Early learning

Savita Narasimhan is one of the most talented artistes of her generation. Born to a family of music connoisseurs, Savita began learning Carnatic music at an early age from Sankara Sarma. She also had the privilege of training under Rama Ravi and O V Subramaniam, besides learning Tiruppugazh from A S Raghavan. Since 1995, she has been under the tutelage of Chitravina N Ravikiran. She is a recipient of the scholarship for Carnatic classical music instituted by the Department of Culture, Government of India.

 

Performances

An A-grade artiste of All India Radio and Doordarshan, Savita has performed in the annual festivals of many prominent organisations in Chennai, such as The Music Academy, Narada Gana Sabha, Krishna Gana Sabha and Mylapore Fine Arts, as also in other venues outside Chennai, like, The Shanmukhananda Sabha, Bombay and The India International Centre, New Delhi. In January 1998, the Indian Cultural Centre of Berlin invited Savita to render a solo vocal recital that was broadcast by the West Deutsche Rundfunk, the West German Radio, Cologne. In September 2002, she performed for the BBC Radio's programme Outlook, as a representative of the festival of Indian arts, Sangeetam, held at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, London. Savita has performed extensively in her tours of the USA since 2005.

Savita was among the artistes selected by Carnatica.com to sing for the first VCD on Carnatic music education, Nadopasana.

 

Accompanist for dance

Savita has also been the lead vocalist for Alarmel Valli, the noted danseuse, at many prestigious venues such as the Theatre De La Ville, Paris, The Music Academy, Chennai, Vienna International Festival, Austria, Festival of Normandy, France, The Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC and The Edinburgh festival, Scotland. She had the distinction of performing for the Queen and King of Norway in the Bergen International Festival, for Prince Charles at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and at the Munich State Opera in the presence of Zubin Mehta, as a member of Valli's troupe.

She also participated in the Indo-Canadian music-dance production Cosmos, jointly directed by Ravikiran and Timothy Sullivan, the latter, a composer of western music from Toronto.

 

Vintage Virtuosos

Savita is one of the lead singers in Chitravina Ravikiran's ensemble Vintage Virtuosos which aims at perfecting and projecting masterpieces of the great composers of Carnatic music. She has been featured in six albums by the group, including Songs of the Nine Nights, Brilliance of Begada, The Exquisite Bhairavi and Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi's Saptaratna-s.

 

Theatre

Savita is one of the founding members of the theatre group JustUs Repertory, established in 2005 by Gowri Ramnarayan. She has lent her voice for 2 plays performed by the group, namely Dark Horse and Flame of the Forest. The 1st mentioned play has been staged widely in prominent theatre festivals and venues in India, such as the Odeon Festival, Calcutta, Kala Ghoda festival, Mumbai, National Institute of Drama, New Delhi, and Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. In March 2007, the play was staged for the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Award (META) in Delhi (as one of the 10 final nominees) and won the award for Best Sound Design.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050701/asp/calcutta/story_4937546.asp

“The strongest part of this presentation was music, beautifully appropriate and blending with the various moods of the poems. Savita Narasimhan is an expressive singer”…. The Statesman

 

Teacher

Savita is the Principal of the School of Fine Arts established (in 1999) by Hamsadhwani, Chennai, and member of faculty in The International Foundation for Carnatic Music. She trains several students abroad, through the tele-teaching scheme pioneered by her guru Ravikiran. She has conducted several workshops and classes during her tours to the USA.

 

Awards

She was conferred the 'Talent of the Year' award by Krishna Gana Sabha in 2003, by Narada Gana Sabha in 2004, 'TT Rangaswami Memorial Award' and 'DK Pattammal Award' by The Music Academy in 2006 and 2007 respectively. She is also recipient of the prestigious Kalki Krishnamurthy Memorial award for the year 2006.

 

Others

Savita has authored and published the book Adityodayam, containing select compositions of her guru Ravikiran.

http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit09162002/bookreview.asp

 

Education and other interests

She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Delhi and a Master's in English Literature from the Annamalai University. An avid reader, Savita is an amateur painter too.