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Upalappu Srinivas

U. SRINIVAS

Upalappu Srinivas also known as Mandolin U. Srinivas

( U. Shrinivas; born February 28, 1969 in Palakol, in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh) is a musician in the Carnatic musical tradition of southern India.

He came to prominence not only for his playing but for his choice of instrument: an electric mandolin.

His brother U. Rajesh is also an accomplished mandolin player.

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MANDOLIN HISTORY:

Mandolins evolved from the lute family ( Plucked string instrument ) in Italy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the deep bowled mandolin produced particularly in Naples became a common type in the nineteenth century.

ARTIST IN THE MAKING

At the age of six U. Srinivas picked up his father Satyanarayana's mandolin.

Upon realising the talent of his son, his father started teaching him whatever Carnatic music he knew.

Soon, Satyanarayana's guru, Rudraraju Subbaraju, realized the potential of U. Srinivas and started teaching him.

Since Rudraraju Subbaraju did not know how to play the mandolin he would only sing and U. Srinivas would play it on the mandolin.

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HIS FIRST:

U. Srinivas made his first public Carnatic concert performance in 1978 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh during the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival.

Soon, he came to perform in the Madras Music Season in 1981 for the Indian Fine Arts Society. In 1983, he performed at the JazzFest Berlin where the audience requested him to do a repeat performance.

He continued touring the world — Australia, Southeast Asia and then Southwest Asia, followed by the United States and Canada.

He has recorded a CD of Carnatic compositions by Ilaiyaraaja called Ilaiyaraaja's Classics in Mandolin.

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AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The dreams of U.Shrinivas have paved the way for the setting up of a unique organization - "Shrinivas Institute of World Musique" (SIOWM). The formal inauguration of SIOWM will take place around mid 1999.

U. Srinivas runs a music school called the Shrinivas Institute of World Music'. The link to the official SIOWM blog is: http://siowm.blogspot.com/

Some of the awards that Mandolin U. Srinivas has received:

Padma Shree on April 12, 1998 by The President of India

Sangeeta Ratna

Sangeetha Bala Bhaskara by Sangeetha Kalanidhi M.S. Subbulakshmi

National Citizen's Award, 1991 by The President of India

Special TTK Award and Best Artist Award by the Madras Music Academy in 1983 and 1993 respectively

Rajiv Gandhi National Integration Award

http://www.mandolinshrinivas.org

1. How did the orthodox school of carnatic music react to your initiative?

When I started playing the instrument everyone discouraged me saying that I had made a wrong choice, and that this instrument had no scope and so I should have opted for something else like the veena. Subsequent to my first public concert at the age of 9, when I received such harsh criticism, I was naturally demoralised. But then I had faith in God and I went on practicing without paying heed to what the critics said. And today everyone asks me How do you manage to play the instrument so well!

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