Kanya, matchless violinist and maestro

Avasarala Kanyakumari (Kanya, as those close to her would call her) deserved the Sangita Kalanidhi award more than anyone else and the honour should have come to her much earlier in her career. The fact that she was the irreplaceable accompanist to the formidable M L Vasanthakumari for nearly two decades assigned her a unique status. MLV's method in all forms of music - be it the delineations in ragas, the rendition of the krithis in an orderly manner, the stunning flow in the arrangement of swaras and the extempore pallavis - must have been a great source of inspiration for Kanya.Yet, years of intent listening have also helped her imbibe the styles of all gurus Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao, M Chandrasekaran and MLV.
When it came to innovating within the canvas of tradition, Kanya came up with Vadyalahari, T hrishthai Sangamam, Sathavadya Sammelan and CricMusic, a composition celebrating cricket. Her patient ways of teaching without being overly instructive has become the mainstay of a series of lessons on the violin that have their well-defined path and start from rudimentary levels.
Vadyalahari presented a combination of instruments like the veena When it came to innovating within the canvas of tradition, Kanya came up with Vadyalahari, T hrishthai Sangamam, Sathavadya Sammelan and CricMusic, a composition celebrating cricket. Her patient ways of teaching without being overly instructive has become the mainstay of a series of lessons on the violin that have their well-defined path and start from rudimentary levels.
and the nagaswaram. With clever sound-mixing, the instrument became a great hit wherever it was played.
Directly indulging in octave shifts is well noticeable in western music. Kanya trained her bow with great finesse to indulge in this practice and her efforts gave birth to the concept of Thristhai Sangamam. Here, three violinists would play in tandem but operate in three octaves. It was a riveting experience as one could clearly sense the octave levels as they progressed. This was in 1990.
In Kanya's list of innovations is her teaming up with Kadri Gopalnath on the saxophone. Again with sound levels being adjusted properly, even with the thavil accompanists around, the violin is well heard alongside the mighty saxophone. These concerts have become great crowdpullers both in India and abroad.
Initially, she had orchestrated with 27 violinists (Saregama had released a music album on) and then with a hundred of them to mark the beginning of the millennium. In all her ensemble ventures one always sees a conductor who is conspicuous by her absence. Kanya sits on a par with them on the same stage and the concert would go on seamlessly. Such was the coordination each player was required to have.
CricMusic was welcomed by the cricket fraternity and music lovers. The entire music fraternity which had some avid cricket fans and players like Unnikrishnan appreciated the tune given for the sixer. The appropriateness of the ragas chosen, like sahana, kuntalavarali, kadanakuthuhalam and ahirbhairavi were acknowledged as apt by some veterans.
Kanya's foremost disciples are Embar Kannan, Sanjeev Venkatraman, Rajeev Mukundan and Tejas Malella. All of them owe their pre sent position as leading musicians and sought-after violinists to her. Kanya never expects anything from her students, save intense practice and grasp. One can easily spot her students by their following the “Kanya“ style which is distinguishable by the attainment of the gayaki bhava on the instrument, from the word go. But they are probably cautioned not to imitate. And they never wish to.
She is a religious person in thought, word and deed. Before and after a concert she would pay her respects to the pantheon of gods that deco rates her violin box. She in an interview has said that 'Amba Kamakshi,' the swarajathi in bhairavi by Syama Sastri, was her favourite. It filled her with new energy and she had made it a practice to render it as a kind of prayer, perhaps daily.
(Aarvalan is a music critic)