LAKSHMINARAYANA Global Music Festival

My father was a great music teacher and performer. So I studied from him and wanted to play the violin like him

During his performance he premiered the Peace Anthem as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and others who followed the nonviolence movement

Pandit Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramaniam – one of the most celebrated violinists from India recently showcased a mesmerising performance for Lankan music lovers. Held as part of the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, the concert was organised by ITC Sapphire Residencies along with the High Commission of India to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. subramaniam performed alongside the Liepaja Symphony

Orchestra which is one of the oldest orchestras in the Baltic States. During his performance he premiered the Peace Anthem as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and others who followed the non-violence movement. What began as a tribute to his father V. Lakshminarayana Iyer, another renowned Indian violinist has taken him places making him a regular visitor in US, UK and Europe.

During his visit to Sri Lanka the Daily Mirror Life caught up with this violin maestro:

Q WHY DID YOU GIVE UP YOUR MEDICAL PROFESSION TO BECOME A MUSICIAN?

My father was a great music teacher and performer. So I studied from him and wanted to play the violin like him. But those days it was an accompanying instrument and violinists didn’t receive much attention. Yet my father had a different vision and he studied and performed on violin as a solo instrument. At the time the violin wasn’t great and therefore he had to develop new techniques and approaches. Slowly there was hope that we could take an instrument like the Indian violin to the rest of the world like the Western violin. The Western violin technique was quite advanced at the time.

But my father’s dedication took the India violin to that level. Due to this uncertainty my parents wanted me to have an education. I liked science and got a placement at Madras

Medical College and I thought I’ll be a doctor and continue to play the violin. But when I was in my second year a German violinist heard me and he told my father that he would give a scholarship for me to do a Masters in Violin. I was very happy but my mother asked me to finish medicine, take the certificate and then decide. But the very next day I decided to continue in music. I got scholarships from two places and after

I got my certificate in medicine, I left for my higher studies in music. But I’m thankful to my mother because she allowed me to go. I did Masters in Music Composition in the US and this is why I write a lot of orchestral pieces. Then I went back and did my PHD in music at

the California Institute of Arts. The change happened because I wanted to be like my father and play the violin.

Q YOU GREW UP AS A CHILD IN SRI LANKA. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE COUNTRY TODAY?

My father was at the Jaffna College as a vice principal and was also a professor there teaching music. He taught a lot of people. In fact he was instrumental in changing the musical direction here because before that they used to have bharathanatyam and other Hindu traditions in temples. Along with these he introduced other concepts from the local violin. He invited some great artistes from India and organised regular concerts. He was later at Ceylon Radio where he created an orchestra and worked in Colombo during the final stages before he left. His contribution to Colombo and

Jaffna as a music teacher creating a lot of students, as a composer and in radio bringing in traditional concepts is immense.

Q JAFFNA ONCE HAD A RICH CULTURAL COMPOSITION WHICH DIED DOWN WITH THE WAR. HOW SHOULD THIS BE REVIVED IN THE POST-WAR SETTING?

Myself and Kavita established the Laskhminarayana Global Centre for Excellence (LGCE) and we have been doing a global music festival since 1992. It began after my father’s demise. The concert we had here was part of the tour. At LGCE we provide higher education in music where they can also continue to do Masters and PHD as well and it is affiliated to the Jain (deemed to be) University in Bangalore. We are starting with giving four full scholarships for Sri Lankan students this year. Through this we are trying to bring back the culture and it is not an opportunity just to learn music but to perform as well. So we focus on creating performance on level and with the certificate they receive they can join any other university in India or anywhere to do MA or PHD. We also focus on performance level where most of the time the students will focus on becoming a great performer through practice. We feel that many universities only give great certificates but they haven’t created great performers. At the same time there are great performers who never went to school or university. Therefore the system used in the universities isn’t the right system. I’m also asking other people to support deserving people to further their music career in India so that there will be faster openings and developments. Even the government can get involved and bring about development much faster.

Q TELL US ABOUT THE CONCERT

Whenever we have a Global Music tour many foreign artistes come and give lectures to the students at the university. So they don’t have to go to another country to expose them to global music. They can hear other global artistes and share the experience. This time I’m playing with the renowned Liepaja Symphony Orchestra of Latvian origin. We played in Bangalore and the next visit is to Delhi. Recently we played in various destinations to celebrate 70 years of India’s independence. In this concert I’ve been asked to premier the Peace Anthem which is a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary. It is also a tribute to other peace-lovers such as Nelson

Mandela and others who followed Gandhi’s non-violence principle. It is also a special occasion to me because my granddaughter

Mahati joined me in singing.

Q WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR UPCOMING MUSICIANS?

Every time we give excuses. But we need to create opportunities, work hard and find some support. If you want to be a musician, don’t compromise. There are engineers and people in other professions who become musicians. But you will need financial support to get scholarships and go abroad etc. So you will have to knock on different doors. But we will support those who are interested to the best of our ability.