padmanabha
14th August 2006, 10:15 PM
[tscii:9368ac116e]Sajeev Nampoothiri- B. Tech., MBA, is a different personality altogether. He is not after MNC s. His aim is to establish himself in the field of classical music. His mellifluous voice and strong foundation in carnatic music enabled him to be identified by the connoisseurs.
Born to Gowri Antharjanam and Sreekumaran Nampoothiri of Chandramana Illam, Perumbavoor, Sajeev had his basic lessons in music from Lalitha, Irinjalakkuda Vijayalekshmi, and advanced lessons from Varkala C S Jayaram. Narayanan Nampoothiri his paternal uncle also trained in music.
“I owe much to my parents. My father takes me daily to the music class at 6 am. When I was 12, I participated in Poo mottukal a children’s program for Doordarsan. It was well received and later it was telecast by Bombay Doordarshan. That was my debut performance. In the formal arangettam Mahadeva Sarma the popular violin artiste accompanied me. The family once made an unscheduled trip to Puttaparthi in the next year. I sang Thodi raga and Sai Baba was much pleased. He blessed me” said Sajeev.
In 1992, Sajeev passed the audition test conducted by AIR, Calicut. He came first in the AIR National music competition in both classical and semi classical music. He won the gold medal at the National University Youth Festival held at Nagpur [1993] and Gulbarga [1995]. For three consecutive years he won the first prize at the M G University Youth Festival. He won the Chembai Award instituted by the Govt. of Kerala.
‘Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer, Mussiri Subramania Iyer, Alattur brothers, Palkkad KVN, M D Ramanathan Lalgudi Jayaraman, Mavellikkara Prabhakara Varma, Neyyattinkara Vasudevan and Dr K Omanakutti are a few of my favorite musicians. As an effort to popularize the lesser known compositions of Neelakanta Sivan, Papanasam Sivan, Gopalakrishan Bharathi, Thulasivanam and Lekshmana Pillai I make it a point to include a small piece during performance. I had the opportunity to perform at Thiruvayaru during Thyagaraja festival” he said.
Sajeev’s grand father and his brother-Sreedharan Nampoothiri and Govindan Nampoothiri- were popular kathakali artistes. Love for Kathakali is in his blood. Kalamandalam Haridas trained Sajeev in Kathakali pathangal.
Sajeev expressed his gratitude to R Krishana Swamy and Rajalekshmi for their proper advice and encouragement. ‘It was T S Babu who passed away last week, trained my father and his brother in music. I too am a student of Babu. What I am today is because of the blessings of these well wishers. At Chennai Sajeev has established Neelakanta Cultural Academy in Adayar. There he takes music lessons and conducts concerts. Sajeev has performed at many sabhas during the Chennai music season and also at Bangalore, Bombay and Kerala. He has produced three CDs so far.
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Born to Gowri Antharjanam and Sreekumaran Nampoothiri of Chandramana Illam, Perumbavoor, Sajeev had his basic lessons in music from Lalitha, Irinjalakkuda Vijayalekshmi, and advanced lessons from Varkala C S Jayaram. Narayanan Nampoothiri his paternal uncle also trained in music.
“I owe much to my parents. My father takes me daily to the music class at 6 am. When I was 12, I participated in Poo mottukal a children’s program for Doordarsan. It was well received and later it was telecast by Bombay Doordarshan. That was my debut performance. In the formal arangettam Mahadeva Sarma the popular violin artiste accompanied me. The family once made an unscheduled trip to Puttaparthi in the next year. I sang Thodi raga and Sai Baba was much pleased. He blessed me” said Sajeev.
In 1992, Sajeev passed the audition test conducted by AIR, Calicut. He came first in the AIR National music competition in both classical and semi classical music. He won the gold medal at the National University Youth Festival held at Nagpur [1993] and Gulbarga [1995]. For three consecutive years he won the first prize at the M G University Youth Festival. He won the Chembai Award instituted by the Govt. of Kerala.
‘Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer, Mussiri Subramania Iyer, Alattur brothers, Palkkad KVN, M D Ramanathan Lalgudi Jayaraman, Mavellikkara Prabhakara Varma, Neyyattinkara Vasudevan and Dr K Omanakutti are a few of my favorite musicians. As an effort to popularize the lesser known compositions of Neelakanta Sivan, Papanasam Sivan, Gopalakrishan Bharathi, Thulasivanam and Lekshmana Pillai I make it a point to include a small piece during performance. I had the opportunity to perform at Thiruvayaru during Thyagaraja festival” he said.
Sajeev’s grand father and his brother-Sreedharan Nampoothiri and Govindan Nampoothiri- were popular kathakali artistes. Love for Kathakali is in his blood. Kalamandalam Haridas trained Sajeev in Kathakali pathangal.
Sajeev expressed his gratitude to R Krishana Swamy and Rajalekshmi for their proper advice and encouragement. ‘It was T S Babu who passed away last week, trained my father and his brother in music. I too am a student of Babu. What I am today is because of the blessings of these well wishers. At Chennai Sajeev has established Neelakanta Cultural Academy in Adayar. There he takes music lessons and conducts concerts. Sajeev has performed at many sabhas during the Chennai music season and also at Bangalore, Bombay and Kerala. He has produced three CDs so far.
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