, the elder sister of Mahadeva Sarma also learnt violin from her father and blossomed into a consummate violinist much sought after by many musicians of repute. She has the credit of becoming the first lady violinist chosen to play in the Navarathri Mandapam in the year 2006 to accompany Prof. Shertallai Ranaganatha Sarma and a regular player since then. Rajasree has performed along with big names in the music world like K J Yesudas, Hyderabad Sisters, Smt M.S.Sheela, Smt.Nagamoni Srinath, Parassala Ponnammal, Padmabhooshan P.Leela, Smt Vijayalekshmy Subramoniam, Mala Chadrasekhar and Neyyattinkara Vasudevan; on stages in India and abroad. She has enthralled audience with her deep grounding in Carnatic music and her racy bowing style interspersed with staccato phrases. She has been performing in the field of Carnatic Music for the past 27 years. She has violin duet cassettes & cds to her credit.

Some of her Awards and Achievements
1. 'Kalaasri' award by Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy 2015.
2. "Outstanding Violin Duo" from New Jercy, U.S.A. In September 2005,
3. Saraswathi award from New York, U.S.A. In September 2005
4. Best sub-senior violinist award from Indian Fine Arts Society Chennai on 4th January 2004.
5. "Madura Gana Sudha Award" from Madurai in November 2002
6. S.R.Rajasree has performed violin trio & duet concerts along with her father and brother. She is the first female Violinist from Kerala who performed successful Violin duet concert tour to United States of America in the year 2005 along with her brother S.R. Mahadeva Sarma.
7.She has done research work and popularised Naarada Pancharathnam, Thiruvotriyoor Pancharathnam, Kovoor Pancharathnam & Sreerangam Pancharathnam in Kerala. This work has gained good appreciation from the music lovers of Kerala.
8. She has also associated with her brother S.R. Mahadeva Sarma to popularise the rare compositions of Muthuswami Deekshitar [Thirteen Krities] and rare compositions of Harikesanellore Muthayya Bhagavather [Seven Krithies] on Vinayaka. This work has also gained good appreciation from the music lovers.

The Duet concert of S.R.Mahadeva Sarma and S.R.Rajasree held in Sastri Hall this music season received high praise in the Friday Review dated 6 January 2017. Many of their recordings are available in you tube. The MSG bani is very much prevalent in the duets. I am giving below the links to some of their songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHIh5s7e6Gw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRJzlDreJ4c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHIh5s7 ... HIh5s7e6Gw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FnOUIZ ... FnOUIZoyg8

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: S.R.MAHADEVA SARMA- VIOLINIST

Post by rajeshnat »

crama
Of late I have observed after you write a post you hit the like of your own posts . I am not sure why you do that, possibly I am assuming there is only a misunderstanding -only others have to like your post.

CRama
Posts: 2939
Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: S.R.MAHADEVA SARMA- VIOLINIST

Post by CRama »

Because I am not in face book, I dont know about this likes and dislikes. I know I am not going to get any prize because it is liked. I have now reversed it. Thanks for informing me.
Leaving that aside, have you heard this vidwan. If so, please write your comments.

semmu86
Posts: 960
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 09:39

Re: Violinist S R Mahadeva Sarma

Post by semmu86 »

Vid. S.R. Mahadeva Sarma is an outstanding artiste, unfortunately not frequently seen in Chennai circles. I haev personally heard him play some outstanding concerts, accompanying lot of senior artists, especially TNS, Ramani, TVS & KVN. One KVN concert @ Sastri Hall many years ago comes to my mind, where his exquisite accompaniment was a delight all along, when i happened to hear him first.

Following KVN like a shadow, reproducing all that he sang in its entirety, esp the beautiful patterns that KVN normally sings at Misra chapu 3-thalli in pakkala nilabadi, one could see KVN was all appreciation for him, for he normally is not very vocal or expressive in appreciating accompanists on stage. (I mean you cant listen to the exclusive "sabash or bales"you would normally encounter in a say, SSI concert. A soft "besh"is all that one can elicit from KVN usually).

Its a pity we dont get to listen to artists like S.R. Mahadeva Sarma, V V Ramanamurthy often @ Chennai, the loss of which is exclusively ours.

CRama
Posts: 2939
Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Violinist S R Mahadeva Sarma

Post by CRama »

Tomorrow morning 9 AM, in Podhigai TV, there is the Violin solo concert of S.R.Rajasree. Pl.Watch.

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