Vidushi. Smt. Vemuri Vijayalalitha is one of the senior disciples of the doyen of Karnatak music, Padmabhushan, Sangeetha Kalanidhi, Dr. R. K. Srikantan from whom she learnt for nearly two decades. She is a multifaceted, multi-lingual, accomplished karnatak vocal musician, teacher and mentor who has contributed immensely to the NJ community through her service for the last two decades. She is the founder of Krishnaveni school of Karnatak music, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Smt. Vemuri Vijayalalitha, owes her passion for music to her mother and first Guru, Smt. Susarla Krishnaveni garu, who was a violinist and her love for Telugu literature to her father Sri. Susarla Subrahmanya Sastry garu. Her musical talent was recognised at a very young age of five years, when she started learning music from Smt. Kausalya Rajaram. Her vocal music was honed by Professors Sri. Aryanad G. Sadasivan and Smt. P. Savithri of R.L.V. Music College in Kerala. She completed her Masters degree in Computers from Padmavathi Women’s University Tirupati while pursuing her “Gaana bhooshanam” title degree course in vocal music. She won the Kerala State first rank in the “Gaana bhooshanam” title degree course conducted by Kerala University and was awarded the prestigious C. Ammalu Amma Endowment Prize by the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy in 1995. As she started her career as a software engineer she was blessed to pursue her advanced vocal training under the great Guru Vidwan Sri R K Srikantan. She has performed many concerts in temples and sabhas in India and in the US including thematic concerts based on compositions of Sri Tyagaraja, Annamacharya, Bhadrachala Ramadasu, and Shyama Sastry.
She established the Krishnaveni School of Karnatak Music, in memory of her mother, in 2013 in Edison, New Jersey and is continuing to nurture the musical talent of the next generation of students, many of whom have given solo performances too. This year she was awarded the prestigious title of “Sangeetha Seva Mani ” by Vidwan Sri. R. K. Srikantan Trust, Bengaluru for her service to karnatak music. She also learned Kuchipudi dance under Smt. Y Geetha Lakshman, a reputed exponent of Kuchipudi natyam, and has performed in several dance ballets. She has also provided vocal support for her Guru’s Kuchipudi performances. She is the founder, teacher and first coordinator of the Edison chapter of Manabadi Telugu language school in NJ started in 2010 and successfully trained the first batch of students to complete the four year Manabadi Telugu course and Senior Certificate Exam of Telugu University Hyderabad.
