Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman
I have completed 70 years of musical career and am stepping into my 71st year . I started playing mridangam at the age of 10. These seven decades of music profession have given me only joy and fulfillment and less tension. And probably that is why I am able to make my rasikas enjoy music. Playing the mridangam has made my mind and soul stay connected and there is no dichotomy. I seem to have become the mridangam and mridagam has become me.
I have always considered mridangam as naada vadyam. It is the king of percussion and the queen of melody. The naada has permeated in my self and in the cosmos and that has given me supreme bliss. I wish to be born as mridangam vidwan in my next birth and continue this mission.
He is like a yogi with mind and body in sync
Sikkil Gurucharan
It was in 2005 when I was asked by Umayalpuram Sivaraman sir to sing at a temple concert he had organised in his home-town. I was excited and scared when he accompanied me on the mridangam for the first time. Soon, the fear factor gave way to awe and admiration for this great artiste. A wonderful stalwart like him had been generous enough to play with me for the last 10 years. His meticulous planning of things, his perfection in presentation and his camaraderie continue to remain unmatched. He is like a great yogi whose body and mind is in sync. He is not distracted and concentrates only on music. He does not even drink water during concerts. And during the numerous foreign trips we had gone together, I have learnt a lot from him and listened to his words of wisdom. Once, when I was in a dilemma if I should continue pursuing music as a career, he told me to put complete faith in music and it will not let me down. His words have proved true till date. He loves experimenting with music and always advises me to understand the greatness of past masters and encourages me to try new pages from history.
‘A treasure house of knowledge’
Maharajapuram S. Ganesh Viswanathan
Umayalpuram Sivaraman sir is one of the greatest exponents of the mridangam, the world has ever seen. His strokes are extremely scientific in execution, aesthetic in presentation, deep rooted in tradition and versatile with precision marking perfection. He is a treasure house of knowledge. He has played for four successive generations of vocalists in my family starting with Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. I consider it a great blessing to have sung along with his mridangam accompaniment. He is a repository of rare musical anecdotes. In a discussion with my father Maharajapuram S. Srinivasan, he mentioned that my great grandfather Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer had played the kanjeera in a Radha Kalyanam concert of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar at Sulamangalam. Umayalpuram Sivaraman sir was present at the concert as 9-year-old boy.
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