Smt. Mani Krishnamswami

Sangita Kalanidhi Smt. Mani Krishnaswamy was born Mani Perundevi, on February 1930, into an affluent family. Her father Lakshminarasimhachari was the Secretary of the Vellore Sangeeta Sabha. Mani's mother taught her to play the violin when she was just six year's old. This background and the little girl's natural aptitude and quick grasp seem to have contributed to her remarkable ability to sing any song after listening to it just once.

Mani's mentor was a professional musician and family friend called Gopalachari. It was Gopalachari who managed to get stalwarts like Jalatarangam Ramaniah Chettia, violinist Tiruparkadal Srinivasa Iyengar and kanjeera vidwan Kandanur Bangaru Iyer to teach Mani - as a result, by the age of 17, Mani had learnt over 500 songs!  Mani's first music instructor was a popular Telugu-speaking teacher called Ellaya. She was also had tutors for Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu because her father felt she should learn these languages properly in order to render the lyrics of songs correctly.

After completing high school, Mani was brought to Madras and admitted in Kalakshetra for the Sangeeta Siromani course. Here, she came under the influence of greats like Rukmini Devi and 'Tiger' Varadachariar. Kalakshetra also had such musical icons like Mysore Vasudevachar, Budalur Krishnaswamy Sastrigal, Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer, Papanasam Sivan, Mylapore Gowri Amma and Turaiyur Rajagopala Sarma on the faculty and their presence and the Kalakshetra tutoring opened new vistas to her.

As a Carnatic music singer, Mani Krishnaswamy has won many awards - Krishna Gana Sabha's 'Sangeeta Choodamani' )1979), 'Kalaimamani' in 1991 by the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, and the Cebtral Sangeet Natak Akedemi's award. She was sent by the government to project Carnatic music in its vocal form, in the Festivals of India in the USSR in 1989 and in Germany in 1991.