Aathira Krishna has made a mark on the musical stage across the world, and is as popular in Russia and Germany as in India, says Hema Vijay.
Twenty three years back, K C Krishna Pillai would often find one un-enrolled student in his music class whom he had to unceremoniously turn out — his two-year old daughter Aathira. A few years later, it was the violin that he had to guard. "The violin is a delicate instrument, not really something that can be handed to a toddler to play with", Aathira recounts this, with a twinkle in her eye.
Not surprisingly, Aathira can hardly define when she started learning music or playing the violin. With dad being a vocalist and veena player of repute and having Gopala Pillai, the illustrious musician of the Tanjore tradition of Carnatic music as granddad, music was always in the air. "I was lucky to have this training. I had a good database in my mind, early on. We had all kinds of instruments at home, and we still do; it was the violin which fascinated me the most", she says.
Krishna Pillai was unconventional in his teaching, and rightly so. It was a marked contrast to the training systems of today that puts children through regimented practice and learning sessions the moment they show a whiff of talent. "My dad would say: Okay, What do you know? Sing it", shares Aathira.
Call it nature or nurture or a wonderful mix of the two — at 25 now, Aathira Krishna has made a mark on the musical stage across the world, and is as popular in Russia and Germany as in India, thanks to music festivals like 'Jazz meets Classics' in Germany and World String Festival in Russia and scores of other music festivals across the world, where she has been receiving standing ovations year after year.
And then of course, ever since she was inducted on the panel by the Indian Council of Cultural Research, it has brought in even more travel than ever before — to give violin recitals and lecture demonstrations around the world.
Stringing the world together
The curious stares on seeing a violinist sitting cross-legged on the floor is no longer there. "It helps that I am into instrument music. Being a violinist does away with the language barrier". She thoroughly enjoys jamming sessions with opera musicians, rock bands, African drummers, Latin instrument musicians, folk musicians…
"With the violin, if you try to blend in, you will blend in, whatever be the country or music tradition", she vouches. In fact, even as a 13-year-old, she had presented a unique thematic 'World Music Night', incorporating music genres of more than 20 nations for the Millennium Celebrations in Kazakizhtan.
And now it is the Marghazhi music fest time in Chennai. She will be performing here of course, but that apart, there are the concerts to listen to. "Some days, I'm clueless as to which concert to listen.
Living in Chennai is the best a Carnatic musician could ask for — there is so much to listen, learn and experience here." She includes Dr M Balamuralikrishna, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Sangitha Kalanidhi, TN Seshagopalan, Professor TR Subramaniam, Dr N Ramani, Ustad Zakir Hussain, R K Srikantan, Gangubai Hangal among her favourite artists.
She keeps away from film music, though. "It is a personal choice. There is not much live direction behind film music now, unlike when people like Ilayaraja sir were composing", she says. A great fan of Ilayaraja, she says, "I think, down the line, Ilayaraja's music will become a genre by itself".
Giving Carnatic its due
Aathira is now into composing. 'My experiments in music' is how she refers to it. Such as compositions that blend Carnatic music with elements of the folk Tamil genre Karagattam. But her chief passion remains promoting Carnatic music in the world. "It is a music system that is so dynamic, with its fantastic platform of ragas, talas and scales.
And remember, Carnatic music has not just its 72 parent scales and thousands of derived scales, but also a stupendously exhaustive microtonal range and fantastic scope for further improvisation and extrapolation. It is also the oldest musical tradition in the world with an incredible 3000 years of recorded history," she enthuses.
Having said that, Aathira also learns western classical music to 'understand more about the system and to get a more enhanced viewpoint and a broad comprehension of music.' And then, there is her interest in music therapy and the Master's degree in Anthropology that she is pursuing over correspondence, 'for research in ethno-music later on.'
Aathira has received too many titles and awards than can be named in an article. She has been praised as 'Princess of Indian Violin', 'The Musical Gem of India' etc, and conferred many awards like The National Award for Excellence in Music in 2007, Princess of Strings Award 2006 from Rotasia World Conference, the CNN-IBN Young Indian Leader Award, to name a few. She also happens to hold a Guinness World Record for her unique 32 hour long non-stop Carnatic violin solo concert.
A child prodigy who started giving violin recitals at international music festivals as a violin soloist from the age of nine, and someone who got to performing alongside the likes of Yehudi Menuhin, Ustad Bismillah Khan, and Balamurali Krishna, Aathira has grown to live up to her potential and more.
Thankfully, she remains charmingly indifferent to success and stays an accessible and passionate violinist who remains as amazed by the possibilities in music as when she crawled into a music session, 23 years ago.
Twenty three years back, K C Krishna Pillai would often find one un-enrolled student in his music class whom he had to unceremoniously turn out — his two-year old daughter Aathira. A few years later, it was the violin that he had to guard. "The violin is a delicate instrument, not really something that can be handed to a toddler to play with", Aathira recounts this, with a twinkle in her eye.
Not surprisingly, Aathira can hardly define when she started learning music or playing the violin. With dad being a vocalist and veena player of repute and having Gopala Pillai, the illustrious musician of the Tanjore tradition of Carnatic music as granddad, music was always in the air. "I was lucky to have this training. I had a good database in my mind, early on. We had all kinds of instruments at home, and we still do; it was the violin which fascinated me the most", she says.
Krishna Pillai was unconventional in his teaching, and rightly so. It was a marked contrast to the training systems of today that puts children through regimented practice and learning sessions the moment they show a whiff of talent. "My dad would say: Okay, What do you know? Sing it", shares Aathira.
Call it nature or nurture or a wonderful mix of the two — at 25 now, Aathira Krishna has made a mark on the musical stage across the world, and is as popular in Russia and Germany as in India, thanks to music festivals like 'Jazz meets Classics' in Germany and World String Festival in Russia and scores of other music festivals across the world, where she has been receiving standing ovations year after year.
And then of course, ever since she was inducted on the panel by the Indian Council of Cultural Research, it has brought in even more travel than ever before — to give violin recitals and lecture demonstrations around the world.
Stringing the world together
The curious stares on seeing a violinist sitting cross-legged on the floor is no longer there. "It helps that I am into instrument music. Being a violinist does away with the language barrier". She thoroughly enjoys jamming sessions with opera musicians, rock bands, African drummers, Latin instrument musicians, folk musicians…
"With the violin, if you try to blend in, you will blend in, whatever be the country or music tradition", she vouches. In fact, even as a 13-year-old, she had presented a unique thematic 'World Music Night', incorporating music genres of more than 20 nations for the Millennium Celebrations in Kazakizhtan.
And now it is the Marghazhi music fest time in Chennai. She will be performing here of course, but that apart, there are the concerts to listen to. "Some days, I'm clueless as to which concert to listen.
Living in Chennai is the best a Carnatic musician could ask for — there is so much to listen, learn and experience here." She includes Dr M Balamuralikrishna, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Sangitha Kalanidhi, TN Seshagopalan, Professor TR Subramaniam, Dr N Ramani, Ustad Zakir Hussain, R K Srikantan, Gangubai Hangal among her favourite artists.
She keeps away from film music, though. "It is a personal choice. There is not much live direction behind film music now, unlike when people like Ilayaraja sir were composing", she says. A great fan of Ilayaraja, she says, "I think, down the line, Ilayaraja's music will become a genre by itself".
Giving Carnatic its due
Aathira is now into composing. 'My experiments in music' is how she refers to it. Such as compositions that blend Carnatic music with elements of the folk Tamil genre Karagattam. But her chief passion remains promoting Carnatic music in the world. "It is a music system that is so dynamic, with its fantastic platform of ragas, talas and scales.
And remember, Carnatic music has not just its 72 parent scales and thousands of derived scales, but also a stupendously exhaustive microtonal range and fantastic scope for further improvisation and extrapolation. It is also the oldest musical tradition in the world with an incredible 3000 years of recorded history," she enthuses.
Having said that, Aathira also learns western classical music to 'understand more about the system and to get a more enhanced viewpoint and a broad comprehension of music.' And then, there is her interest in music therapy and the Master's degree in Anthropology that she is pursuing over correspondence, 'for research in ethno-music later on.'
Aathira has received too many titles and awards than can be named in an article. She has been praised as 'Princess of Indian Violin', 'The Musical Gem of India' etc, and conferred many awards like The National Award for Excellence in Music in 2007, Princess of Strings Award 2006 from Rotasia World Conference, the CNN-IBN Young Indian Leader Award, to name a few. She also happens to hold a Guinness World Record for her unique 32 hour long non-stop Carnatic violin solo concert.
A child prodigy who started giving violin recitals at international music festivals as a violin soloist from the age of nine, and someone who got to performing alongside the likes of Yehudi Menuhin, Ustad Bismillah Khan, and Balamurali Krishna, Aathira has grown to live up to her potential and more.
Thankfully, she remains charmingly indifferent to success and stays an accessible and passionate violinist who remains as amazed by the possibilities in music as when she crawled into a music session, 23 years ago.