Jayanthi Kumaresh is a professional veena artist based out of the IT capital of India, Bangalore.
With music in her genes and all around her, young Jayanthi took to playing veena at the age of three. Her mother, violinist Lalgudi Smt R Rajalakshmi, initiated her into music. Amidst a family of violinists, she chose a different path – to become a Vainika, a veena player.
Her single-minded focus to master this instrument made her leave home and stay with her aunt and guru, Smt Padmavathy Ananthagopalan, at the age of 13. Growing up, Jayanthi’s days were packed with practice, training and more practice with schooling in between.
During her learning days, every evening’s schedule was to play in front of an imaginary audience and errors would be noted down, so she can revisit those after dinner. Her great guru, Smt Padmavathy Ananthagopalan, is a great taskmaster and disciplinarian.
Under her tutoring, Jayanthi was able to understand and imbibe the true essence of veena and music which the gurukulam style of learning offers (staying with your guru throughout your learning years). It was a rigorous training focusing on content, technique, grammar and expression.
Soon, Jayanthi was a full-fledged solo performer and won the The Best Veena artiste, Best Musician, and The Best concert awards from several prestigious organisations like the Gayana Samaj, Music Academy, Krishna Gana Sabha, and Narada Gana Sabha.
She was also one of the youngest artistes to receive the A top grading from the All India Radio.