Dr. Harini Srivatsa belongs to the illustrious Parur family of musicians and was born on 20th October. Great Granddaughter of Prof. Parur A. Sundaram Aiyyar, the Wizard and Guru, who created the Parur Baani.
She is the daughter and student of Prof. Dr. M.A.Bhageerathi, retired Head of the Department Dept. of Music Queen Mary’s College and Dr. N. Kanaka Sabesan Director, Swami Dayananda College of Arts and Science, Manjakkudi. She has a sister Hemamalini, who is an Engineer presently residing in the USA.
She is married to K. Srivatsa Chakravarthy, International Table Tennis Player/Trainer/Analyst for India, who also belongs to the Nallan Lineage of Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari.
She is a gold medallist in her B.A, M.A, and MPhil. She has completed the NET and SET exams. She is a doctorate in music (PhD) and the topic was, The Life and Contribution of Prof. Parur A. Sundaram Aiyyar. She has done her BEC Business English Certificate (Preliminary, Vantage and Higher). She was ranked in the top 100 in Vantage Exam and top 10 in India in Higher. She has completed 3 Levels of German Language (A1, A2, B1). She is a Graded artist in the AIR.
She is currently a full-time musician (Vocalist and Violinist) who has been performing for over twenty years and Musicologist. She is also the fourth generation to take up Academic teaching in the family. She was selected for the Post of Assistant Professor in The Central University of Tamil Nadu which she couldn’t take up due to personal reasons.
During her college days she has sung recordings for the Republic Day Parade Rally (songs that are played in the Beach Road, during the ceremony) for 4 consecutive years. She has sung in the august presence of Dr. J.Jayalalithaa who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. She has written several articles in the name Harini Nagarajan for sangeetham.com a popular music website run by Sri. V. Sriram and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyam. She has also written articles for Sruti and worked part time for Kuchetribuzz during the December season.
She has set to tune the poem of Late Dr. AP.J.Abdul Kalam and has been appreciated by him for the same. Dr.APJ came to Chennai to meet her and her family.
The Program “Paatum Porulum” where she sings and her mother Dr. Bhageerathi explains the songs, Pann and Tala is aired in Makkal Tv and has crossed 150 episodes. Presently, she is rending Saundaryalahari which she has set to tune and posts it regularly on You Tube and Facebook.
She has conducted several seminars and given lectures to students from both India (Swami Dayanada College of Arts and Sciences) and abroad (IOWA State University). She is an empanelled academic counsellor in IGNOU. She runs a Music school by the name Saimadura School of Music whereby she trains students in India and abroad. The Students perform as Vocalists as well as violinist in Several Venues. There is usually one Annual concert that happens under the School’s banner. She tutors several students to take up their Bachelors (BA) and Masters (MA) Degree in Music.
In December 2018, she performed a Lecture Demonstration in the MUSIC ACADEMY, Madras as a part of the Annual Music Conference.
She has attended several international and national Seminars and has over 25 Paper publications to her credit. She is in the Editorial Board of a Music Magazine “Aporva Ragam”.
She received the Lalgudi G. Jayaraman Award -2014 for best violinist from the Krishna Ghana Sabha T.Nagar, Chennai. She received the Simhanandana Award for upcoming Musician. She received the Nadha Kala Vipanchee award from the Vipanchee trust headed by Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna. She had the privilege of receiving the award from Balamurali Sir himself.
She has played in the Spirit of youth festival as a 14 year old. She was a NCC Cadet who represented Tamil Nadu in the Republic Day Parade as a Best Cadet, Vocalist, Violinist and the Contingent had won the First Place that Year. She was a profound athlete when in school.
She was working as a faculty in Queen Mary’s College in 2017-2018 and has worked as a faculty of Violin in the Music and Fine Arts University for a year. Apart from that she is imparting her musical knowledge in Violin, Vocal and Musicology to students for over a decade.
Gurus: She has learnt music from gurus like late Smt. Vidhya Shankar and Dr. V.V.Srivatsa and is now learning from Dr. M.A.Bhageerathi, Smt. Kalpakam Raman (student of Sri TK Govinda Rao) and Smt. Lakshmi Krishnaswamy (student of T.N. Seshagopalan).
She has learnt violin from Sri M.S.Anantharaman and Late Sri Parur R. Venkatraman. She is now pursuing advance training from her maternal uncles Kalaimamani Parur Sri M.A. Sundareswaran and Sri M.A. Krishnaswamy.
| You tube | Youtuve Harinisrivatsa |