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I played in all kinds of settings and concerts, but it was still not a profession that helped me earn a living. I started learning the mridangam at about six years of age and started playing on stage at 10. In fact those days, my father had organised several concerts for Neyveli Santhanagopalan – now a famous vocalist and teacher – in and around Neyveli so that we – my sister and myself – would get a chance to accompany him.
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Because of his strong interest in music, he trained my sister in violin under well-known violinist TK Suvulu, who used to play famous musicians such as Brinda-Muktha and Balamurali Krishna, and me in mridangam. He later shifted to Neyveli where he worked as an electrician at NLC. Famous ganjira player Harishankar’s father was my father’s roommate in Chennai and that too could have influenced him. In Chennai, he played a little bit for the spiritual teacher Kripananda Variar. Yes, there was no musician in our family, but my father was somehow interested in mridangam and learned it in Chennai from a guru named Srinivasan who was a disciple of mridangam doyen Palani Subramaniam Pillai. Unlike most others in Carnatic music, you are not from a traditional family of musicians. Neyeveli Venkatesh speaks to us about his remarkable life and career. Venkatesh accompanying his guru for KJ Yesudas. That’s why they leave when you start playing the solo,” he says. Music is to enjoy, not to understand or marvel at wizardry. You can’t blame them because they don’t understand.
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If you start some circus or bombastic mathematical formations, people are not willing to listen because it doesn’t appeal to their aesthetics. “In today’s time, the audiences come to enjoy the music, not to see your mathematical wizardry. Venkatesh is noted for his soothing style and strokes that enhance the overall concert experiences than demonstrating his rhythmic wizardry. He also fondly remembers his gurus such as Ramanathapuram MN Kandaswamy Pillai, who was a disciple of well known mridangam exponent Palani Subramaniam Pillai, and Tavil exponents Perumpallam Venkatesan (Tavil Vidvan) and Thirunageshwaram Subramaniam. I am what I am today, largely because of Sanjay,” he says. “It was he who singlehandedly brought me into the primetime slot. Varadarajan, an unmissable part of his premium programmes.ĭespite all the experiences he has gained across the world and adulation of students from various countries during the last three decades, Venkatesh still feels it was his association with Sanjay that got him noticed. He is one of Sanjay’s “Men in White” as the fans call the popular Sanjay ensemble and along with ace violinist S. What makes him famous in India, however is that he is the mridangist of choice for Sanjay Subrahmanyan, the superstar of Carnatic music. He has also performed with most of the popular Carnatic singers. He began touring the world as early as 1996 and has played with musicians such as the great Jazz violinist Stephan Grappelli – along with L Subramaniam – percussionists such as Hakim Ludin, Dave Weckel, Wener Schmitt and Luis Conte, and almost all Indian instrumentalists on their overseas tours and concerts in India. Today, this humble and mild-mannered man is one of the foremost practitioners of mridangam and is a global citizen with a discernible percussion imprint in many European countries, Canada and in countries such as South Africa and Reunion Islands. Venkatesh in his early days with his violinist-sister. From a nondescript industrial township where he was once pushing the wheelbarrow, Venkatesh has travelled the world with his percussion instruments, performed with leading Indian and international musicians, collaborated with stalwarts of percussion from different parts of the world in multicultural projects, and taught hundreds of students in various countries.