From
Profile of Aruna Sayeeram "Recently the Outlook magazine made the
following observation : "M
S Subbulakshmi is no more. But if there is any singer who comes
close to matching such purity of voice, diction, impeccable sruti
alignment and frill-free singing, it is Aruna Sairam..
Aruna Sairam was born in Bombay - a city whose rich cultural life
embraces the majority of India's artistic fields - into a family with a
deep love for music. Her mother, the singer Smt. Rajalakshmi Sethuraman,
was her first teacher in the art of Carnatic music, while her father, a
fine and knowledgeable connoisseur, established their house in Bombay as
a favourite guest home for the greatest musicians and dancers from both
Northern and Southern India, such as the dancer
Smt.
T. Balaraswati, the Khayal singer Ustad Amir Khan and the Carnatic
flutist Sri. T. R. Mahalingam,
Sangita Kalanidhi Smt. M. S. Subbulakshmi. It was in this propitious
atmosphere, which was fundamental to the development of her art, that
Aruna Sairam met Sangita Kalanidhi Smt. T. Brinda, who taught her for
the next several years, training her in the style of her own mentor, the
great Veena Dhanammal, one of the most outstanding figures in Carnatic
music, still today a source of profound inspiration for Southern India's
leading musicians."
