Karaikudi Mani
| Karaikudi R Mani | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born |
11 September 1945 Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Genres | Carnatic music |
| Instruments | Mridangam |
| Labels | HMV, Amrutham, Gita, AAO, Charsur |
| Website | karaikudirmani |
Karaikudi Mani (born as Ganapathy Subramanyam on 11 September 1945 in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian percussionist, primarily adept in the mridangam. He is regarded by the vast majority of Carnatic connoisseurs and aficionados as one of the greatest mridangam players ever.
Karaikudi Mani was born on 11 September 1945 at Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. He is the son of T. Ramanatha Iyer and Pattammal. He became involved with Carnatic music at the age of three and soon abandoned his vocal training in favour of learning the mridangam.
Mani began performing regularly at a time when another player of the mridangam, his idol Palghat Mani Iyer, was in his prime. He took further lessons – under the tutelage of Haihara Sharma, after moving to Chennai – and received his first national award at the age of 18 from the then President of India, Radhakrishnan. For the next four decades, he declined scores of prestigious awards that were offered to him, until 1999 when he accepted the national award from "Sangeeth Natak Academy". This was presented by the President of India at the time, K. R. Narayanan.
In 1986, he started an ensemble, called Sruthi Laya, that combined melody and percussion. Three years later, he founded the Sruthi Laya Seva School that now has centres at Chennai, Bangalore, Australia, London, US, and Canada.
He conducted and orchestrated several such concerts, notably a collaboration with Sri VS Narasimhan in 1990 presented Melodyssey, a project with 40 artistes, including Western and Indian Instruments. This won widespread appreciation and was released on tape.
His next endeavour, the concept of "Thani Avarthanam" concerts. Whilst Thala Vadya (Percussion ensemble) concerts in Carnatic music were not unheard of, the concept of just two percussion instruments performing solos without any other "sruthi" performers (e.g. vocal, violin) had never been attempted. In 1993, Karaikudi Mani presented his first Thani Avarthanam concert along with the late Kanjira wizard G Harishankar. This spellbinding performance is regarded a landmark moment in the classical percussion field. It has revolutionised the role of the mridangam, proving that as an art form, South Indian percussion instruments can be played as solo instruments in their own right. A concept initiated by Mani has since been undertaken by several leading mridangists who have also performed Thani Avarthanam concerts. Since then, Mani has conducted several "Thani Avarthanam" duet concerts featuring leading percussionists on Ghatam, Thavil, Chendai, etc.
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