The maestro Carnatic violinist, was born in September 17th . Sri. Lalgudi Jayaraman the maestro took birth in the lineage of one of the disciples of saint Sri Tyagaraja Swami. Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman had in his blood, the true gist of Carnatic music from his great father, Late V. R. Gopala Iyer, from whom he got his initial training. As he bids farewell, he has made an enormous vacuum in the world of carnatic instrumental music.

Desciples of Sri. Lalgudi Jayaraman who tops the list, includes his two children Sri.Lalgudi G.J.R.Krishnan, Smt.Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi and the Academy Award nominated Smt.Bombay Jayashri.
Sri. Lalgudi Jayaraman started his musical journey at the tender age of 12 as an accompanying violinist. Being a boy with a capability for proactive imagination, quick learning and a capability to fit in easily to the personal styles of the leading artists in Carnatic music, while following them in their programmes, Sri. Lalgudi Jayaraman reached the top position in violin accompanying in a short time span. With the real time experience that he gained, clubbed with his un tiring hard work and endurance, he emerged as a highly sought after solo violinist.

He contributed more to the the carnatic style of playing violin by introducing a new technique that best fits the needs of rendering items in south Indian Classical Music and the all new style was later on termed and appreciated as the ‘Lalgudi Bani’. His flawless and beautiful style of rendering was always based on the traditional styles of carnatic music. His capability as a Vaggeyakara, a person who writes and composes Krithis resulted in the birth of several krithis which would be treasured as gems of carnatic music by the upcoming generations. He now has to his credit several ‘kritis’, ’tillanas’ and ‘varnams’ as well as dance compositions. All these compositions demonstrate his capability in handling the aesthetic blend of raga, bhava, tala and the literary capabilities. His contribution to the much needed introduction of the vocal style into violin is worth mentioning.

Lalgudi Jayaraman as an accompanist

He was always a preferred concert partner for leading maestos in carnatic music like Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Madurai Mani Iyer, Voleti Venkateswarulu, K.V.Narayanaswamy, Maharajapuram Santhanam, T. V. Sankaranarayanan, D. K. Jayaraman, M.Balamuralikrishna, T. N. Seshagopalan,N. Ramani, etc.

Lalgudi delivered concerts extensively in India as well as abroad. The Government of India assigned him to perform in Russia as a member of the delegation of cultural ambassadors. In 1965, at the Edinburgh festival, Yehudi Menuhin, the celebrated violinist was impressed by Lalgudi’s style, that he presented him with his much loved Italian violin. He has also delivered concerts in Malaysia,Singapore, Manila and other European nations. He was invited to deliver concerts at Cologne, France and Belgium. The Government of India requested him to represent the nation at the Festival of India in USA, London and he delivered a solo performance and Jugalbandi concert in London and also a few more concerts in Italy and Germany .
Lalgudi Jayaraman has earned numerous titles, like the ‘Nada Vidya Tilaka’ conferred by the Music Lovers’ Association of Lalgudi in 1963, ‘Padma Shri’ Awarded by the Government of India in 1972, ‘Naada Vidya Rathnakara’awarded by the East West Exchange in New York, ‘Vaadya Sangeetha Kalaratna’ awarded by Bharathi Society, New York; ‘Sangeetha Choodaamani’ by the Federation of Music Sabhas, Madras in the year1971 and in the year 1972; State Vidwan of Tamil Nadu by the Government of Tamil Nadu and Sangeetha Natak Academy award in 1979.

Ref: CarnaticIndia.com