M. Narmadha Biography 
Dr. M. Narmadha is an accomplished violinist in the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions. She is the daughter of M. S. Gopalakrishnan, the legendary violinist, whose name is taken aside his contemporaries in the field - Lalgudi Jayaraman and T. N. Krishnan. Her brother Suresh too is a violinist and both the siblings took formal training in both traditions of violin from their father. She holds a doctoral degree from Delhi University and she got it for her doctoral thesis comparing North and South Indian music styles and published the book - ‘Indian Music and Sancara in Raagas’.
She was born into the Parur tradition of Carnatic music and a member of third generation of music. Though she was born and brought up in Mylapore, Tamil Nadu, her paternal ancestors originally belong to Ernakulam, Kerala. She was initiated to the world of music by her grandfather Parur A Sundaram Iyer at the age of four and later she mastered this musical form from her father, who regards her as the best disciple. She also learnt vocals from her mother Meenakshi Gopalakrishnan. Narmadha is a top grade artist in All India Radio. She has performed over 45 years and has done more than 6000 concerts as a solo performer in violin, Carnatic and Hindustani music, apart from her Jugalbandi concerts.
Since her younger days, she used to perform aside her father for stage concerts and has accompanied her father several times. She also performs Carnatic and Hindustani music, learnt from her mother and has toured in many foreign countries with her performances. One of the accomplished young violinists at present, she won Best Violinist award by the Music Academy, Madras, eight times consecutively. She is a recipient of Tamil Nadu Government’s Kalaimamani award. She aims to propagate Parur-MSG style as a violinist.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 28, 2016
