She is one legend who is wedded to music, and more precisely, the bowed instrument is her betterhalf. Violin is ace musician Kanyakumari’s forte. A fortunate shishya of three great legendary gurus, Ivaturi Vijeswara Rao, M Chandrasekharan and M L Vasanthakumari, Kanyakumari has evolved her own style of melodious playing and silken bowing. Moreover, innovation is one aspect that keeps her distinct. Her ‘Cricmusic,’ which is a combination of three ragas, Sahana, Ahirbhairavi and Kadanakutuhalam, laced with a western flavour, fetched her many accolades.
Kanyakumari puts in that the product was devised to elaborate how short pieces on the violin would sound at crucial moments of the game. “The idea struck me while watching a game of cricket. If drums could produce so much of impact, why not violin,” she says. Her innovative mind is ever in quest of new horizons and fresh expositions and this time she has come up with a ‘Vibgyor Raga’ concept which collectively comes under the name of ‘Saptagiri’ after the seven hills of Tirumala. Kanyakumari, during her recent visit to the state for a classical concert, explains the module: “Each raga is chronologically named after the hills of the Tirumala range. The first is Seshadri, a janya raga (offshoot) of the parent raga Hemavathi (58th melakarta). The rest that follow in sequence are Neeladri (classification of Jhankaradwani- 19th melakarta), Garudadri (Chakravakam-16th melakarta), Anjanadri (Rasikapriya, last melakarta- 72),Vrishbhadri (Kanakangi-first melakarta), Narayanadri (Dheera Sankarabharanam-29) and Venkatadri (Jhankaradwani-19),” she says. The fiddle player further puts in that none of these ragas is found in the janya raga list which comes under the 72 melakartha ragas.
“Immense research has been done and I guess my innovation can stand the test of scrutiny,” she says. If it was cricket that prompted her to create ‘Cricmusic’, this time it’s pure devotion, as Kanyakumari says, that motivated her to bring up the seven babies. “I am working to tune seven Annamacharya kirtanas to these seven ragas. I presume it will enchant listeners alike,” she says. An established woman violinist, Kanyakumari has more innovations and challenging feats to her credit.
Her ‘Thristhai Sangamam’ is yet another marvellous milestone in her music career. “The triple octave confluence three different octaves with as many percussion instruments. The highlight was that it was a female-oriented performance with not a single male artiste on stage,” says Kanyakumari, who adds that her brain child ‘Sathavadhya Sammelan’ and ‘Shatharagamalika’ are a few of the memorable events in her life. “We brought 75 violins for the former one and combined hundred ragamalika swaras blending Carnatic and Hindustani ragas for the latter.
The events turned out to be too good and I was immensely flattered by all the responses,” she chuckles. The violinist hails from Andhra Pradesh. She has been settled in Chennai for more than four decades. Apart from stage programmes with renowned musicians like saxophone maestro Kadri Gopalnath or singing fame S P conducts violin classes for serious music lovers as she says, “Music is not to joke around, or as they say, simply an extracurricular activity. For those who are really passionate about it, I tutor them. I have bunches of students in India and abroad.”
For her meritorious contribution to music, Kayakumari was honoured with several prestigious awards - ‘Kalalimamani’ from the Government of Tamil Nadu, Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Award, Sangeeth Kala Nipuna, etc to name a few.
For her 29-hour non-stop marathon violin solo performance, she was selected for the Limca Book of Records, 2004. “It’s all purely because of heavy practice. Rome was not built in a day. I hope every music enthusiast does not forget this,” she winds up.