Oscar nominated singer to make debut at Carnegie Hall.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Famed Carnatic classical singer Bombay Jayashri is gearing up to make a rare concert appearance in the US.
Jayashri will perform on October 20th and 26th in New York City and San Jose, California, respectively. The New York City performance will take place at the prestigious Carnegie Hall, in its Stern Auditorium.
Coming from a family of musicians, it was practically a given that Jayashri would follow in her family’s footsteps. She began learning music at just five years old, when she came under the tutelage of Lalgudi Jayaraman, the legendary violinist. She recalls his passion for music, his atypical hunger to listen to sounds of all languages and cultures, and to imbue his own music with flavors from around the world.
“He told me to watch the way Michael [Jackson] became one with the music and the dance,” she said. “[Jayaraman] pointed out that [Jackson] was doing it with his soul.”
In addition to Carnatic music, Jayashri has also learned Hindustani music, which she studied for seven years. Since 1982 – the year in which she performed her first ever concert – she has sung in venues across the world: England, Switzerland, Finland, France, Germany, Durban, Singapore, as well as India and the US. She has performed playback singing for films in various Indian languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. She is perhaps best known to Bollywood fans for her rendition of the song “Zara Zara Behkta Hai,” from 2001’s Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein.
Last year, she was invited by Hollywood composer Mychael Danna to collaborate with her on what would end up becoming the theme song for the film Life of Pi.
According to Jayashri, she was won over by Danna explaining that he wanted the song to emulate something the lead character, Pi, would imagine his own mother singing to him as he was adrift at sea. Jayashri co-wrote and performed the song; it earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 2013 Oscars. Although she didn’t win the Oscar, losing to Adele for her rendition of the title song from the James Bond film Skyfall, the score as a whole won the Oscar for Best Original Score.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com