This is the first time....: Violin maestro L Subramaniam expresses gratitude over his Padma Vibhushan honour

On Monday, President Droupadi Murmu presented the Padma award to Subramaniam at a prestigious ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday evening. His wife and veteran singer Kavita Krishnamurthy too attended the ceremony. n

After the ceremony, the renowned musician spoke with ANI and shared his thoughts on being felicitated with the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India.

"...I am extremely happy. More than anything, I think this is an award for all the violinists because this is the first time a violinist is getting Padma Vibhushan...Music has given me everything," he said.

L Subramaniam has composed several musical compositions for ballet performances for well-known dance companies such as the San Jose Ballet Company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and the Mariinsky Ballet.

He also composed music for films including 'Salaam Bombay', 'Mississippi Masala', 'Little Buddha' and 'Cotton Mary'.

In an earlier interview with ANI, he spoke about how he got a Master's in Western Classical Music.

He shared, "After finishing my medicine, which took six and a half years, they said if you want to do Master's in music, go and do a diploma of four years somewhere and then do BA music too, and then come back for Master's. That means another six years. I said, no, no, I'm not going to do another six years to get a bachelor's in music. I sent my tape and applied to a couple of places."

He went on, "One was in California Institute of Arts. It was started by Walt Disney. It was a creative new place. Another place was in Ithaca, New York. So then my father found out Ithaca had a lot of snow and a lot of cold. He said you'll get sick. Go to California, it is better for you. And also you had some friends there. So I went to California."

Talking about his experience of getting a Master's in Music in New York, he said that when he went for his Master's, he was homesick and wanted to finish it. "I finished everything in nine months. What a difference. Yeah, they said I have to do another six years to do my Bachelor's. I almost finished my Master's in nine months, all the requirements. I worked so hard because I didn't have a BA in music, so I had to cover all the subjects. Most of the time I was in the library."