A number of artists from across the world, including India will participate in the 30th year of Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival. This festival was started in 1992 by Viji Subramaniam & Dr. L Subramaniam, in memory of Prof. V Lakshminarayana, father and guru of Dr. L Subramaniam. This year due to the pandemic, we are organizing a very special series of digital performances on every weekend between January 9th to January 24th 2021 at 7 pm and will be streamed digitally on the platforms below –
YouTube – www.youtube.com/channel/
Facebook – www.facebook.com/
We have a very distinguished line up of artists from around the globe. A special new piece called ‘Jupiter Symphony‘ has been recorded by the European recording symphony orchestra from Sofia (Bulgaria) featuring Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam. We are also privileged to feature, the very first time in our festival, the guitar icon, John McLaughlin playing a duet with Dr. L Subramaniam. A star performer from Madagascar Rajery playing the Valiha, will be featured for the first time. In addition, our iconic performers include Usha Uthup, Pankaj Udhas and Anup Jalota. The other European performers include the leading Flamenco dancer Ursula Moreno, the Tuba Virtuoso from Norway Oystein Baadsvik, and the fabulous classical pianist Svetlana Smolina. We are also including very exclusive interviews with the award-winning legendary music personalities including Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, Jazz icon Stephane Grappelli and the great violinist from France, Ivry Gitlis (who recently passed away at the age of 98). Dr. L Subramaniam will be interacting with some of our leading performers.
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Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival 2021
Violinist/Composer, and creator of the Global Fusion concept, Dr. L. Subramaniam has performed/recorded Carnatic Classical Music, Western Classical Music, & also composed for & conducted Orchestras, scored for films, collaborated with a wide range of some of the greatest musicians, from different genres of music.
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Dr. L Subramanian, Kavita Krishnamurti, Anup Jalota, Svetlana, John McLaughlin, Rajery, Ivry Gitlis, Oystein Baadsvik, Pankaj Udhas, Illairaaja
He completed his MBBS from Madras Medical College and has been awarded with many honorary doctorates for his contribution in the field of music. He completed his thesis on Raga and Harmony and received his Ph.D. He is also the founder/director of the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival (LGMF), the biggest global music festival in India, and is also the founder chairman of the Lakshminarayana Global Centre of Excellence (LGCE) with his wife Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam.
Undoubtedly one of the favourites of the critics and the masses, Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam’s singing career reads like a fairy tale. Her exquisite and mellifluous voice, wide range and, versatility to sing different styles and types of songs has put her in a unique place amongst singers and she has been quoted as a “melody queen” by leading critics and connoisseurs alike.
Although primarily a playback singer, Kavita has not allowed herself to be limited. She has sung with orchestras as a soloist, she has collaborated with Western artists from the Jazz, Popular and Classical fields. Kavita’s undaunted efforts to excel in the field of singing have brought her several accolades, and a large fan following globally. She has received several awards and honours, including the coveted Padma Shri from the President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in 2005. Prestigious awards include three consecutive Film Fare awards – a feat rarely achieved. She won the “Best Singer of the Millenium” award at the Stardust Millennium 2000 Awards.
Kavita has explored and expanded her artistic range to areas which have never been explored by playback singers before. She was the main featured soloist in the Global Fusion album released by Warner Bros., featuring musicians from five continents. Kavita has sung as a soloist with orchestras like the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Liepajas Symphony Orchestra.
Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam is one artist who has managed to prove herself in every musical field which she has chosen to enter, and has enthralled and dazzled audiences from around the world with her stage performances, recordings and playback singing for the past fifty years, singing more than 20,000 songs in almost all the Indian languages.
John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942) is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Indian classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with Tony Williamss group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz-fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
Anup Jalota, (born 29 July 1953) is an Indian singer, musician and actor best known for his performances in the Hindu devotional music, bhajan, and the Urdu form of poetry, ghazal. He is popularly known as the “Bhajan Samraat” (Emperor of Bhajans). Padma Shri for 2012 has been conferred upon him in the field of Art-Indian Classical Music- Vocal by Government of India.
Jalota started his musical career as a chorus singer in All India Radio. He is usually backed by a santoor player, dholak player, sarod player, sarangi player, violinist, sitar player, tabla player and guitarist. Some of his popular bhajans include Aisi Lagi Lagan, Main Nahi Makhan Khayo, Rang De Chunariya, Jag Me Sundar Hai Do Naam, and Chadariya Jhini Re Jhini. He was also the presenter of the program Dharam Aur Hum, telecast in Star Plus from 2002 to 2005.
Pankaj Udhas is a ghazal singer, hailing from Gujarat in India. He started his career with a release of a ghazal album titled Aahat in 1980 and subsequently recorded many hits like Mukarar in 1981, Tarrannum in 1982, Mehfil in 1983, Pankaj Udhas Live at Royal Albert Hall in 1984, Nayaab in 1985 and Aafreen in 1986. After his success as a ghazal singer, he was invited to appear and sing for a film by Mahesh Bhatt, Naam. Udhas rose to further fame for singing in the 1986 film Naam, in which his song “Chitthi Aayee Hai” (the letter has arrived) became an instant hit. He did playback singing for many Hindi films after that. Albums and live concerts around the globe brought him fame as a singer. In 2006, Pankaj Udhas was awarded Padma Shri, Indias fourth highest civilian award.
Usha Uthup (born 7 November 1947) is an Indian pop, filmi, jazz, and playback singer who sang songs in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. “Darling“, which she recorded with Rekha Bhardwaj for the film 7 Khoon Maaf, won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer in 2012.
Her first public singing occurred when she was nine. Her sisters, who were already exploring a career in music, introduced her to Ameen Sayani, then the most popular radio announcer in India. Ameen Sayani gave her an opportunity to sing in the Ovaltine Music Hour of Radio Ceylon. She sang a number called “Mockingbird Hill“. After that, several appearances followed through her teenage years. She also sang the title song for the show Sarabhai vs Sarabhai in its first season.
She was awarded Padma Shri, Indias fourth highest civilian award.
Oystein Baadsvik is a Norwegian tuba soloist and chamber musician. Born in Trondheim, Norway, he began playing the tuba at the age of fifteen at his school in Trondheim, Norway, and won first prize at eighteen in a Norwegian national competition for soloists. His concert engagements include performances with orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Taipei National Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. 2006 he made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall. He studied under the tuba player Harvey Phillips and with Arnold Jacobs. ystein Baadsvik’s international career began in 1991 when he was awarded two prizes at Concours International d’Excution Musicale in Geneva.
Oystein Baadsvik is known for his master classes, performances, and tuba clinics which are frequently held in numerous universities throughout the world including The Juilliard School, Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Northwestern University, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas Christian University, The Royal College of Music Eastern Connecticut State University, Old Dominion University, and the University of Kentucky. In addition, every October, a tour of various colleges and universities occurs, coinciding with Octubafest, a yearly celebration of tuba music.
Ursula Moreno is a member of the largest artists’ families in Spain. The singer and actor Antonio Molina and ngela Molina, one of the most recognized actresses of Spain. Completed her dance and drama studies at the “Real Conservatorio de Musica y Danza de Mlaga“. Her flamenco education has been extended by flamenco singers such as Tona Radely, Luci Montes, Carmen Juan, Loli Flores, Matilde Coral and Manuel Betanzos, Antonio Canales, Carmen Corts, La China and Adrin Galia (Madrid). In 2010 she won the second prize of the Concurso Internacional Flamenco de Ronda and in 2011 she was awarded the first prize for the “Best Caa” at the Concurso Internacional Flamenco de Ronda.
For many years, she has been living again in her hometown of Mlaga, where she heads her own “Centro Cultural Conarte” school of flamenco dancing. She is a soloist and composer of the “Compaia Flamenca Alhama” and the “Compaia Flamenca Antonio Andrade” for which she has created stage productions “Noches de Amor“, “Vaya con Dios” and “Bailando al Cante“.
Svetlana Smolina performed with orchestras and in recitals worldwide. Notable appearances with orchestras include Mariinsky Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher, St.Petersburg, Philharmonic, Orchestra National de France, Odessa and Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic. Svetlana studied at Indiana University with Professor Alexander Toradze, at Balakirev Music College with Natalia Fish, at Oberlin Conservatory with Monique Duphil and at University of Michigan with Arthur Greene.
Recent recordings include Stravinsky’s Igor Stravinsky Les noces (Valery Gergiev, conductor on Decca/Phillips and on Mariinsky Label which received ICMA award for Best Choral Work in 2011), a recording of solo Chopin Album for the Chopin iTunes Project, Benjamin Britten Young Apollo live recording from Walt Disney Hall for BCM+D records and many broadcasts for NPR, BBC, PBS, RAI, Cultura TV and other networks.
Germain Randrianarisoa, known as Rajery, is a songwriter and singer. He plays the valiha, an emblematic instrument of Madagascar, between zither and tubular bamboo lute. Rajery, the illustrious Malagasy valiha player known not only for his virtuosity but above all for his ability to unite energies around innovative artistic projects which are always imbued with humanity, is entering a new phase in his career. His music has its roots in the land of Madagascar, while combining a more universal music: whose nomination is “MOZIKA MIAINA: Musiques Vivantes de Madagascar.
