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DURAI SWAMINATHAN OBITUARY

    
We regret to inform the sudden demise of young and well-known violinist Durai Swaminathan in the wee hours of Monday, 10th December 2001, at the Chennai Kaliappa Hospital following an unfortunate accident a couple of days back. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

It is even more unfortunate that his death has taken place on the very day he was to receive the first 'Nada Oli' award from Naada Inbam, along with a few other artistes. When told that Carnatica was interviewing all the awardees of this year, Swaminathan voluntarily gave the new telephone numbers of Ghatam Karthick, S Varadarajan and Tanjavur Murugabhoopati, the other awardees of Naada Inbam. That the entire music fraternity was seen at the residence of Durai Swaminathan to express their shock and grief only shows what a popular person he was. S V Krishnan of Naada Inbam has now indefinitely postponed the awards function. 

Durai Swaminathan was a busy accompanist and also used to duet with his brother Durai Balasubramanyam under the name of Chidambaram brothers. He travelled extensively with Haridas Giri's Bhajan group.

The Carnatica team is especially saddened by Swaminathan's death as only a few days ago, we had congratulated and interviewed him on his being selected for the Nada Oli award. We reproduce below the transcript of his interview.

         
Guru(s) My father T S Duraiswami, a disciple of Chittoor Subramanyam Pillai and a lecturer at the Annamalai University, Chidambaram is my guru.
   
Favorite Vocalist(s) from the past: I am not so great as to comment about great stalwarts. They have all been great in their own ways. Anyway I am very fond of Alathur Brothers, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Madurai Somu, GNB and MLV. I am particularly crazy about GNB's music.
    
Favorite Instrumentalist(s) from the past: Rajamanickam Pillai, Mayavaram Govindaraja Pillai, Tiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer, Rajaratnam Pillai, Kottur N Rajarathnam and Natarajasundaram Pillai (Nagaswaram). The last was very good at laya.
    
Favorite Vocalist(s) of the present day: It is very difficult to answer this question. I respect every musician; some are experts in swaraprastara, some in Pallavi and others in other aspects. Personally, I like Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, T N Seshagopalan, T V Sankaranarayanan, Sudha Raghunathan, O S Tyagarajan, Unnikrishnan and Sanjay Subramanyam.
    
Favorite Instrumentalist(s) of the present day: Among instrumentalists, each vidwan excels in individual bani-s. Only because they are good in some aspect or the other have they become famous. My favorite instrumentalists are N Ramani, Kadri Gopalnath, Lalgudi Jayaraman, MSG, V V Subramanyam and U Srinivas.
     
Favorite Composer(s): In my opinion any composer comes only after Tyagaraja. I like compositions of the Trinity in general. Papanasam Sivan is my favorite among Tamil composers.
    
Favorite Raga(s): It is variable. A lot depends on my mood and how a raga is sung.
    
Favorite Venue(s): The venue does not matter to me.
    
Favorite Hobbies: Reading, especially fiction, watching sports on TV.
    
Additionally Durai Swaminathan said, "I have toured widely along with Haridas Giri, and this has changed my life itself. Tanjavur Upendran and Karaikudi Mani have played a very great role in my development. Narada Gana Sabha has also helped me in many ways."
   

Posted on December 11, 2001

   

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