Carnatic musician N. Vijay Siva was awarded the Sangeetha Kalasarathy title by Parthasarathy Swami Sabha on Sunday, during the inauguration of its 114th music festival.
Four other artistes too were honoured on the occasion. The Palghat Mani Iyer Centenary award was presented to mridangam exponent Guruvayur Dorai, Dwaram Venkataswami Naidu award to violinist Parur M.S. Anantharaman, G. Ramanathan award to musician Sirkazhi Sivachidambaram and Dr. M.L.V. award to Carnatic musician K. Gayatri.
Mr. Siva said he made it a point to not add the titles conferred on him before his name, as a principle.
“My guru D.K. Pattamal and my father advised me against adding the titles conferred on me as a prefix to my name and I have been following it for years now. All I want to do is deliver good quality music,” he said.
Mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman said Mr. Siva not only sang with perfection but also understood the meaning of compositions. “He knows exactly how to emote and where. It is rare to find such a well-informed musician at such a young age,” he said.
Carnatic musician P.S. Narayanaswamy said Mr. Siva was one of the few musicians who could sing the kritis by heart. “He must know thousands of kritis but not once have I seen him refer to a book or piece of paper,” he said.
Emberumanar Jeer Swamigal, industrialist Nalli Kuppuswamy, Cleveland V.V. Sundaram and advocate Mohan Parasaran were among those who spoke at the event.
The programme was followed by a concert by Chitravina exponent N. Ravikiran.
