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Back Friday Review Bangalore Chennai and Tamil Nadu Delhi Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram

A sage of `sangeet'
ARUNA CHANDARAJU

Voleti Venkateswarulu was an uncompromising singer and a teacher.

TALENT UNLIMITED Vocalist Voleti Venkateswarulu

If there's one epithet that describes the music of this man, it is `sublime'. With body and soul
immersed in music, Voleti Venkateswarulu would enthral listeners with an exquisitely melodious
voice, which negotiated all three octaves with effortless ease, revealing perfect purity of shruti,
and masterly grip on laya and bhava. Described by some as a `rishi' of music, he would, while
singing, seem oblivious to the audience, and in direct communion with God, soaked in
`Naadaanandam'.

Voleti was born in Rajahmundry on August 27, 1928 and died December 29, 1989. After training
under Chaturvedula Achutramaiah Shastry, Munuganti Venkata Rao Pantulu and graduating in
music from Andhra University, he came under the legendary Sripada Pinakapani's tutelage.

Voleti was a gem. Both as a musician and a person. So much learning, so much talent, yet so
simple and unassuming... ," recalls Sripada. And as Nedunuri Krishnamurthi says, Voleti was a
musician who set for himself and maintained the highest standards.

"He had unlimited swaragyanam and was a creative genius in raagam."

As a teacher, Voleti did yeoman public service through his radio Sangeeta Sikshana programmes.

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This and his Bhaktiranjani are etched in people's memories for their style and substance. Malladi
Suribabu who played the tanpura for Voleti during the warming-up session for Shikshana
programmes recalls how Voleti would, then, spontaneously break into Hindustani ragas for the
sheer enjoyment of it.

"He loved Hindustani swaras and their jaaru gamakas." One of those rare Carnatik musicians
also adept in Hindustani, Voleti's admirers included Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Mehdi Hassan and
Ghulam Ali Khan.

M.S. Gopalakrishnan and Lalgudi Jayaraman were Voleti's admirers-cum-friends. Whenever

Voleti came for his Chennai performances, the tanpura would come from Jayaraman's house.
Jayaraman recalls how he and Voleti would discuss music endlessly, even sing to each other.

"Voleti had the wonderful ability to lose himself in his music and enjoy it as a third person. I
composed a thillana in Pahadi at his request. He was a childlike person and always gracious with
his accompanists."

Voleti also rendered, memorably, compositions rarely heard at kutcheris today like Adhyatma
Ramayana keerthanas; Sadhashiva Brahmendra krithis; Narayanatheertha tharangams. There's
great need to retrieve these and release re-recordings. Though Voleti's music moved critics and
connoisseurs to praise, no desire for fame and money seemed to move the man himself. Like so
many artistes who focused on their art alone, he died leaving his family in difficult financial
conditions.

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