Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (2 March 1935 – 8 September 2008) was an Indian classical music violinist and music composer.
Early life
Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan was born on 2 March 1935 and was trained by his father, Ramaswamy Sastry. His father, sang and played a variety of instruments such as Flute, Jalatharangam and Veena. He was the brother of Kunnakudi Subbalakshmi.
He stopped accompanying vocal artistes in 1976 to concentrate more on solo concerts. He was famous for his unique string control techniques on the violin. His interest in new attempts and innovations led him to work with veteran thavil vidwan Valaiyapatti A.R.Subramaniyam. They performed over 3,000 shows together. Vaidyanathan had deep faith in the therapeutic merits of music.
Film music
He also made a significant contribution to Tamil devotional music. A. P. Nagarajan giving him his first break in the movie Vaa Raja Vaa. He had several hits such as Agathiyar in which Sirkazhi Govindarajan Acted as Agathiyar. And Raja Raja Chozhan(Rajaraja Cholan), for which he scored music, were also phenomenal hits..
Death
He died of a heart attack on September 8, 2008 at the age of 73 at Porur Ramachandra Hospital, Chennai. He was survived by his wife, four sons and one daughter. His son Shekhar is a Cellist.
References
External links
- Interview with Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan