R. K. Shriramkumar

R. K. Shriramkumar (born 4 October 1966) is a virtuoso violinist and accompanist of the Carnatic Music (South Indian Classical Music).^[1] He hails from the Rudrapatna family of musicians from Karnataka and is the grandson of legendary violinist R. K. Venkatarama Shastri and grand-nephew of Sangita Kalanidhi R. K. Srikanthan.

Introduction

R. K. Shriramkumar was born on 4 October 1966, to Kusuma Krishnamurthy and R.V. Krishnamurthy. His grandfather was the legendary violinist R. K. Venkatarama Shastri, the brother and guru of R. K. Srikantan. He received his initial training from Savitri Krishnamurthy and advanced tutelage under his grandfather R. K. Venkatarama Shastri. He also trained in Vocal Music under D. K. Jayaraman and presently receives guidance from V.V. Subrahmanyam.

R.K. Shriramkumar attended the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan school in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Performing career

Besides solo concerts, R. K. Shriramkumar has also accompanied various artistes including D. K. Jayaraman, D. K. Pattammal, M. S. Subbulakshmi, K. V. Narayanaswamy, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, T. Brinda, T. Viswanathan and S. Balachander.

In a performing career spanning more than two decades, he has performed for all the prestigious organizations & festivals in India including Tyagaraja Aradhana festival, Madras Music Academy, Shanmukhananda Sangita Sabha, Sangeet Natak Akademi, the ICCR, the ITC Sangeet Sammelan, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the All India Radio and Doordarshan.

He has also performed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi accompanying Geeta Rajashekhar in 1988 and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer in 1995 in the presence of the then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and the then Presidents of India, R. Venkataraman and Shankar Dayal Sharma.

He has toured the USA, Australia, Canada, UK, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Muscat on concert tours accompanying Geeta Rajshekhar, Vijay Siva, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, K. V. Narayanaswamy, S. Balachander, T. N. Seshagopalan, N. Ravikiran, P. Unnikrishnan and T. M. Krishna. He has performed for the prestigious Theatre De la Ville at Paris accompanying Sanjay Subrahmanyan.

He is considered as one of the most knowledgeable musician amongst the current generation and has given/conducted many lecture-demonstrations in India and USA.

Awards

R. K. Shriram kumar has been the recipient of many awards and prizes from premier institutions such as The Music Academy, Madras. A Recipient of the All India Radio National Competition prize, he has also been honored with ‘Yuva Kala Bharati’ award from Bharat Kalachar, Madras and the Kalki Memorial Award from the Kalki Krishnamurti Memorial Trust, Madras. He received the title of "Vani Kala Sudhakara" in December 2008 and the prestigious "Isai Peroli" awarded by Kartik Fine Arts in December 2009.

Personal life

In this photo, R.K. Shriramkumar is pictured with his wife Akila.

R. K. Shriramkumar is a graduate in Mathematics from the Madras University. He is well known teacher in both violin and carnatic vocal music in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He frequents many concerts in his free time and travels the world on a yearly basis for many prominent artists. He also considers both D. K. Pattammal and M. S. Subbulakshmi as his Gurus. In February 2009, Shriramkumar was married to his wife Akila.

References