Veteran flutist CA Sreedhara. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
CA Sreedhara is an accomplished musician (flutist and singer), composer, writer, researcher, art historian and musicologist.
He was born to musicians CS Satya Lakshmi and CK Anantharamaiah on 6 October 1961 in Chilkunda village near Mysuru. His grandfather, flutist and Vedic scholar CT Sreenivasamurthy Muralidhar, was an inspiration. Sreedhara was initiated into music at the age of four, when he began learning flute and vocal music from his mother and then from Venkatanarayan Udupa Shastri, who belonged to the sishya parampara Sri Tyagaraja.
The child prodigy became a talented musician and his career began at the age of 14 with flute concerts. Since then he has performed thousands of concerts in India and abroad. His music is enriched with classicism and he has developed an individualistic style that combines gayaki and tantrakari styles of flute playing. She is a grade A flutist in All India Radio.
He is a researcher and holds several degrees including “Vidwatha” in Carnatic singing and flute and Ph.D in music from the University of Mysore for “wind instruments in Carnatic music”. His research also covers interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary areas such as Vedic Music, Music in Kannada Literature, Melakarta Ragas, Mysore Wodeyars and Music and several treatises.
Over the years, All India Radio has telecast several of Sreedir’s works as lecture series – ‘Maharaja mummadi krishnaraja wodeyar’s sree tatvanhi testihiirala’ in eight episodes in 2005, ‘Mela Ragollasa’ in 30 episodes and ‘se4’Nada’ in 1 episode
This scholar has been in the field for 40 years at the University College of Fine Arts and has taught Carnatic music (flute and voice), musicology, research methodology and film music. He has served as Head of the Department of Music and also as Principal at the University College of Fine Arts, University Evening College and Maharaja’s College, University of Mysore. Currently, Sreedhara is a Visiting Professor of Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Dr. Gangubai Hangal in the state of Karnataka in Mysore.
This impressively equipped academic supervised 25 PhD students and reviewed 125 PhD theses from various universities. As a subject matter and resource expert, he has served on several committees — study, examination and appointment, in addition to being part of doctoral and other academic committees at several universities and government bodies.
Sreedhara has organised, participated and presented lecture demonstrations at several national and international conferences and research papers on practical music and musicology. The three books he has written and published are Sri Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer’s 72 Melaragamalika, Music in Vedas and Bharatiya Sangeetha Lekhana Malika Vol – 1. He has published two books — Mysuru Wodeyars and Karnataka Culture and Naada Yaana and has also published 50 research articles. He composed over 100 musical compositions, including kritis in 72 melakarta ragas. Scheme of the system 171 melakarta and Loha Vamshi — a new type of flute are his innovations in music. He is the founder of Naada Mandir, a cultural forum dedicated to Indian classical music.
He has won many awards like T. Chowdiah Award, AIR Award, Doordarshan Chandana Award, Ananya Shastra Koustubha Musicologist Award and Shreshta Acharya Award for his multifaceted work. The latest feather in his cap is the TR Mahalingam Memorial Award with the title ‘Venu Brahma’ in 2025.
Published – 12 Dec 2025 22:05 IST
