Umayalapuram K. Sivaraman (b. 1935)

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Sivaraman was born in the cultural village of Umalayapuram on the 17th of December,1935. He is the son of Dr P. Kasiviswanatha Iyer, himself an accomplished musician and Smt Kamalambal. His father had an insight and intuition and nurtured the inborn talents of his son and got him rightly initiated into mrudangam through the gurukula discipline under scholarly practitioners.

Umayalapuram Sivaraman learnt this divine art under five great and illustrious masters: Sri Arupathi Natesa Iyer, Sri Thanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer, Sri Palghat Mani Iyer, Sri. Kumbakonam Rajappa Iyer, and Sri Kumbakonam Rangu Iyengar.

As a boy of ten, Sivaraman had his ‘arangetram’ (first concert) and the debut was held in the precincts of Kalahastheeswaraswami temple in the temple town of Kumbakonam.

He calls his velvet-clad mridangam proudly as the "king of percussion and the queen of melody".

He has accompanied all the major singers, from Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer to Maharaja- puram Santhanam. Even with his classical leaning, he has evolved many new rhythms in order to "connect" his music to other schools and make it relevant to modern times.

His new techniques, innovations and creative ability in accompaniment, solo renditions, and jugalbandhi programmes with his North Indian counterparts have earned him a special place in the world of art.

Besides his professional career, he had undertaken the very laudable task of doing original research in the art of mridangam. He has introduced the fibre glass mrudangam to Carnatic music for the first time.

Discography

In alphabetical order of the title

Title	Nature	Music / recording	Contents	Label	Other Artists	Year
Garland of Rhythm	Carnatic Percussion Ensemble		Atana, Veera Rasa; Sahana, Karuna Rasa; Durbar, Veera Rasa; Bilahari, Hasya Rasa	OMI Music Inc	Alleppey P Venkatesan, Vocal; T S Narayanarao, Violin
Percussion Of India	Carnatic Percussion Ensemble		Taala Misra Chapu, Khanda Chapu, Adi. Laya Lavaniya Percussion Ensemble	World Music Library/King Records	Subhash Nirwan,Tabla; U K Sivaraman, Mridangam; V Nagarajan, Ganjeera; V Suresh, Ghatam; Fateh Singh, Pakhawaj; With Morsing & Konnakkol
Yal Isai	Carnatic Instrumental		Varnam, Vatapiganapatim, Himagiri Thanaye, Shanmukapriya Raga, Ragamalika, Saravanabhava Yenum, Mridangam Solo, Thillana	Inreco Pyramid	Veena Raghunath Manet