Ranjani and Gayatri

Carnatic concert vocalists, violinists, and sisters Ranjani and Gayatri are known for their versatility as soloists, violin duos, accompanists, vocal duos, composers and educators. 

Born to N. Balasubramanian and Meenakshi, their talent emerged with the musically enriching environment at home. Their formal vocal training commenced under their mother, an accomplished Carnatic vocalist while the violin training started at the early age of nine and six respectively from T.S. Krishnaswami at the Shanmukhananda Sangeeta Vidyalaya, Mumbai. 

The first performance in 1986 for the prestigious Indian Music Group, Mumbai, at the age of thirteen and ten respectively launched their music career as violin duet artistes. They also started accompanying various artists on the violin, including stalwarts like D.K. Pattammal, M.Balamurali Krishna and T.Vishwanathan. They received the title of ‘Sangeeta Shanmukha Mani’ conferred by Shanmukhananada Fine Arts and Sangeeta Vidyalaya, Mumbai, and won the Outstanding Violinists Award for four consecutive years from the Music Academy, Chennai from 1994 to 1998. 

The sisters moved to Chennai and started giving vocal concerts from 1997, after they became disciples of P.S. Narayanaswamy. They have also emerged as sensitive and skilful composers, setting to tune a number of abhangs and bhajans. 

Ranjani and Gayatri have been bestowed with several awards and recognitions throughout their career including Sanskriti Awards, instituted by Sanskriti Foundation, New Delhi, Kalki Krishnamurthi Memorial Award (instituted by the Kalki trust in memory of the writer Sri. Kalki Krishnamurthy), Yogam Narayana Swamy Award, National Eminence Award (by the Shanmukhananda Sabha, Mumbai), title of ‘Isai Peroli’ from the Kartik Fine Arts, Chennai in Dec 2005 and many others.


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