‘God of Indian Violin’ to create international performers from Lanka
World renowned violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam awarded four scholarships to Sri Lankan undergraduates who are reading for their degrees in performing arts, to continue their higher studies in India.
K. Lambigashwini, Thavarajah Elilini, Laurecia Lenin Robinson and Vathana Thirunavukkarasu, four female undergraduates studying performing arts at Jaffna University were selected to follow their masters studies in music with the Lakshminarayana Global Center of Excellence (LGCE) which runs in collaboration with one of India’s leading higher education institutes, Jain University based in Bengaluru.
LGCE is founded by legendary violinist Dr. L Subramaniam and multi-platinum Bollywood playback singer Kavitha Krishnamurti. Student who receive scholarships will get opportunities to study under Dr. Subramaniam and Kavitha and others including Dr. Meera Rajaram Pranesh, Bindu Subramanium and Ambi Subramanium the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts and Hari Ravi Kumar.
The LGCE aims to promote aspiring musician to world class performers. “Unlike other music degrees in the country, LGCE will give importance to performance training as much as theoretical education. The objective is to give the highest form of training, equivalent to what a conservatory would give a western musician, to people who want to become professional musicians,” one needs to work hard and get involved in rigorous practices.
The young musicians will commence their course towards the end of 2018. This marks the beginning of an important link for Sri Lankan Musicians, Indian musicians and global music trends.
Born in Sri Lanka, young Subramaniam with his five siblings had to flee to India during the1958 riots in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Subramaniam’s father Lakshminarayana, a renowned violinist, who rediscovered the power and identity of the Indian violin died in 1990 and in his memory Dr. Suramaniam established the Lakshminarayana International Festival, in Madras on January 11 1992, the day of father’s birth anniversary. The title of the festival was later changed to Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival.
‘In music festivals that were conducted in Sri Lanka, there were two major attractions – one was a nagaswaram-tavil concert and the other was a bharatanatyam performance. But it was my father who slowly introduced vocal and violin concerts’ said Dr. Subramaniam.
It was during one such concert in a Subramanya Temple that I played a violin solo as a six-year-old. His openness towards other cultures and genres of music gave a broader musical vision to his students. In fact, without his initial direction I could never have created the global fusion music idiom in the 1970s,” Dr. Subramaniam said.
Having left amidst riots in 1958, Dr. Subramaniam who is now considered as the ‘God of Indian Violin” returned to Sri Lanka in 1999.
‘My Father was a deputy principal at Jaffna College and he came to Colombo to play the violin at the SLBC. He did lot of experiments with violin and I want to do something in honour of my father’ he said.