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N. S. Kamakshi is a promising Carnatic musician among the current generation of young artists. Hailing from Nerkunam village in Thiruvannamalai District, she was born in 1980 to Sri K. Suriyanarayanan and Smt. S. Vasantha.
Kamakshi is a disciple of Sangita Kala Acharya Smt. Suguna Varadachary (from 2000 to present), a renowned torchbearer of the Musiri tradition. She also learned from the legendary Sethalapathy S. R. Balasubramanian (Balu Mama) from 1999 to 2002, a disciple of Tamil Thyagayyar Papanasam Sivan.
Initially, Kamakshi trained in vocal and violin under Sri G. V. R. Murthy and Sri L. Saravanan. Later, she came under the tutelage of Sangita Kala Acharya Prof. Parur M. S. Anantharaman for violin from 1999 to 2013.
With over 24 years of experience in Carnatic music, Kamakshi has established herself as a skilled performer and teacher. She is a B High Grade Artist of All India Radio, Chennai (considered highly valuable) and holds a Master’s degree in Indian Music.
Born into a family of musicians, Kamakshi’s siblings are Nerkunam Dr. S. Sankar, a highly sought-after kanjira vidwan, and Nerkunam S. Manikandan, a skilled morsing vidwan.
Grade in Classical vocal from Prasar Bharati (All India Radio) in Chennai.
She was selected under the young encouragement scheme by the Tamilnadu Eyal Isai Nataka Mandram for her excellent concert presentations in 2001.
She received a scholarship for a 2-year period from February 2003 for advanced violin training. She obtained a First Class in MA Indian Music from the University of Madras in April 2004 with the additional award title of “Kalaiyiyal Niraignar” (Consummate artiste).
Kamakshi has given performed on Doordarshan Pothigai in Tamilnadu and also has sung in a Tamil movie “Asurakulam”.
Kamakshi has taken the initiative to learn as many compositions including rare kritis in languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. She has memorised over 700 kritis for her repertoire and continues to increase her knowledge bank.
Kamakshi organised two seasons of “Dinam Oru Tamil Paadal” (A Tamil Song Everyday) in 2021 and 2022 premiering on her YouTube channel “Nerkunam Music Family” for which she learnt rare kritis in Tamil in various raagams. The first season was 45 day and the second season was 28. This venture was sponsored by Kamakshi herself where she had different teams of artistes on the violin, mridangam and morsing. The tamil kritis were preluded by appropriate virutthams and pasurams from various tamil literary texts on Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Skandam. Learning kritis alongside these literary texts not just memorising but understanding the deeper meaning of these texts is a real test of patience. Additionally, setting these literary passages to music using the appropriate notes and scales is a daunting task which Kamakshi has successfully overcome.
Kamakshi also premiered a series on “Then Amudha Thiruppugazh” (thiruppugazh as sweet as nectar) where she sung 15 of Saint runagirinathar’s thiruppugazh which are rhythm-based poetry, hence to master these needs expertise on rhythm and melody. Some of these outpourings have never been heard before.
Gaanalayam is the website of the multi talented music family of Nerkunam Dr. S. Sankar. This website will provide details of their upcoming concerts, learning and practise sessions, their class schedules, their recordings and much more…
