Indian Violinist
Birth
Lalgudi Gopala Iyer Jayaraman was born to Lalgudi Gopala Iyer on 17th September 1930 in Edayathumangalam from Trichinpoly (Trichy) District of British India. He came from the family of disciple of great saint musician Thyagraja.
Personal Life
He was married to Smt Rajalakshmi. He had children Lalgudi G.J.R Krishnan and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. His three sisters Padmavathy, Rajalakshmi and Srimath who are all are violinists. His sister Srimathi and his daughter learned violin from him.
Lalgudi Jayaraman Early life
Lalgudi Jayaraman at his 12th age, began his musical career as Violinist for Carnatic musicians in the year 1942. He held his first concert at Siva Vishnu temple in Chennai Mambalam during 1946, for which the arrangement was made by his close relative R.Srinivasa Iyer. Then in 1948, he went to play his instrument with K.V Narayanaswamy at the Music academy for December session at 3-3.30 pm. He made the composition of above thirty thillanas in various ragas, which was most famous amidst the musicians.
His solo musical performance and Jugalbandi concerts became gained immense popularity. During the Edinburgh Festival in 1965, after inviting Jayaraman to perform, Yehudi Menuhin was fascinated. For the Lalgudi’s innovations and performance, Yehudi Menuhin presented his own Italian Violin to Lalgudi. For this, during the Mehunin visit to India, Lalgudi gave the ivory dancing Nataraja to him.
Life Career of Lalgudi Jayaraman
For the musical instruments violin, flute and veena wholly, he brought in the new concepts in 1966. Then he gave many excellent concerts. Later he made the musical performances in Singapore, Manila, Malaysia and European countries.
In 1979, he had been judged as best and received the first place out of 77 registrations among the several countries after he made the submission of his recordings by AIR New Delhi to the International Music Council(Baghdad), Asian music Rostrum and Iraq Broadcasting Agency.
His presence was in the great demand, since he accompanied vocalists like Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, G.N Balasubramaniam, Nedunuri Krishnamurrthy, T.V Sankaranarayanan and so on. He never made an accompany to the female artists in concerts, since the promise to his father. In 1984, he went to Oman, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain successfully. Then in 1994, he made the composition and music of the song “Jaya Jaya Devi” which was staged at Cleveland in Ohio. Later, this song took a part in the stage of many cities of USA.
Honors and Awards of Lalgudi Jayaraman
- In 1971, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha of Chennai gave him the Sangeetha Choodamani title. Later, in 1972, he won the India’s fourth civilian award “Padma Shri”.
- During the year 1979, he got two awards, the State Vidwan from TamilNadu Government and the Sangeetha Natak Academy award.
- In the same year he got the First chowdaiah memorial National-level award from the Chief Minister of Karnataka.
- Later in 1994, he backed an honorary citizenship of Maryland of US. After this, in 1999 under the support of Institute of fine arts, Sruthi Laya Sangham in UK.
- Following the concert, he made the dance drama “Pancheswaram’. In 2001, Lalgudi Jayaraman won the Padma Bhusan award from the Government of India.
- After that in 2006, he got the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the movie Sringaram. He joined the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2010.
Death
On 22nd April 2013, Lalgudi Jayaraman died due to cardiac arrest in Chennai.