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Articles on Sanjay Subrahmanyan

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Sanjay Subrahmanyan is an exciting young star of Carnatic music. His introduction to Carnatic music, at the young age of seven, was via the violin. He commenced his training from V. Lakshminarayana (father of the renowned violinists, L. Shankar and L. Subramaniam), until his manual dexterity was impaired by an accident. He took to singing and received his initial training from his grand aunt, Smt Rukmini Rajagopalan. He is currently a student of Calcutta K. S. Krishnamurthy. Sanjay is, today, a talented and popular vocalist. His music, which is influenced greatly by the late maestro, Shri G.N. Balasubramaniam (GNB) is bright, imaginative and full of verve and vigour.

Sanjay has performed in all the major institutions, festivals and sabha-s in India and has won numerous paludits from critics and rasika-s. He has performed at, for example, the Madras Music Academy, Krishna Gana Sabha, Mylapore Fine Arts Club, Indian Fine Arts Society, YACM, Shanmukhananda Sabha, Raga Tarangini (Madras) and the Kalasagaram Music Circle. He is a regular performer for SPIC-MACAY and performed at its annual convention in 1992. He was a participant in a symposium on The Music of GNB conducted by The Sruti Foundation.

Sanjay is an `A' Grade artiste of All India Radio, Madras and is a regular performer on Doordarshan TV and Sun TV. He has released several cassettes and CD's on several major labels and is a popular favourite at record stores. Sanjay is the recipient of several awards from reputed institutions. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Junior Musician award from the Annual Conference of the Madras Music Academy. He received the Spirit of Youth Award for Outstanding Performance from Krishna Gana Sabha under its talent promotion scheme. He was awarded the title of Yuva Kala Bharathi by Bharat Kalachar. For the period 1987--1988, Sanjay was the recipient of the Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer Trust Scholarship for advanced musical training. Sanjay was an Executive Committee Member of YACM for the period 1990--92. In 1993, Sanjay Subrahmanyan toured Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Sanjay is a chartered accountant and runs his own accountancy practice in Madras.

According to many critics, Sanjay's music is sparkling, imaginative and flamboyant. In the words of SVK, the renowned critic who writes for The Hindu newspaper, "His greatest asset is the azhutham in his music". In the words of NMN, another respected critic of The Hindu newspaper, "Sanjay Subrahmanyan is talented and has the flexible tone to express his musical intentions. They are unassailable. Conceptually, his vision is clear and balanced. Naturally, he does not misuse his voice, but directs it to explore the rich ground of classicism. And he does it with both imagination and responsibility". His self--avowed mission is to prove, once again, that it is possible to be both intense and spontaneous on the Carnatic music stage.

Sanjay has, under the guidance of his illustrious guru-s, and through his own persistent efforts at perfecting his art form, fine--tuned the art of projecting his strong voice and classical interpretations of Carnatic music, in a popular and knowledgeable framework, to produce enjoyable music.

What others say:

After hearing him, I am convinced that Carnatic music is in safe hands. [Subbudu, Indian Express, Dec 17 1993.]

[Sanjay] … is a skillful vocalist. He made the tenor of his recital rhythmically interesting by a selection of pieces, regulating their diction successively by different tala-s. [RV, The Hindu, 15 July 1994.]

The strength of Sanjay Subrahmanyan's musical make--up is that he has kept clear of present--day fancies. He has got the knack of imparting daintiness to sanchara-s without sacrificing depth. If in the raga alapana of anandabhairavi, there was deep delicacy of feeling, his sankarabharanam elaboration exuded the sanctified aroma of Carnatic purity. [The Hindu, 6 Jan 1995.]

Sanjay Subrahmanyan, the young Carnatic vocalist, seems to represent that life--saving quality of an oasis in a desert dotted with performers' gimmickry and surface--level craftsmanship. [Prasanna Rangaswamy, The Economic Times, 2 Feb 1993.]

The crowning engagement of the festival was a vocal concert by Sanjay Subrahmanyan from whom much was expected. He did not disappoint the gathering … Sanjay obviously has a bright future. [Mahati, Newstime, 1 Mar 1991.]

Sanjay gave an outstanding concert … His alapana of manirangu was properly bani--flavoured and fluently classical. Sanjay's essay of todi was a valuable contribution to the festival. His rendering of sri krishnam was impeccable. [T. Nandam, Telegraph, 30 Apr 1993.]

Sanjay Subrahmanyan proved to be the best male vocalist, showing a well--developed style and performing acumen. … Singing with leisurely exposition, Sanjay showed both gamaka purity and speed with clarity. [Chaganty, Indian Express, Hyderabad, 3 Mar 1991.]

Sanjay … stole the show by amazing the audience with his voice power and productivity. Performing as a seasoned artiste, he tried to blend the brilliance of two outstanding bani-s; one of gamaka--laden D.K.Jayaraman's and the other of the sizzling briga--phrases of GNB. [Sulochana Rajendran, Indian Express, 4 July 1991.]