Violin Maestro, Music prodigy Dear Balabhaskar and 2 yr old daughter passes away
The world
of music sadly lost a magical violinist, musical genius and melodic maestro on
2nd October 2018, when young Balabhaskar Chandran (10 July 1978 – 2
October 2018) was involved in a car
accident at Pallipuram, near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and passed away a
week later. His only child, after many years of marriage, 2 year old daughter
Tejaswini Bala (21 April 2016 - 25 September 2018) died on the spot. His wife
is in ICU and recovering slowly.
The
40 year old Indian violinist was a Singer, Composer and Record Producer. From a
young musical prodigy to teen heartthrob to musical icon, Balabhaskar has
performed concerts with and stage shows with musicians from local schools,
colleges, clubs, film and music industry, to international celebrities. Some of
the musicians, singers and instrumentalists were Sivamani, Hariharan, Ranjit
Barot, Ustad Zakhir Hussain, Mattannoor Sankarankutty, Louis Banks, Vikku
Vinayakram, Fazal Qureshi, and so on.
Hailing
from a musically prosperous family, his Uncle B. Sasikumar, a celebrated
musician in Carnatic music, introduced him to the world of instrumental music
at the age of three. Best known for composing and promoting fusion music in
South India, he began his professional and illustrious career at the age of 12
by doing stage shows. At the age of 17, he was the youngest Music Composer to
work in the Malayalam film industry when he debuted as the youngest Music
Director for the Malayalam movie Mangalya Pallak.
With
extraordinary proficiency in Carnatic Music, he released Bhajati in 2011, a
collection of soothing Carnatic Keertanas composed in his own trademark style
and blending an international flavour to it. He has also performed shows with
his uncle B. Sasikumar, as Violin Duo in Carnatic concerts.
He
released his debut international Fusion album ‘Let it B’ IN 2011. It features
renowned musicians including Sivamani, Louis Banks, Fazal Qureshi, Gino Banks
and Sheldon D'Silva. The album has flavors of rock, jazz, hip-hop and techno
music spun around Balabhaskar's Indian violin. The album uses specially
composed Sanskrit lyrics, in an effort to promote Sanskrit as a language of communication.
Two songs, "Begin with Soorya" and "B yond," have been
visualized and are available along with the visuals of the making in the
limited edition series. The album is produced under the banner of MC Audios and
Videos.
His
compositions for the albums Ninakaai and Aadyamai are still among the
most-sought-after romantic song collections. His flair for connecting with his
audience has made him one of the hot favorites for major stage shows and
classical concerts. He was the first to introduce electric violins and voice
processors in Kerala and the first to introduce indo-western instrumental
fusion in Kerala. He participated in Montreal Jazz Festival- Canada, New
Universe Music Festival- USA and Jazz Utsav in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Apart from his concerts and stage shows, Balabhaskar gave music to ad films,
movies, tele-serial titles and albums in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and
Sanskrit languages. Noted and tweeted by Amitabh Bachan following one of his
performances in Kuwait: "The performance on an electric violin, of
Balabhaskar, from Kerala- an absolute genius! Classical Indian Raga on the
violin and fusion with a band jamming- simple ecstatic!!”
A
musical genius, Balabhaskar centred around Fusion music which he first
experimented on while in college and created his band. He won the University
First tite, for Violin for 5 years in a row. He started his fusion centred
professional band- Confusion. Later he created a unique fusion band called ‘The
Big Indian Band’. He conceived and hosted a program by the name- The Big Band
Show on Asianet where he interacted with several musical geniuses and jammed
with them.
Balabhaskar
was the recipient of the Bismillah Khan Yuva Sangeetkaar Puraskaar in 2008 by
Kendra Sangeet Natak Academy for Instrumental Music (Violin). The album 'Let it
B' bagged award in the best album category in The Frame Media Award, 2012. He
received the Youth Icon by Brahmanandan Foundation, 2012. He also won the
Kerala State Television Award for the best music director in the year 2001 and
plenty more awards, recognitions and achievements.
He
received International Endorsement with Cantini Violins, Italy and was featured
on MTV's Unplugged and MTV's Coke Studio Season 2.
Balabhaskar
was born to C. K. Unni who was a postmaster and Santhakumari; Sanskrit lecturer
of Sree Swathi Thirunal College of Music on 10 July 1978. He was married to his
longtime girlfriend Lakshmi Santhakumari in 2000 and their daughter was born in
2016.
We
truly miss you dear. Thank you for the wonderful music you gifted to us. Rest
in peace…
Picture http://www.balabhaskar.in
Picture of Violinist Balabhaskar
Picture
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