Hailing from an illustrious family of musicians, Lalitha and Nandini have the privilege of being the fourth generation of musicians in their family. To quote the renowned music critic Subbudu “`Music runs in their blood, they must have played music even when they were in their mother’s womb. ” Lalitha and Nandini are the torch bearers of a unique musical tradition but yet have evolved a distinct style of their own.
Their musical genius manifested at the tender age of three and has blossomed into a top notch violinist of Today. With a career extending over two decades LALITHA and NANDINI are regarded as highly imaginative virtuoso Violinists with immaculate bowing along with dexterous fingering techniques. They have been endowed with a sweet and rich tone, which along with their innate artistry and technical brilliance makes their music unique. There is a rare spirituality about their music which soaked in bhakti bhava has endowed their music with a transcendental quality. Their rare musical insight combined with their innate artistry, technical brilliance and original creativity, has enraptured their critics and connoisseurs alike. The music that cascades from the Duo’s Violin’s is known to be sublime, brilliant, traditional and celestial. Though much sought after violinists of today, their firm adherence to tradition or sampradaya suddham and patantara suddham adds credit to their style of performance. With their irresistible urge for perfection they have revolutionized the violin playing technique to great heights.
Their music is envisioned by the sisters as an offering to the divine, which in their musical vogage is a sole endeavor to alleviate the soul which results in an rare aesthetic and emotional musical quality. They enrapture their audience with imaginative improvisations and intricate rhythmic patterns fused with melodic sweetness. Couched in deep classicism, melody, creativity they have set a new standard for violinists. They have specialized in playing varnam-s in different grades of tempo and in playing Kalpana Svara-s in many grades of speed, which is a prominent and unique feature of their style of Violin playing.
As Cultural ambassadors of India’s rich musical heritage, Lalitha and Nandini have traversed the four corners of the globe – spreading the message of global harmony through music. They have performed extensively in Major Music Festivals in India and in other countries including USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Australia, Nepal, United Kingdom, Middle East, South Africa, Mauritius, New Zealand, Europe, Srilanka, Abhudhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Sharjah. They are empanelled artistes of the ICCR.
Artistic Collaborations
The talented Violin duo sisters apart from performing Violin duets have also collaborated with musicians representing different genres of music including their Uncles and Guru Legendary Violinists Sri. L. Vaidyanathan, Dr. L. Subramaniam and Dr. L. Shenkar – Double violin, Mike Albert of Megadeth fame – USA, Ustad Shahid Parvez, George Brooks -USA, Miguel Chachowski – Spain, Carl Rathus – Australia, Fazal Qureshi, Pirpauke – Finnish band, Homayoun Sakhi – Rebab (Afganistan), Abbos Kosimov – Doyra (Uzbhekistan), Ricardo Averbach – Conductor Miami State Orchestra, USA, Sameer Chaterji, Boschbela String Orchestra-SA, Tiruvalaputhur T. A. Kaliyamurthy, Tirupungur Muthukumarasawamy, Grammy nominee Ronu Majumdar, Tarun Bhattacharya, Mannargudi Vasudevan, Abhijeeth Banerjee, Purbhayan Chaterjee, Quatre Bonne String Orchestra – Mauritius, Jazz Musician Reisa -SA, Ricardo Misto – Italy, Scott Conklin -USA, Tenor Boys – SA, Grammy award winning Violinist from the film Titanic Paul Peabody – USA, Greg Diamond – USA, Johann Berby – Reunion Islands, André Sousa Machado – Portugal, Mor Khabasi – Isreal, Kai Eckhardt – USA, Riccardo Battaglia – Italy, Rainer Pusch – Germany, Grammy nominee Shujaat Khan, Tanmoy Bose – Tabla, Pedro Carneiro Silva – Brazil, Karina Colis – USA, Ester Rojas – Columbia, Persian Ensemble GOHAR to name a few.
LALITHA and NANDINI are highly proficient in Western Classical Music and World Music, ethnomusicology and Trans Global fusion music. They have specialized in the different traditions of world music like the Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian music (Gamelan), African music and drumming, Middle Eastern including the Turkish, Iranian, Persian, Egyptian, Jazz, Latin American, Brazilian, Spanish, Blues, Folk traditions to name a few.
WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC
LALITHA and NANDINI have also learnt Western Classical Music and have passed the final grade (8th grade) examinations conducted by the Trinity college of Music, London in Western Classical Music in Violin. They have also learnt the Theory of Western Classical Music. They are acclaimed as the `ONLY FEMALE VIOLIN DUO’ in INDIA to know both the systems of music – the Western Classical and the South Indian Classical Music.
SOUTH INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC (VOCAL)
LALITHA and NANDINI were initially trained in vocal under their grand father Shri. V. Lakshminarayana and now they are under the tutelage of their mother Mrs. Subhalakshmi Muthuswamy in South Indian Classical Vocal Music. They have also undergone advanced vocal training from the doyen of carnatic music `Padma Vibhushan’ Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. They are undergoing specialized training in the compositions of Muthuswamy Diksitar from Mrs. Ramani.
COMPOSITION WRITING
Dr. M. LALITHA and M. NANDINI have also forayed into the realms of composition writing. Their Trans Global Fusion concerts consist of their compositions, which portray global styles and colours of music which bears ample testimony to their skills. They have done music and experimented with different media including theatres, opera, dance, film, dramas, short film, dance drama, orchestra, tele film, and dance dramas.
TRANS GLOBAL FUSION CONCERTS
Dr. M. LALITHA and M. NANDINI have been widely acclaimed as outstanding `VIOLIN VIRTUOSO’S and QUEEN’S OF FUSION MUSIC’. They have presenting a lot of Trans Global fusion concerts in India and in abroad, which has been receiving rave reviews. Lalitha and Nandini presented a special Trans Global fusion where Lalitha and Nandini composed and arranged the music. This has been released as an album `LALITHA, NANDINI’S REVELATION’ through the Dreams Audio and is in the `Top 10’ Rating in India.
CHARITY CONCERTS
Lalitha and Nandini performed a charity concert with a Finnish band `Pirpauke’ in Bangalore for the victims of Tsunami. To raise funds for the victims of Tsunami Lalitha and Nandini performed a charity concert and presented their trans global fusion in Chennai. Lalitha and Nandini performed a fund raising concert for a temple building in London. Lalitha and Nandini performed for the charity concert to raise funds for a patient in Georgia in Hildesheim.
AS COMPOSERS
Dr. M. LALITHA and M. NANDINI have also forayed into the realms of composition. They are acclaimed as the `ONLY FEMALE COMPOSERS IN ASIA IN FUSION’. Their Trans Global Fusion concerts consist of their compositions, which portray global styles and colours of music.
Lalitha and Nandini have scored music for French and Norwegian Theatre productions. They have also composed music exclusively for Dance Ballets.
MUSIC DIRECTORS
The versatile Violin sisters are also Music Directors having done the Music Direction for `KAAICHA MARAM’ a short film directed by the famous Actress cum Director Mrs. Suhasini Maniratnam produced by the famous Madras Talkies. The sisters have scored the music for another documentary film based on a true life story. The sisters scored the background music for the documentary on Mrs. Y. G. Parthasarathy as part of her 80th birthday celebrations.
LALITHA and NANDINI have performed in several Radio and TV networks and have been featured by many recording companies like AVM Audio, HMV, Music Today, Pan Music, RPG, Sony, Kosmic, Dreams Audio, EL. V. Audio, Gitaa, Prashanti Nilayam (live), Raj Video Vision, Sangeetha, Santhananda Sounscapes, Saragam to name a few.
LALITHA has been awarded the degree of DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY (Ph. D) in Indian Music, from the University of Madras for her thesis `A Comparative Study of the Violin Techniques in Western and South Indian Classical Music’ while NANDINI holds Triple Master’s Degree – one in Information Science from the University of Madras – one in Indian Music from the Mother Teresa’s Women’s University, Kodaikanal and one in ETHNOMUSICOLOGY from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of LONDON.
Both of them have published books and written numerous articles relating to Music and religion.
A multi talented duo, well versed in foreign languages including French and German their other interests include painting, Tanjore Painting, Fashion designing, social service, writing poems, photography, Yoga, Reiki and meditation.
LALITHA NANDINI 