“The Greeks believe that those the Gods love, die young.  She (Viji) has left behind a host of admirers and friends and has given us her music which bears testimony to her multi-faceted personality.”  

-R. Venkataraman, Former President of India

Vijayashree, or Viji as she was more commonly known, was born (on August 15^th, 1952) into an artistic family, her father being Rajendra Shankar, brother of famous dancer Uday Shankar, and Lakshmi Shankar.  Viji showed great talent from the age of four, and at the age of ten she was already touring and singing with her mother.  In 1972, she was awarded the President’s Award in the All India Music Competition.  After that she won many awards.

Besides her great talent in music, she had a command over many languages.  She was a graduate in French Literature.  

But her first love remained music and she received her Master’s degree in World Music at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts), where she was exposed to and studied various kinds of music, like Indonesian, Western and African.

She also studied South-Indian Classical (Karnatic) music under the legendary teacher, who was also her father-in-law, Professor V. Lakshminarayana.  This gave her the advantage of having a thorough knowledge of different types of music.  She travelled and toured extensively with her husband, Dr. L. Subramaniam, with whom she produced the historical set of five cassettes (four CDs) entitled “An Anthology of Classical Music of South India”, that was produced for Radio France’s Occora label.  

The Anthology was released as a special edition four CD set in India to commemorate Fifty Years of India’s Independence.  She had also co-authored a book, ‘Euphony’, on Indian Classical Music.  She did many fusion projects with her husband and lent her voice for several albums, television and motion picture soundtracks like “Salaam Bombay” and “Mississippi Masala”.  She was also the co-founder of Global Fusion, a unique musical concept, which incorporates music from all over the globe, along with occidental symphony orchestras and choirs.  She was the sole inspiration for Dr. L. Subramaniam in creating Global Fusion composition, and works like Global Symphony, Astral Symphony and Reflections. 

She started the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival in 1992 in memory of her father-in-law.  This festival has become the most important Global Music Festival in India. 

 

Her demise on February 9, 1995, has left her family, friends and fans worldwide, bereaved and has left a void in the music world.

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