Musical anecdotes –48
48. Nithyasree Mahadevan (25 / 08 / 1973……)
Nithyasree Mahadevan was born to Lalitha Sivakumar and I. Sivakumar. Her paternal grandmother, D.K.Pattammal and her granduncle, D.K.Jayaraman were prominent Carnatic vocalists who were established disciples of Ambi Dikshithar, Papanasam Sivan, Koteeswara Iyer, T.L.Venkatarama Iyer and others. Her maternal grandfather was the mridangam wizard Palghat Mani Iyer.
*****************************************
Nithyasree first learnt music from her mother, Lalitha Sivakumar. Like her mother, Nithyasree was also the disciple of D.K.Pattammal and would accompany her in concert. Her father, an accomplished mridangist and disciple of his father-in-law Palghat Mani Iyer, constantly showed his support and accompanied her when she performed. Nithyasree has also been vocally accompanied in some concerts by her niece and disciple, Lavanya Sundararaman.
************************************
She was married to V. Mahadevan, a mechanical engineer, Until his death in 2012. Tanujasree and Tejasree, their two daughters, have also accompanied their mother on stage in concert,
******************************
Her first public Carnatic performance was at the age of 14. She has given numerous concerts consisting of only patriotic songs to commemorate the 50th year of Indian Independence, a few with D. K. Pattammal her grandmother before she stopped performing in public.
***************************************
D.K.Jayaraman and D.K.Pattammal were known for singing and popularising the compositions of Papanasam Sivan, having learnt them directly from the composer himself. Nithyasree has continued this tradition. She has also given a lecture demonstration in Coimbatore for Manoranjitham on "Papanasam Sivan – A Legend", and made two special thematic albums that solely contained his compositions.
***********************************
Nithyasree presented a concert consisting solely of compositions set to " Raga Bhairavi ". The concert was presented in 1994 over a duration of 3 hours, and consisted of 17 compositions in total. Similarly, in 1999, her album "Bhairavi" was released and it solely consisted of a Ragam Tanam Pallavi in ragas containing the name "Bhairavi".
**********************************
She has also popularised compositions of Gopalakrishna Bharathi. Her three thematic albums that solely consisted of his compositions have been very popular, She has more than 750 albums to her credit on various themes and titles which are very popular among rasikas.
******************************
Nithyasree has performed in all major Sabhas all over India and has presented her concerts in the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, U A E, Germany, France, Switzerlab\nd, Belgium, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore,Tanzania and Sri Lanka.
*****************************************
Nithyasree made her debut as a playback singer after being invited by prominent music director A.R.Rehman to record a song for the tamil film, Jeans. Her playback debut song " Kannodu Kanbadhellam" " became an instant hit and won her the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for 1998. Nithyasree recorded more songs for A. R. Rahman and these songs again were successful. Nithyasree also recorded songs for films in other South Indian languages, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam .She has composed music for songs and has composed background scores for studio album recordings.
*********************************************
She is a "Top Rank" graded artist of Akashvani, and All India Radio, Chennai. She received the "Best Concert Award" for 6 years from the Madras Music Academy, and won the Kalaimamani award from the Government of Tamil Nadu ". During her career, Nithyasree has been bestowed with numerous other titles, and won numerous other awards and prizes.
*********************
Nithyashree's husband Mahadevan committed suicide jumping into the Adyar River.
No comments:
Post a Comment