She is the first and the only female A-grade flutist in Andhra Pradesh and has also been conferred with the ‘Ugadi Puraskaram’-state government award this year for her contribution to music. Daughter of an acclaimed vocalist Prema Ramamurthy, Jayaprada has been in her own words, “a free performer” and one of a kind as women generally do not, for some inexplicable reason, touch a flute. Her great grandfathers were zamindars in Bellary and all of them were closely associated with music. “I think I have their musical genes,” Jayaprada says.
Being self-made
Jayaprada started playing the instrument at the age of 14. Surprising as it may seem, during the initial years, she didn’t receive formal training. The urge to learn and play the flute was such that years later, a techie by profession, she decided to quit her job and devote full time to music.
She took formal training from veterans such as Dr N Ramani, BRC Iyenger and Sudarsanacharya. A disciple of many flute maestros inlcuding Hari Prasad Chourasia, Sangita Kalanidhi Padmasri, and N S Srinivasan, Jayaprada gained popularity as a solo flutist on Indian classical music in a short span of time. “My most memorable concert was at the Tropical Hall Amsterdam in March 2004, where people gave me a standing ovation,” Jayaprada says proudly. She is also actively involved in promoting classical music and flute among children and has been encouraging more and more women to take up the flute. “I’m promoting music through two of my foundations, the Global Flute Foundation, aimed at training students in flute and Viswa Uttara Arts Foundation for promoting classical music,” she points out.
A recipient of many awards, including the Global World Record, a National Award and many more such recognitions, Jayaprada says, “It always feels very exciting to get recognised. There is so much pride in representing something like this. I think more and more women should now start exploring new horizons.”
Therapy
Jayaprada has also been credited with being the first flutist among women to use the base (long) flute and the western key-flute for playing Carnatic Music using transposed fingering technique. She has improvised many swaras, mastered several rare ragas, rare kritis of various vaggeyakkaras on the bamboo flute and composed “thillanas” and compositions. A music clipping of her flute is on display at the Amsterdam Tropical Museum and also adding to her list of credentials is a raaga titled, “Uma”. She was awarded a doctorate in commerce for her research on marketing of performing arts and intellectual property rights, from Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Jayaprada is now doing a research on implementing music as a medium of healing. “Playing the flute is like natural pranayam, because it needs proper coordination between the lungs, arms and breathing.”
She also performed at the recently held Rangasutra festival in Hyderabad. “The theme of my concert was called ‘Vivarta — The Reincarnation’, which aims to bring out the countless shades of the echoing wind that voyages through the bamboo. Vivarta also depicts the various manifestations of a raaga that reincarnates with every improvised phrase of music,” she explains.
Survival of the flutist
But, was this journey of making an identity in the male-dominated field easy? “Definitely not”, says Jayaprada. “Classical music will always have a traditional mindset to it and people will still look at you as a woman. There will be instances when a man will be preferred and there will also be instances when things just fall in place and it is more easy for a woman flute player to get a concert,” Jayaprada adds.