Jayanthi Kumaresh’s Cup O’ Carnatic, a web series published on Facebook and YouTube introducing concepts related to music and veena, was a huge success garnering more than 2.5 million views for the series. Following its success, Jayanthi is now presenting a new web series, Season Of Carnatic, which aims to promote the Chennai Margazhi Season by getting the fans Margazhi Ready.
"Such a magnificent festival deserves worldwide recognition and the series aims at exploring new ragams daily to get audiences ready to identify ragams and compositions when they attend the Margazhi Season in December. The aim is to promote and popularize Carnatic music and the Chennai Margazhi Season, a celebration of art and aesthetics", she says.
A new episode lasting about 3-5 minutes is posted every day from November 1 – November 30 on her Facebook page and Youtube channel and so far, it has had rave reviews from the rasikas.
Check out the series on – www.facebook.com/veena.
Jayanthi is India’s torch bearer worldwide for Saraswati Veena, the National Instrument
of India. An artiste, collaborator, composer, researcher, creator, pioneer, and educator – Jayanthi’s
life achievements over 30 years truly embody the rich musical heritage of India - making her one of
the legendary Veena masters that India has ever produced.
A sixth-generation musician, she began playing the Veena since the age of 3 and is one of the youngest
veena artistes to receive the A-TOP grading, the highest from All India Radio. Apart from several prestigious venues and festivals in India, Jayanthi has performed at several international festivals such as San Francisco Jazz Festival, Darbar Festival, Queensland Music Festival, Darwin Music Festival, Adelaide Music Festival and at prestigious venues such as U.N, New York, Palladium, Indiana, Theatre de la Ville, Paris, Northwest folklife festival, Seattle. She has received many awards in India including “Sangeetha Choodamani”, “Kalaimamani” by the Government of Tamil Nadu, “Veena Naada Mani”, “Kala Ratna”, “Sathyashree”, “Gaana Varidhi”, is a seven-time recipient of The Music Academy, Chennai’s “Award for Veena” to name a few.
A collaborator, she has performed with legends such as Tabla Ustad Zakir Hussain, Violin Maestro Shri. R. Kumaresh and has presented the Saraswathi Veena with the British Philharmonia at Royal Festival Hall, London. Her innovations in her field are immense. For the first time, one artiste and one instrument created a symphonic effect with seven different Veena layers coming together meaningfully (without any other instrument), Jayanthi’s much-acclaimed album “Mysterious Duality” is a path breaker.
A pioneer, Dr.Jayanthi is the founder of the Indian National Orchestra(INO) that features 21 star
musicians from all over India, in a first of its kind National Orchestra for Indian classical music.
A researcher, she holds a Doctorate for her work on “styles and playing techniques of the Saraswati veena” and conducts workshops and lecture demonstrations around the world.
She has composed for many musicals and dance productions. Her Thillanas, Varnams and Raga based melodies have been featured in many of her albums. Jayanthi has recorded for world-renowned Labels such as Times Music, Music Today, Sa re ga ma, Sense World and Home Records.
The niece of Violin Legend Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman, Jayanthi attributes what she is today to her maternal aunt and guru, Smt. Padmavathy Ananthagopalan, whose training helped Jayanthi evolve as an artiste. Her mother Smt. Lalgudi Rajalakshmi first introduced her to music and she is also fortunate to have trained later under Veena Virtuoso Dr. S. Balachander. Blending the traditional and the innovative in her music in terms of content, technique, virtuosity and expression, Jayanthi seeks to express the true voice of the veena, which transcends the boundaries of language and region.