U. Srinivas
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U. Srinivas (born February 28,1969 in Palakol, in the South indian state of Andhra Pradesh) is a musician in the Carnatic musical tradition of southern India. He came to prominence not only for his playing but for his choice of instrument: an electric mandolin (the acoustic instrument is incapable of sustaining notes or producing the "slides" between notes necessary for Indian music). In recent years he has toured with John McLaughlin as part of the group Remember Shakti.
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Artist in the making
At the age of six U. Srinivas picked up his father Satyanarayana's mandolin. Upon realising the talent of his son, his father started teaching him whatever Carnatic Music he knew. Satyanarayana's guru, Rudraraju Subbaraju, realized the potential of U. Srinivas and started teaching him. Since Rudraraju Subbaraju did not know how to play the mandolin he would only sing and U. Srinivas would play it on the mandolin.
U. Srinivas made his first public Carnatic concert performance in the year 1978 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh during the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival. Soon, he came to perform in the Madras Music festival in 1981 for the Indian Fine Arts Society. In 1983, he performed at the West Berlin Jazz Festival where he won the hearts of the people and the audience requested him to do a repeat performance. He continued touring the world — Australia, South East Asia and then South West Asia followed by USA and Canada.
Jazz tours
- In the West Berlin Jazz Festival in 1983, he pitted against Miles Davis and his All Star Band.
- Cevantino Festival in Mexico, 1987. U. Srinivas became the first South Indian Carnatic Music Artist to perform in this festival.
- Olympics Arts Festival at Barcelona, 1992
Discography
He has not only performed in several concerts but has also performed with Western artists such as John McLaughlin, Michael Brook, Nigel Kennedy, Nana Vasconcelos and Michael Nyman. He has also performed with Hindustani Music artists such as Hariprasad Chaurasia and Zakir Hussain (musician). He has also performed in the CD with Carnatic Compositions of Ilayaraja called Ilayaraaja's Classics in Mandolin (http://www.musicalnirvana.com/script/show_disc_details.aspx?ID=1747).
Awards and achievements
U. Srinivas runs a music school by name Shrinivas Institute of World Music.
Some of the awards that Mandolin U. Srinivas has received:
- Padma Shree on April 12th, 1998 by The President of India
- Sangeeta Ratna
- Sanatan Sangeet Puraskar from Sangeet Sanskriti
- Titled Asthana Vidwan of Govt. of Tamil Nadu in July 1984, Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam on October 1st 1990, Pillayarpatti Temple on 27th August, 1995
- Mysore T. Chowdiah Memorial National Award
- Sangeetha Bala Bhaskara by Sangeetha Kalanidhi M.S. Subbulakshmi
- National Citizen's Award, 1991 by The President of India
- Special TTK Award and Best Artist Award by the Madras Music Academy in the years 1983 and 1993 respectively
- Rajiv Gandhi National Integration Award
External links
- The official site of Mandolin U.Shrinivas (http://www.mandolinshrinivas.org/)
- Shrinivas Institute of World Music (http://www.mandolinshrinivas.org/siowm.htm)
- Some of U.Shrinivas's audio (http://www.musicalnirvana.com/artist_discs.asp?artist=U+Srinivas&page=2)