My inspirations in Music

With the Almighty's grace, I have been blessed with an ear for appreciating good music.

Light Music:
As a child, my first inspiration in music (and continues to be till date), was India's Nightingale, Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, whose name is synonymous with Indian Film Music. This due to the fact that our entire family would enjoy listening to her songs on Vividh Bharati in the morning and night. Such was the magical power in her voice as she could inspire millions around India to tune into these channels avidly on a daily basis.

I have also been inspired by musical Greats such as Kishore Kumar for his versitality of rendition, Mohamed Rafi and recently Sonu Nigam ( following his footsteps) for their beautiful mood and voice modulation for each respective song.

Amongst composers, I have admired all the old time greats....too many to name each having their own style. Recently Oscar winner A.R. Rahman has been a great inspiration for me - with his expert ability to integrate the beauty of Western & Indian Classical music and World music genres into the popular Indian film music mode. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have contributed with their amazing compositions on the same lines.


Indian Classical Music:
Carnatic Classical Music:
Being a student of Indian Classical Carnatic music, my obvious interest to listen to classical concert performances increased over a period of time. It was then in 1997 that my father bought me a cassette recording of Padmashri Smt. Sudha Ragunathan's Music Academy performance. She was gaining popularity on the World Carnatic Classical platform swiftly. I was impressed with her Voice quality, Rendition Style and Speed of Ragam Alapana delivery and became an ardent fan of hers ( continue to be her fan till date). She has been my first great inspiration in Carnatic music because she added a new dimension to my hearing capabilities and sense of understanding and appreciating Carnatic Music.

There are many other artistes (vocal / instrumental) whose music I love to listen to in the Carnatic Music field... the list is too big to quote the same in this space.

Hindustani Classical Music:
In Hindustani Music, I have been inspired by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Zakkir Hussein and his father, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and many more....


That is a brief on my history of inspiration to pursuing Music at a higher level.