Sangeetha Vidwan Smt. Meenakshi Somasundaram comes from an illustrious family of Vainikas. She is the 3rd generation Veena player and disciple of her grandfather Shri Anantha Krishna Iyer and her mother Smt. Saraswathi. Later, she also came under the illustrious mentorship of Veena Vidwan Smt Kalpakam Swaminathan. She is an ‘A Grade Artist’ of All India Radio with extensive experience in teaching and performance for over 50 years. She has performed extensively in India and Singapore and won accolades from music Vidwans like M S Subbalaksmi, D K Jayaraman etc for her pristine renditions that mirror the voice. Her exceptional ability to reproduce the Vocal phrases on the Veena and her emphasis on ‘Sahitya Meetu’ (plucking according to the syllables of the Sahitya) are trademark characteristics of her style.
Smt. Meenakshi’s journey began when she attained Sangeetha Vidwan Title from the Govt of Tamil Nadu with Veena as main and Vocal as subsidiary. She also holds a Diploma in Music Teacher’s Training from the Govt of Tamil Nadu.
Journey as a Guru:
Smt. Meenakshi has extensive teaching experience in India and Singapore for over 50 years including prestigious institutions like Madurai Government Music College, Tamil Isai Sangam - Chennai , Singapore Indian Fine Arts and Shyama Singapore.
She has mentored several students in India, USA and Singapore over the years. Her students have successfully performed arangetrams and play in concerts regularly all over the world. Her students have also won top prizes in all major music competitions in Singapore including the prestigious National Arts Council, and several composer specific competitions like Purandaradasa, Annamacharya, Papanasam Sivan, GNB etc.
In addition, her students also accompany her at concerts at prestigious venues like Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams ,(Tirupathi, India), Muthuswamy Deekshihar Aradhanai, Mantralayam Temple, Thyagaraja Utsavam etc.
Prizes & Awards
● The PRESIDENT’S AWARD in 1969 by All India Radio,
Chennai.
● The VEENA DHANAMMAL PRIZE in 1969 by the Music Academy, Chennai.
● Best concert award by SRI KRISHNA GANA SABHA, Chennai in 1976
● ‘BEST CONCERT’ award by The Music
, Chennai - 1976
● Awarded the Govt of India Scholarship for a period of 3 years from Department of Cultural affairs in 1970
