A. Kanyakumari Biography 
A. Kanyakumari is a renowned female Carnatic music violinist fromVijayanagaram, Andhra Pradesh. She is currently residing in Chennai since 1970s. She learnt music from renowned Carnatic musicians - IvaturiVijeswara Rao, M. Chandrasekaran and M. L. Vasanthakumari. Known as a missionary of music and an innovator on the violin, she is a performer par excellence. . She was bestowed with life time achievement award by Kartik Fine Arts on the occasion of Tamil New Year in April 2013. She is also a recipient of SangeetNatakAkademy award, UgadiPuraskar and Kalaimamani award by Tamil Nadu government in the 1990s.
She was an accompanist, mostly with M.L. Vasanthakumari during her early days. In the golden days of violin, she was the leading female violinist when the stages were fully dominated by stalwarts like LalgudiJayaraman and Chandrasekharan. In 1997 she invented a new ragam and named it Bharat when India celebrated golden jubilee year of independence. She is first among women accompanists to have performed at Albert Hall (London) and she got this opportunity in 1976.Her bowing technique calledDwaram style is a merger of styles of her gurus - Vijjeswara Rao and Chandrasekharanbaani now renamed Kanyakumaribaani by her students and musicians who work on it.
She was born in a Telugu family in Vijayanagaram, Andhra Pradesh. But she is a resident of Chennai for the past 4 decades. She was born into a family of musicians and her music talents were well supported and nourished by her parents - AvasaralaRamarathnam and Jayalakshmi. Music critic Subbuducompared her music talents to the glitter of diamond nose ring of the goddess Kanyakumari.
Published: N/A
Updated: November 03, 2015
