My Story

Before I say anything about my life, I want to write a little about my parents.  My father, Sangeetha Vidwan Sri M.R. Srinivasa Raghavachar, migrated to Bengaluru along with his mother when he was about 5 years of age from a small village named Madihalli near Hassan.  My mother, Smt. Janakamma, migrated with her father to Mysuru from the village of Ketandapatti in Tamilnadu at a very young age as well.  I was the third child out of eight and was born in Mysuru city.   About the time of my delivery, my mother was visiting her eldest sister in Mysuru.  My father received a telegram saying that he had a baby girl.  At that time he was teaching a song on Kamala, another name for Goddess Lakshmi. Immediately, he decided to name me as 'Kamala'.  So that was my naming ceremony. 

My paternal great-grandmother as well as my paternal grandmother were vocalists.  So my father naturally inherited the capability to sing.  He was not only an excellent vocalist in Carnatic music, especially specialized in Bhajans (devotional songs), but he was also a noted narrator of 'Hari Kathas' (Story of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses).   He performed musical concerts and  Sangeetha Upanyasams where he would combine singing along with story-telling in Kannada. With this special abilities of singing songs in more than six Indian languages, he became famous throughout India for his devotional piety and talents. He was invited by Late Sri Zakir Hussain, the erstwhile President of India, to sing and conduct a chamber music concert at Rashtrapathi Bhavan in Delhi.  

Every time my father performed, one of his children would accompany him to support him while singing.  This was a great experience.  I was just about four years old or so when Puttaparthi Sai Baba visited Bengaluru.  My dad carried me to the venue across from our house (Sri Vasavi Dharmashala) to have darshan (sighting) of Baba, when suddenly Baba beckoned my father to the stage.   After prostrating, we sat close to Baba and Baba wanted my father to sing.   To this day, it cannot be explained how Baba knew and recognized my father as a spiritual musician amongst the huge crowd. My father sang Endaro Mahanubhavulu, one of Saint Tyagaraja’s Pancharatna krutis in my music collection.  That incident is still very fresh in my mind.  I am very proud and pleased to share that my father (my Guru) hailed from Saint Tyagaraja among two shishya paramparas or student lineages.  I came to know of these lineages only when I took music classes from Vidwan Mattur R. Shankara Murthy in Malleswaram, Bengaluru in the 1980's. This also shows the humility of my father who would never praise himself even among his own family members.

                                                

Often times throughout my schooling, I was asked to sing prayer songs during auspicious occasions.  In class, I would sing the poems instead of reciting them.  This was all due to being raised in a household with a strong 'Carnatic Musical environment'. Music classes were conducted by our father on a daily basis and all of us children would also be a part of it. Hence I learnt music out of 'osmosis' as well as being a part of the music classes. I have studied light classical vocal music under Mrs. Rathnamala Prakash (Bangalore) and classical Carnatic music under Mrs. Leela Sampathkumar Acharya (Mysore).

I am extremely happy to say that I was blessed to perform along with my elder sister Dr. Vasundhara Iyengar on several platforms.  Both of us started offering concerts around Bengaluru until we both migrated to the USA. We performed together at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London, UK as well as in several other places in India and USA. In the recent years I was fortunate enough to locate and create a CD of 23 compositions done by my beloved father. I am proud to follow his footsteps by starting to compose and sing music on Mother Earth, as well as on a few health related issues. Please stay tuned to My Music Collection as I upload these new compositions of mine. I would appreciate your feedback!

Presently I am teaching Carnatic vocal music to my grandchildren as well as few others on Zoom, and it has been an exhilarating experience to see the young generations blossoming right in front of us! I hope to share my art with more of you. Thank you for supporting the non-profit organization I volunteer for, and please enjoy my music!