He is a musician’s musician, the prime disciple of the doyen ‘Isai Peraringanar’ Chithoor Subramaniya Pillai, and who equiped himself with high academic qualifications in Music, including a doctorate on A Study of Special Instrumentation with particular reference to Sanskrit musical literature. He had the privilege of being tutored by stalwarts like Musiri Subramaniya Iyer, Thiruppamburam Swaminatha Pillai and T.Brinda.
Certainly we admire Tadapally Lokanatha Sarma, who is simple, charming and straight forward, whose devotion to music and his guru constitute the foundation of his life. His music is always full of bhava, touching the heart-strings of the rasikas. A winner of many awards and titles including Sangeetha Kala Sikamani Award from Indian Fine Arts Society, Sangeetha Bhooshanam from Sri Ranjani Sabha, Mumbai and Naada Sri from Sarigamapadani Foundation, Chennai, Tadapally had the unique distinction of establishing cultural institution, like Suswara in 1989, which reciognises talented artists. He finally retired as a deputy director of regional design and technical development in the ministry of textiles.
It used to be said that if ‘poetry’ is emotion recollected in tranquillity, ‘music’ is necessarily, tranquity set in pleasing motion, motion in thought, word and deed. The lives of all Vageyakaras, without exceptions, would reveal that they all chose music as a way of life and their lives, are a replica of music in thought, word and deed. Lokanatha Sarma is no exception, who was inculcated into the realms of bhakthi from child hood, by his father Venkata Subramaniya Sastry, a great Vageyakara of merit, whose instinctive appetite, for pure un-alloyed and chaste Carnatic music, revealed his many sided creative genius.
His presentation at South Indian Music Festival in Chennai with poise and emotion, when his voice, charged up the atmosphere, with the element of bhakthi, proved that he is capable of leashing high octave notes, with a loaded devotional streak. The sowkiam in the presentation, exploring the rich content of the compositions, and his deep toned, tara sthai, sancharas, revealed the enchanting images of the kritis.
His musical phrases in the Tharangam, identifying the soothing cadences of the melodic contours in raga Kedara Gowla, revealed his musical prowess in probing the inner depth of music.