Biography of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer

Born: 25 July 1908, Thanjavur
Died: 31 October 2003, Chennai

Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer is one of the luminaries of Carnatic music. He was born in 1908. Since his childhood he was fond of music. He started imbibing formal education in Carnatic music at the young age of eight. It did not take much time when he gave his first music recitation at the Kumbakonam Nageswaraswami temple in 1926.

In 1927, his excellent singing at the Congress Session in Chennai instantly put him in the category of leading singers of his time. He has been also involved with editing and reviving the songs of Maharaja Swati Tirunal. Carnatic Music will always be indebted to him for restoring the original beauty of the classic compositions.

His command over Carnatic music can be seen by the fact that he taught to celebrities like M.S. Subbulakshmi, T.N. Krishnan, T.M. Thyagarajan, P.S. Narayanaswami and Kadayanallur Yenkataraman. Iyyer has been honoured with coveted titles like the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title in 1947, the Padma Bhusan in 1969 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1990.