Kunnakudi Subbalakshmi
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Kunnakudi Subbalakshmi | |
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 Subbalakshmi at her residence in Hyderabad | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | N.Subbalakshmi |
| Born | 24 April 1931 Kunnakudi, Madras Presidency, British India |
| Died | 21 March 2010 (aged 78) Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India |
| Genres | Classical Carnatic |
Kunnakudi Subbalakshmi was born on 21 April 1931 in the town of Kunnakudi under the Madras Presidency. She was a vocal Carnatic Singer and Elder sister of Eminent Violinist Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan.
Early life
She Was Born to Sri.Ramaswamy Sastri and Smt.Meenakshi at Kunnakudi, the Temple town of Lord Murugan in the Southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu.
Her Father was a Erudite Scholar in Sanskrit and Tamil Besides being a great composer of Carnatic Music and Kathakalakshepam. Subbalakshmi Started Learning South Indian Classical Music from her father at a very young age.
Career
At a very young age Subbalakshmi started giving concerts accompanied by Sundaralakshmi her younger sister and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. Sundaralakshmi died at a very young age. She Started giving Solo Vocal concerts in Karaikudi and Kunnakudi.
She was Married to S.C.Natesan a Brahmin iyer Family at the age of 19. He was in the army so he got Transferred to many places so Subbalakshmi performed concerts through All India Radio.
Natesan was Transferred to Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmednagar. she performed at Radio Centers in Hyderabad and Delhi.
After that Her Husband Was transferred to Ahmednagar, in the state of Maharashtra where he rendered his work to the army for 20, so here Subbalakshmi could not portray her talent due to Financial Conditions.
The couple had Three Daughters Padmini, Lalitha and Rajeshwari. The Financial Conditions of the family was worse and after 20 years in 1984 Natesan Got Transferred to Hyderabad where he worked for AOC and got Retired. Here She Performed at All India Radio for 10 long years. The Couple stayed at Sitaphal Mandi near Secunderabad and started Conducting Tutions to Render her Music Knowledge to them.
The couple then shifted to Sainikpuri in 2002. Natesan died on 21 June 2003 at the age of 83.
She didnt loose her Strength and Courage and conducted classes.
She performed various concerts in Sun TV, Doordarshan, Jaya TV.She also performed many live concerts at Bangalore during the Ramanavami Festival that was held in 2009. She also Performed at Chikadpally in Hyderabad, Machilipatnam and Coimbatore. She attended the Tyagaraja Aradhana conducted at Thanjavur for 25 years conducted by her brother Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. She knew More than 2500 Keerthanas written by Tyagaraja, MuthuSwamy Dikshitar, Sama Sastri. She also Knew many Keerthanas written by her father.[1]
Sangeetha Ksheerasagaram and Thyagaraya Gana Sabha jointly organised a 5-day music festival at the sabha's venue in 2005 in memory of Uppalapati Ankaiah, a great sangeetha vidwan of yesteryear. Veteran percussionists were felicitated,Were Subbalakshmi was a part of it.[2]
Awards
She was Awarded the Kalaimamani award by the Government of Tamil Nadu in the year 2005.
Death
Subbalakshmi Died at 2:10 AM on March 21, 2010 at a Hospital in Hyderabad.