Being a woman and excelling in anything in a predominantly male-dominated society is never easy. This is exactly what makes Jayaprada Ramamurthy extra special, for she dared to tread a path not so often ventured into by women. A recipient of National and State awards, Jayaprada Ramamurthy, the first-ever flautist from the state of Andhra Pradesh and arguably still the only one from the state, was in the city recently for a concert.
Being the daughter of noted vocalist Prema Ramamurthy choosing music was no tough decision for her. “My mother was a great inspiration for me and apart from that my great grandfather Srinivas Shastri used to play the flute. So it is believed in the family that it is genetic. But I never really wanted to be a singer and felt I needed some other medium of expression and flute sort of happened intuitively,” says Jayaprada.
Though this flautist comes from a family of musicians, surprisingly enough her mother never really wanted her to become a performing artist. In fact Jayaprada’s parents wanted her to go for the civil service. “My mother has faced lot of hardships in this profession and it was mainly because of that she preferred me take up something else,” she says.
Jayaprada, apart from being an acclaimed flautist, is also a brilliant academic with a PhD in Commerce and pursuing her post doctoral research.
Jayaprada, for whom music runs in her veins, learnt the flute on her own and it was at a much later point when her mother felt she needs the guidance of a guru that she approached her gurus.
“By the time I approached my gurus I was already a graded artist and whoever I approached told me I was already doing well and asked me what there was to teach. But there is always something to learn in music, I am still a student learning new things everyday. Music is like an ocean which you can never conquer,” she says.
One thing which continues to worry this self-made artiste is the reluctance of the students to take it up as a career. “Many who come to learn the instrument drop it and go for higher studies. Nobody is bold enough to take it up as career. People do come and learn but they don’t continue,” she says.
“One can’t complain again as the opportunities when it comes to flute is very less say in films or any other fields of music as well. Also the pay that musicians get when you compare it to any other field is drastically less. At the end of the day everybody wants to make a living out of their profession. While an engineer or doctor earns well a musician is still struggling. But there are some people whose passion is so strong that they will find means to continue in some way or the other. But quite often this passion doesn’t last very long because of social pressures, peer pressures and so many other things.”
Jayaprada feels musicians need good backing not just from the government but from private organisations as well. She feels more private parties should come forward to help sustain the various art forms of our nation.
Asked about the challenges she has had to face as woman flautist, she says, “Well it has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage being because of the rarity of the art form and the fact that there aren’t many women flautists, I get recognized very easily. And of course there are the cons too wherein just like any other field there are many challenges that gets thrown your way, men trying to dominate and the like. Success comes to those who can face all hardships and come out with flying colours.”
On challenges of her profession she says, in order to play the flute one needs exceptional stamina. And also being a woman it is not quite easy to hop in and hop out of one programme after the other like men. “Sound does not come naturally in a flute as compared to a veena or keyboard and the like. Blowing is the most difficult thing to pick up as a beginner. It is as good as singing and playing the instrument, there is double work.”
About her future projects Jayaprada says she is looking to collaborate with women flautists from other countries. “I have been collaborating with one Amy Porter from Michigan and another flautist from Austria. We are trying to work something out in terms of a concert. I play Indian ragas on the western flute so I wanted to see how we could collaborate Indian and western music together. So maybe we will do something big in the future provided we find the good sponsors,” Jayaprada adds.