Attracted by his unusual musical phrasing, several western musicians have always wanted to share a platform with this genius. Violin virtuoso L Subramaniam willingly gave space to these east-west exchanges and today he is inarguably one of the few violinists in the country who has made some historic collaboration and recordings. Ask him the required ingredients for ‘being L Subramaniam’ and he says, "Be passionate so much that music itself develops a passion for you’’.
Subramaniam has over scores of recordings and compositions to his credit. The violinist says that the reason behind his success is because he cannot segregate music from spirituality. ‘’Music has always been a worship for me. I hardly associate a business with it. Least do monetary matters bother me. I believe when you blend passion talent and money, the gap just widens,’’ says the artiste who had been bestowed with some of the prestigious titles like Padmasree, Padmabhooshan, Violin Chakravarthy, to name a few.
Subramaniam, who has been in Kozhikode in connection with a concert hosted by SPIC MACAY, says that he enjoys collaborating with musicians who have that saintly trait. ‘’Ustad Bismillah Khan is one such person I have met and whose presence I have enjoyed much. Unlike any other artiste, he was a person who lived with no worries of tomorrow. I believe these are some qualities which the present artistes lack’’.
Giving more than a hundred performances a year, the violinist adds that 99 per cent of his performances these days are fusion mixes. ‘’The liking for that western blend has increased recently. I guess the routines have been the same for quite some time for me. The immense popularity that one acquires from playing fusions is something that a classical concert still won’t bring you. Recently I got the opportunity to share the stage with jazz artiste George Duke and it brought me much fame unlike any of my previous classical concerts. That shows how much the liking has differed.’’
He says that going abroad and performing fusions and starting a global music concert had a particular purpose behind it. ‘’When I went abroad, I realised that people knew only of western classical music and hence they referred to western music as western classical and everything else was out of the picture. It was shocking to believe that there was no mention of Indian classical music, the mother of all classical forms anywhere else. And that’s how the idea of fusions popped up and the response has been immense till date even from the western audience. Through this process I was able to bring about the awareness that Indian classical music was the oldest and the first in the category, ‘’ says the artiste who is currently the director of Lakshmi Narayana Global Music Festival.
‘’The Lakshmi Narayana Global Music Festival was my father’s initiative. We have been organising the fest for many years now. Lots of national and international artistes have performed at the fest. I want this routine to continue even in my absence,’’ he says.