Ilaiyaraaja is a university in himself: Violinist Jyotsna Srikanth

Hyderabad: Jyotsna Srikanth is the most sought after South Indian Carnatic violinist and composer known for her versatility and ability to seamlessly collaborate with different genres of music. She is trained in the western classical system too and has been touring the world, connecting cultures and initiating innovative projects.
Jyotsna has played the violin in more than 300 South Indian movies. She has given numerous Carnatic solo, jugalbandi and jazz fusion concerts apart from accompanying legendary Carnatic musicians like Dr Balamuralikrishna.

Jyotsna has composed for & performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra - UK, Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra - Hungary, VMU Chamber Orchestra - Lithuania, Krystal Quartet - Sweden, Ligeti Quartet - UK and Vindla Quartet - Sweden.

Jyotsna's notable collaborations are Nordic Raga - with Swedish Folk, Raga Garage - with western classical violin, Carnatic Connection - with Bollywood Brass Band and Maya Jazz - with Balkan Jazz.
She was invited to perform at the Buckingham Palace for the inauguration of the Commonwealth Heads Meeting in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen of England.

You are Europe's leading violinist and performed even for UK PM Cameron. What kind of reception your concerts get abroad?

Culture is a word which applies to the local places, the local culture. So Europe is a highly cultural place. And then the response has been very good and they welcome all genres of music and the collaborations. There is not one dull concert, where I had a negative response or no response. You give good content. It is taken.

Global fusion music is your forte. However, playing Western classical music and Carnatic music may require different kind of techniques. How do you manage that?

Now, I am very much at home playing these. I started learning violin at the age of five. My first concert was at the age of 9 and when I accompanied Dr. Balamuralikrishna, I was 15. And then I heard this album ‘How to name it’ by Ilaiyaraaja, where on one single violin, without changing the tuning, all pitches were laid. So that really captivated me. What is this technique? Because in Carnatic music, for each pitch you have one minute, so if I'm going to play five different pitches, I need to have five minutes. So, this was not the thing, it had only one. I started exploring and then I found out that I have to learn Western classical. Violin is a European instrument, it had to travel from the West to East to get adapted to Indian music. Then I started learning from Bangalore School of Music and from BS Narasimhan, who had actually played ‘how to name it’ for Ilaiyaaraaja and that gave me a different vision of the violin, like the techniques of the left hand bowing where you will get clarity playing, smooth playing. In fact, if you these techniques, if you can adapt to Carnatic music, it will be good. At any point of time, there will be confusion, a lot of confusion between the two systems, because here you tune to Sa Pa Sa, that is EADG, which is Sa Pa Ri Da. So the only way to overcome is extensive practice. That's the only way. If you can't do that enormous amount of practice of the two systems, it will turn out to be disaster. If you can do it, then you will enjoy it.

So between Carnatic and Hindustani—which one is more popular in the international audience?

I can say with respect to Europe, North Indian classical music is more popular.

What kind of music is popular in India?

India is regional. Film Music is everywhere. Otherwise in South, half of Karnataka is Carnatic music, then mostly it is Hindustani music, but then you go down South in Kerala, it's again Carnatic. The film music is the common factor plus the regional.

What was it like to perform with Dr Balamuralikrishna?

I did a lot of concerts later, mostly about some 70-80 concepts. But the first concert, I was really young. And then the President of Gayana Samaja said she's capable of playing. I was bold with no stage fear at any point of time. But then I was skeptical, thinking am capable and passionate about playing, but will he accept it. When he saw me, he was warm and treated me nicely on stage. However, when it came to the challenges and difficulty of playing, there were no concessions for me and I responded for everything. And he liked it very much. He said, you are so bold for a first-timer. Then I travelled a lot with him for several concerts. In fact, my festival, London International Arts Festival in 2012 was inaugurated by him.

This apart, what has been your most memorable concert performance so far?

The one with London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Wembley Stadium—that was attended by 60,000 people. Even PM Modi attended it. That was very memorable because you don’t get to play for such a massive audience and the piece, Indian Spring, my own composition, at a world class orchestra often. Another one was at the Buckingham Palace and I met the Queen for the inauguration of the Commonwealth Heads Meeting. I am playing Rama Navami concert in Ramanathapuram, which is a small village on the banks of the River Cauvery on the occasion of Ram Navami 2024 . The concert starts at 9pm and go until 1am, there are kids who put the taalam. I feel so happy to play for such audiences, our own audiences. For me each one of these is an experience to remember.

Tell us about your work in movies

Movies just happened like that. I started playing western classical. But I did not have any idea that I'm going to play for movies. One fine day, some manager called me to Prasads Bangalore saying it was for a movie with music direction by Rajan Nagendra, who were very big then. So I was excited. But then we were not sure about movies. So my father accompanied me not wanting to discourage. He was convinced that the atmosphere was safe and nice. And it started from there. It was a learning experience. It was for a Kannada movie ‘Prema Raaga Haadu Gelathi’, which centered around violin.

What's Ilaiyaraaja’s working style like?

He's one man army, he’s a university by himself. He does the melodies by himself, he arranges it, he writes it. Four to five people’s work is put in by one man. But I played maximum for Hamsalekha, who was a leading musician. Now, also I play. That's a different kind of music, but I enjoy playing. In fact, I do play the popular ones that people want to listen to. Some of the themes on violin sound so good.

A Post Graduate in clinical pathology, Sun certified in Java and a leading violinist. Why did you choose music over all the others?

Music came first before medicine. In Plus 2, I got seventh rank and it’s difficult to get a merit seat in Bangalore Medical College. I enjoyed that also, did my post graduation and practiced for a few years. And I did justice to it. But then music was calling and at a point of time, especially, when I moved to London, I found that I can't have my feet in two different boats. I had to choose between medicine, music and family, I can’t give up family. But then again, I've been on and off in medicine like during the pandemic I did practice because there was acute shortage of doctors. So it's not that I am totally out of the field, I do on and off.

One day, my husband asked me to to put off the computer and I unplugged instead of shutting down, So I went to learn the basics, but ended up learning C, C++, Java to become the first doctor in the world to do Sun certification in Java. I worked in TCS as a healthcare IT consultant for three years before I went to UK. But somehow, despite being lucrative, the subject was very dry for me.

But didn't you feel you were giving up a lucrative profession?

Many people thought that I was crazy enough to give up such a high paying profession (both medicine and IT). But sometimes, you must follow your heart than what the society wants for you. Music is an equally good industry. People who choose creativity as their profession will have faced a lot of challenges, including lots of ‘Nos’ from the family, who want you to go for a safe profession like engineering. But tell me if everyone says that, what happens to creativity? You have to take risks.

There are reality shows, but there are no shows promoting instruments. India also lacks professional music schools to encourage kids wanting to pursue creative fields.

Absolutely. In UK, there are schools promoting academics and music parallelly. But that has not yet come to India. I think it’s more about mindset, playing safe and asking what will you do? How will you make a living in music? What if it fails? Go for safer professions. Any creative industry requires patience to succeed. Whether you're successful or not, pursue your passion. If you're destined to get money, you will always get. But you will be happy about doing what you want. That Satisfaction matters.

Tell us about your upcoming projects,

One of them is Shakti, which I've been touring in Europe. Those are tunes composed during lockdown. It's violin with electronic music. It is a one hour music depicting the journey of pandemic, beginning of the pandemic, how the pandemic happened, how it affected people, and what happened after. Another one is Raga seasons, which is an Indian Violin Concert and a collaboration with the string orchestra. So that has six ragas, six seasons of India. Both these I will be playing in different places of India.

Which cities in India that you have been to, are more receptive to music and where do you think music is really thriving?

The audience in Chennai is good. I have not seen audience anywhere attending a concert at 7am, for that you must have a real interest. Bangalore is okay too. Mumbai might be good. But London is awesome. That is the place for any kind of music to thrive, any world music across genres is lapped up. There is a lot of value for art and culture, that’s a great thing about London.

Talking about different genres, you have even collaborated with foreign artists. So tell us about them. Who are the people you've collaborated with?

I have composed and performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra - UK, Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra - Hungary, VMU Chamber Orchestra - Lithuania, Krystal Quartet - Sweden, Ligeti Quartet - UK and Vindla Quartet - Sweden. My prime collaborations include Nordic Raga - with Swedish Folk, Raga Garage - with western classical violin, Carnatic Connection - with Bollywood Brass Band and Maya Jazz - with Balkan Jazz.

You hear of people having creative differences when collaborating because you have to be in perfect sync. So, how do you work that out and reach a middle ground?

Before collaborating, we have to go for a jam session, within one minute you will know whether my frequency and the other artist's frequency will match or not. And then come up with some song and see how it goes. And that's how it happens.

For an artist, appreciation is very important. Could you tell us something about the recognition you have received?

This is MBE (the 3rd highest civilian award in UK). It was announced on King Charles birthday in August. It took almost a week for the news to sink in because the musicians who had got this award were Adele, Ed Sheeren and a few footballers. As a carnatic musician to get recognition outside, I felt rewarded for my efforts to promote music. In fact, I developed my London International Arts festival and my organisation Dhruv arts, we support orphans who want to learn music as learning the art could get expensive. There is so much talent in India. So we supported children by providing music scholarship. What is important is passing on the tradition by keeping it alive.