Sangeetha Sivakumar

Sangeetha Sivakumar is the wife of Sri TM Krishna and a well-known performer in the Carnatic music genre. At the tender age of eight, child prodigy Akkarai S. Subhalakshmi began performing solo violin and voice programs. She received her initial two years of training at the late guru V. Janakiraman's Nadha Brahma Vidyalaya in New Delhi. She was taught at the Akkarai S. Swamynathan-run Swara Raga Sudha Violin School. She is a renowned voice in addition to being a skilled musician. Padma Bhushan P.S. Narayanaswamy and Chithra Veena N. Ravikiran were teaching her vocal music. She was an All India Radio, Chennai, direct B-High grade artist. Eminent musicians include Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, Dr. N. Ramani, Chitra Veena N. Ravikiran, Sriram Gangadharan, N. VijaySiva, Shashank, Bombay Sisters, Nithya Shree Mahadevan, Bombay Jayashree, Priya Sisters, Ranjani, Gayatri, and others received her violin accompaniment.

Additionally, she performed classical violin concerts across the nation and internationally. During her 1996 tour to Russia, she participated in the Indo-Russian Cultural Exchange Program and performed brilliantly in a violin recital. She has also been to countries like Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Belarus, the UK, and the USA to perform violin solos and accompany musicians. She traveled to the United States with Ms. Kirnavali and Chitraveena Ravikiran for a concert and accompanied the flutist Shashank for a performance in Switzerland. Along with her younger sister Kum. Akkarai S. Swarnalatha, performed vocal and violin duets under the name Akkarai Sisters. Musicians, reviewers, and rasikas all laud her for her knowledge of the technical elements of Carnatic music and her beautiful, resonant voice. She defends the G. N. Balasubramaniam ban.

Her songs are renowned for their crispness, thought clarity, and presentation. She possesses a beautiful aptitude for extraordinary creativity within the confines of convention and classicism. When she was nine, Sri K.P. Vasu of Calicut taught her how to play the piano. Later, she studied under renowned soprano Smt. Charumathi Ramachandran. She often performs in a variety of sabhas around India. She has made musical tours of Australia, the US, Canada, and Singapore. She has received numerous honors from numerous organizations. She is renowned for her enthusiasm when dealing with children and introducing them to the arts. She has numerous students in India and abroad and is a highly sought-after teacher. Together with her husband, Sri T.M. Krishna, they are working on a project called "Kalaachaara Marumalarchi," a trust they established to restore classical art forms to Tamil Nadu's temples.

The purpose of this project is to regularly present classical music, dancing, and other cultural activities during the yearly temple festivals in Tamil Nadu's smaller towns and villages. This ambitious project has so far received a fantastic response and has been an enormous success. Senior Carnatic musician Sangeetha Sivakumar has performed in concerts worldwide for over thirty years. Her songs are renowned for their crispness, thought clarity, and presentation. Since about ten years ago, Sangeetha has viewed her work as a vocalist and an educator as only outward expressions of her fundamental conviction that Carnatic music belongs to society. She imparts art with the heart of a dreamer, a scholar's mind, and an activist's passion, whether she is performing on a proscenium stage or speaking to young people in classrooms.

She routinely performs for numerous domestically and internationally organizations, as well as at the famed December music festival held in Chennai each year. Sangeetha Sivakumar views her activities as a performer and an instructor as outward expressions of her fundamental conviction that Carnatic music belongs to society. Her work has been varied for the past two decades and more, spanning from educational initiatives at various public schools in South India to music workshops in France and dealing with disadvantaged children in Chicago, USA, and inner-city schools.

She has been actively involved with a festival in Chennai called The Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha for the past few years as a response to the vitiated socioeconomic conditions and the segregation of audiences into caste- and class-based ghettos. The Vizha is an initiative to free the three and use the arts to ease societal tensions and build bridges between many communities, ethnicities, and genres. Sangeetha shares the art with the heart of a dreamer, a scholar's mind, and an activist's spirit, whether she is performing on a proscenium stage or speaking to young people in classrooms.