My favourite contemporary violinist and accompanist. His even bowing, fluid fingering, highly sensitive accompaniment with appropriate use of mandra sthayi and tara sthayi complementation, his knowledge of all the different sangathis of various schools, his concise raga alapanais capturing the essence of the ragas beautifully, his playing filled with tranquility with ample use of pauses, and even his calm and humble demeanor on stage, all impress me tremendously. I still have vivid memories of his accompaniment to TM Krishna at Parthasarathy Swami Sabha in 2007 (that mAnji!) and to Parassala Ponnammal in San Diego this year. From the reviews on this forum, it appears he's a more than competent vocalist as well.


Courtesy of srikant1987, here are a couple of links:

A brief biography:
http://www.indiamusicinfo.com/profiles/carnatic/shriramkumar.html

About his grandfather, R.K. Venkatarama Shastry:
http://www.thehindu.com/fr/2007/11/16/stories/2007111651300400.htm

Also, a violin duet of RKSK and S Varadarajan (another favourite of mine!), accompanied by K Arunprakash:
http://www.sangeethamshare.org/sl/R_K_SHRIRAMKUMAR_S_VARADARAJAN_K_ARUNPRAKASH_%2021_01_2005_CHENNAI_/

I like him, he is a walking encyclopedia. Sings well too, look forward to hear his violin solo and vocal concerts more often.

He accompanies almost all leading artist quite well. Very calm personality.

-hari

What stuns me about RKSK is the accompaniment he gives to the songs themselves, as against the manodharma replies - like bilahari says, the different sangatis of various schools. He seems to either know the main artist's version of the song itself, or follow with such rapt attention that he predicts it right. And the violinist's accompaniment to songs is the least noticed of all the things they do: which gives a mind-blowing picture of how sincere an accompanist he is.

R K Shriram is indeed one of the best accompanist in the top league. I have seen in atleast one occassion where since RKSK was a accompanist very manodharmic tana and pallavi ragamaligas were handled by the vocalist. I think always he gives an extreme comfort to the vocalist.

Having said I just feel the nAdham of RKSK till say 2006 or so is different of RKSK of the last few years. Perhaps his vidwath is always on the ascent, at times the nAdham of present RKSK is not very sweet during returns(lot of his prior 2005 days his nAdham was say comparable to V V S), at times it is little too rough and not very soaked in melody .

Too rough? That's extremely surprising, because sometimes I feel -- he's playing so superbly, why doesn't he just bow with a little more force so that I can enjoy the full effect?! But I don't know RKSK pre-2005, so I can't understand what you mean. I don't know a lot of things pre-2005.

delete

I beg to differ - having known Shriram for a long time (as an individual, not necessarily as a performing artist), I think that what you say is not correct. From my observations I can say that he is a very nice person who is not into pettiness.

Being born in a family of seasoned artists doesn't guarantee success in the music world - please do not be dismissive of the hard work and perseverance that each and everyone of the artists have put in to reach where they are.

In addition to his remarkable skills on the violin, he is proving that he is a great tune-smith as well - his friends, Sri Vijay Siva and Sri TMK have sung delectable compositions tuned by him. He has also worked closely with Sri TMK on the SSP project.

PS: I should have checked the provenance of the poster before posting. Had I done that, I would not have bothered dignifying the rant with a response...7 of this poster's previous posts have been deleted (by the mods?) probably because they were in bad taste, and this one is likely to suffer the same fate.

Yes - MODS please delete the Tulip post

I believe we've had problems with this Tulip earlier also. In fact, Tulip's profile shows that Tulip's made seven posts before this, and all seven now have only the word "deleted". Can this Tulip be banned from the forum?

There is a passing mention that karthik fine arts has awarded 'Isai PerOli' title to RK Shriramkumar for this year season . Sorry cant find the url in the hindu website. Congrats RKSK , let there be more laurels and best wishes to you.

Here's the link for Hindu news

http://www.thehindu.com/fr/2009/09/25/stories/2009092550640300.htm

I also want to add that RK Shriramkumar is on a maiden solo violin tour of the US now (accompanied by Arun Prakash on mridangam and Guruprasad on Ghatam) - Oct 3 through Nov 15th.

We are given to understand the tour got off to a flying start in Phoenix on Oct 3.

Hope to see more on his tour under Kutcheris and Recordings.

-mani

Delighted to hear about his USA tour.

It is not many years since he modestly told me, in response to my enquiry, that he did not expect to playing solo in the near future! Unfortunately, so far, I haven't managed to see the solo concerts that he has given.

Wishing him all success

Avery fine arrtist, an able accompanist(more than able) and a very good 'tune-smith(borrowing the word).
Very happy to hear about his being conferred the isaipEroLi title. Happy to know about his maiden solo tour of the USA in the company of ArUN Prakash and Guru Prasad.

I am very glad to read about the award and USA tour. Let this be a beginning. he is such a treasure. I would like to see him giving vocal concerts also.

-hari

I had the fortune of learning from his thAthA, Shri. RK Venkatrama Shastri and from Shriramkumar as well. He and I went to the same school (Padma Seshadri - Lake Area, Chennai). He was 4 years my senior.

Very dedicated and hard-working person. I remember he taught me Viriboni for an entire month (I used to learn every day back then). He wouldn't let me rest until I was able to play in all 3 kAlams fluently (my arms were ready to fall off from their sockets

He studied vocal music under Shri DKJ. He would implore me to come with him to Kotturpuram and learn vocal as well but being in 11th/12th, it was tough. He learned a whole lot of Dikshitar krithis from Shri DKJ. He memorized the entire Kamalamba Navavarnam and Nilotpalamba Vibhakti kritis in a very short amount of time.

His buddies and he started the YACM (Youth Association for Classical Music - http://yacm.in/aboutus.html). I remember Vijay Siva, Manoj Siva, Unni, Sanjay et al used to come to his house in T.Nagar and plan the inaugural day (1985). It used to be a riot!

He was also singularly responsible for getting his 3 sisters married and settled in life.

Very knowledgeable vidwan and a gem of a person.

Can we please change the title of this discussion to R.K. Shriramkumar (with a 'h') since that's how he spells his name?

( mod note: Done. Thanks for the correction )

I just attended a superb concert by R.K.Shriramkumar in Birmingham, Alabama. It had been a while since we have had a violin concert of such high caliber in our town. Also was very much impressed with his humble demeanor. I hope he will continue to give solo concerts!! Beautiful rendition of Chakkani Raja and Birana Varalichi. We also heard him sing Krishna Nee Begaane Baro.

Srikant pointed to me to this nice article by Samanth about RKSK:
http://www.livemint.com/2010/07/3021230 ... n.html?h=B

I had found it posted on facebook by one of his disciples.

I am 'copy-pasting' an old post of mine here, which, I think, will interest RKSRKs rasikas. More details on the original thread -
'Mark Your Calendars for a Unique festival' under 'Music and Festivals'.

"Exactly 2 months from today Chennai will witness an unusual concert, to be launched for the first time in the world. If you are interested in Carnatic Music you would not want to miss it. If you know that it is by Vijaya Siva on a theme called "Geetha Vedantham" you would want to be there, no matter what. Good news: there is a live webcast too.
"Geetha Vedantham" is a concert of compositions based on Vedanthic truths/principles etc. The entire concert is dedicated only to that concept. Vijaya Siva + R K Shriramkumar + Manoj Siva are presenting this. The team is currently working on selecting compositions for a full 3 hour concert to be held on August 12, 2012 at Sivagami Petachi Auditorium. It is hosted by Ramanathan Think Foundation. Big Promise - No speeches, only concert."

Innovative and humility personified--is Shri Sri Ram kumar...

Shri RK Srikumar shares his experiances with Smt MS Subhulakshmi...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpQC9KECBjk