A Grand Carnatic Vocal Concert by Sanjay Subrahmanyan, accompanied by S. Varadarajan on the Violin and Neyveli Venkatesh on the Mridangam.

Sanjay Subrahmanyan (Vocalist)

Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sanjay  is a prominent contemporary musician in the field of classical Carnatic music. His musical journey began at the age of seven when he started to train in vocal as well as violin under violin maestro Shri. V. Lakshminarayana. He later learnt from his grand aunt Smt. Rukmini Rajagopalan for about eight years. His performance skills sharpened under the late Calcutta Shri. K.S. Krishnamurthy. This experience helped Sanjay in innovating the fine blending of traditional and modern styles of Carnatic music. He continues to train under Nadaswaram vidwan Semponarkoil SRD Vaidhyanathan. The singer in him has been influenced by the great Carnatic exponent Shri. G.N. Balasubramaniam. His style shows characteristics of yesteryear maestros like Madurai Shri.Mani Iyer and Shri.M.D.Ramanathan. Critics have acclaimed that Sanjay’s music is sparkling and imaginative with his greatest asset being the characteristic “azhutham”. He is a well-travelled musician and recipient of a string of prestigious awards, the latest being the “Sangeetha Kalanidhi” by the Madras Music Academy. A Carnatic musician of great caliber, Sanjay is also a rank holding Chartered/Cost Accountant as well. He was the subject of a documentary film made by Prasanna Ramaswamy in year 2006. He is a fine teacher and role model to many of his successful students like Sandeep Narayanan, Prasanna Venkatraman – to name a few, for 15 years.

Varadarajan Santhanam (S. Varadarajan)

Another violin legend-in-the-making, Varadarajan initially learnt violin under Kanchi Janardhanam. He later learnt from the multi-faceted genius T.V. Gopalakrishnan. At a very young age Varadarajan has accompanied many leading artists of Carnatic music and has established himself as a front ranking musician. His style of play is characterized by excellent control over the instrument with brilliant repartees that inspire the main artiste. He has been conferred with several titles and awards and has, for more than 20 years, given solo concerts and traveled the world on several concert tours as an accompanying artist.

Venkatesh Balaraman (Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam (percussion))

Venkatesh’s training in Mridangam started at the age of seven under his father Sri. A.S. Balaraman.. His first stage performance was at the age of ten. He underwent advanced training in Mridangam under Sri.P.P. Venkatesan and Sri Ramanathapuram M.N. Kandaswamy Pillai.

Neyveli B.Venkatesh has accompanied all frontline musicians in most of the major sabhas, Music Festivals held in Madras, throughout India and Abroad. He was an artiste and staff member of the Cultural Department of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (Government of India Enterprise). He is an “A” grade Artiste in All India Radio in Mridangam and has set a record of playing the Mridangam for 28 hours continuously at Neyveli in 1986.