A TECHIE who also makes MUSIC! Season-5, episode 8 of “ZENPod”, featuring Shri HK Venkatram – “HKV”, a Violin Vidwan, a “Ganakala Shree”, “Gaanavaradhi”, “Satyashree” and recipient of “Parur Sundaram Iyer Award for Senior Violinist“. HKV is also an ‘Asthana Vidwan’ of Sri Kanchi Kamokoti Peetam, Kanchipuram. A Techie, Social Evangelist, HKV has also published a book ‘TyagarajaVachanamrita‘ with text, transliteration, and translation of popular Saint Tyagaraja’s compositions. He works as a Senior Director at Intel for the R&D group. “Spirituality is about deeper involvement in whatever we do, Carnatic music gives us enough room for this. The framework of creative music within Carnatic music itself gives us the space to get very deeply involved and for me, this is spiritual” says Shri HKV, in his conversation with Venki Mahadevan. https://www.hkvenkatram.com/ • HK Venkatram (HKV) is one of the most accomplished and sought-after violinists in the Carnatic Music field. Born into a musical family, Venkatram received his musical training from his illustrious father and Guru Sangita Kalaratna Professor H.V. Krishnamurthy. Venkatram started learning violin at the age of eight and gave his first public performance in Bangalore along with his brother HK Raghavendra at the age of 11. • HKV is an ‘A’ Grade artist on All India Radio. He has traveled extensively and has given solo and accompaniment performances at prestigious sabhas (including Music Academy, Krishna Ganasabha, Bangalore Gayana Samaja, and others) in the country and abroad for close to four decades and has received raving reviews. He has given several performances abroad (USA, Canada, HK, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and United Kingdom). • He has accompanied many top-ranking musicians, including Sriyuths Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, DK Pattammal, Dr. ML Vasanthakumari, KV Narayanaswamy Dr. M Balamuralikrishna, Dr. RK Srikanthan, Nendanuri Krishnamurthy, Dr. N Ramani, TN Seshagopalan, TV Sankaranarayanan, Chitravina Ravikiran, Mandolin U. Srinivas, TM Krishna, Sanjay Subrahmanyam , and others. • HKV is also the Principal of Vijaya College of Music a premier music institution established by his father in 1953 and has been training several disciples. The music college has worked on the ‘Social Responsibility initiative (Prathyarpana Foundation) and has been actively supporting various NGOs and needy individuals and organizations. • In 1999, HKV released a multimedia CD on Tyagaraja’s Ghana Raga Pancharatnam during the Tyagaraja Festival held in Cleveland, USA. The CD was released in Bangalore too. The CD featured a multimedia presentation on Life and Times of Saint Tyagaraja as well as audio tracks of Panchratnam songs with music notation and translation. • HKV has effectively utilized the modern form of communication to take Carnatic Music to the masses. He has presented comprehensive multimedia presentations on the Life and Works of Muthuswamy Dikshithar and also documentaries on several doyens of Carnatic music like Sri Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer, Veena Sheshanna..etc • HKV has also started the ‘Shabda’ initiative together with TM Krishna and RK Shriramkumar, Shabda (www.shabda.co.in) is a project aimed at creating an online archive of the various aspects pertaining to the Indian Performing Arts. “ZENPod” is a Podcast series that features trailblazers from different walks of life, with the purpose to build an empowered eco-system where learnings and experiences from these enlightened professionals, will be available within “arms reach of desire” for those who aspire to scale higher and wish to contribute, in their life’s pursuit.
