Maestro violinist Dr L. Subramaniam lets his music do the talking.

World-renowned violinist to perform in Malaysia

By S. INDRAMALAR
indra@thestar.com.my

FANS of carnatic music would undoubtedly have heard of Dr L. Subramaniam, the maestro violinist from the Indian subcontinent who, in a career that has spanned over five decades, has been accorded numerous honorific titles such as the “God of Indian Violin”, “Paganini of Indian Classical Music” and “Violin Chakravathy (emperor)”.

Maestro violinist Dr Subramaniam is highly respected by both peers and music critics.

Attempting to capture Dr Subamaniam’s accomplishments in an article is a challenge. For, here is a man who has produced, performed, composed and conducted over 150 recordings; a respected musician who has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest musicians such as the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin, jazz greats like Stephane Grappelli, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Earl Klugh, Al Jarreau, Billy Cobham and more and who has scored major movies including Salaam Bombay and Mississippi Masala and was the soloist producing the heart-rending music in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha.

However, more than all this, one of his greatest accomplishments has to be challenging the common perceptions of music: changing the misconception that “classical music” meant only Western orchestral music through the Global Music Festival which he founded in the early 1990s.

“For the longest time, classical music meant Western orchestral compositions. Music from other continents and cultures were classified collectively in the ‘World Music’ category. I wanted to change this misconception. The Global Music Festival has allowed us to showcase classical music from different continents and countries around the world ... from Africa to India and beyond,” explained Dr Subramaniam in a press conference here on Tuesday.

Music, he said, is a uniting force that can break boundaries and transcend differences. Recalling an experience early in his career he says, “I remember once when I was invited by the Indian government to perform in the USSR at the Bolshoi Theatre. It was to be a joint performance by our Indian ensemble, a Russian ensemble and an American ensemble. We were a little nervous as it was during the cold war. We had to rehearse for our performance but none of us understood each other ? we could not understand the Russians and they in turn could not communicate with us or the Americans. We had to use a translator but even that did not work as the translator could not accurately put across what we wanted to say.

“Not knowing what else to do, I just picked up my violin and started to play and the others listened and started accompanying me and it was great. And at the performance, we got an ovation! You see, music is really beyond everything,” said Dr Subramaniam.

The 60-year-old violinist is in Malaysia under the auspices of the Indian High Commission for three concerts – in Sungai Petani, Ipoh amd Kuala Lumpur – in conjunction with India’s 60th independence and also to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties between India and Malaysia. He will be accompanied by percussionists V.V. Ramana Murthy on mridangam, E. M. Subramaniam on the ghatam, Latha Ramchar on kanjira, Ghantasala Satya Sai on moorsing and his own daughter Seetha on tambura.

“I am very happy to perform in Malaysia again. I enjoy performing here very much ... our cultures are so similar that when I perform here I don’t feel like I am playing in a different country. The audience here appreciates and understands the ragas (melody) and talas (beats) of the music and I sometimes even get requests from the audience for certain pieces. I am also very happy to play in an event celebrating India’s 60th year of independence,” he said.

No stranger to Malaysia, Dr Subramaniam has performed here on numerous occasions since his first outing here in 1965. At 18, he came to Malaysia with his family and performed in KL, Ipoh, Penang and Malacca.

He was born into a family of musicians – his father Prof V. Lakshminarayana (a professor of music at Jaffna College, Sri Lanka) and mother V. Seethalakshmi were both acclaimed musicians. In fact, Prof Lakshminarayana insisted that his five children learn classical Indian music as a means of staying in touch with their culture and heritage. As a result, Dr Subramaniam’s siblings have had significant careers in music. His eldest brother Vaidyanathan was a well-known figure in India’s film industry and his youngest brother, Shankar was one of the founding members of Shakti, the John McLaughlin vehicle that elevated Indo-jazz fusion efforts in the mid-1970s.

A certified medical doctor (he studied Medicine at the Madras Medical College in India), he has chosen to devote his life to music. Although his focus remains primarily with carnatic music, Dr Subramaniam’s repertoire is one of the most diverse. He is said to be the only musician who has performed/recorded carnatic classical music, western classical music, both orchestral and non-orchestral, and also composed for and conducted major orchestras, collaborated with a wide range of some of the greatest musicians from different genres of music – jazz, occidental, jugalbandis with North Indian musicians, world music and global fusion.

He has collaborated with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, with the Swiss Romande Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. For his concerts in Malaysia this time, however, he will be playing “purely carnatic” pieces.

Dr L. Subramaniam’s concert in Kuala Lumpur will be at the Auditorium Perdana RTM tomorrow. Admission by invitation only. For enquiries, call the High Commission of India in KL at 03-2093 3520 or e-mail fspol.kl@streamyx.com or info.kl@streamyx.com

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