Biography of ILAYARAJA

Born  on 2nd June 1943 in Pannaipuram, a little hamlet at the foot of the Western Ghats in  Madurai district of Tamil Nadu State, South India.

In 1970 appeared for the examinations of the Trinity college of Music, London in Classical Guitar and came out with a Gold Medal.

In 1976 got his first break as Music Director for the Tamil film Annakkili.

Since then , as of October 1994, has composed music for 700 feature films in  Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English.  Apart from background score has composed nearly 3500 songs for the films.

Has won the National Award as the Best Music Director three times for his musical score in Sindu Bairavi(Tamil),  Sahara Sangamam(Telugu) and Rudhra Veena(Telugu).

Has won the State government awards as the Best Music Director many times from the governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the Annamalai University of Chidambaram,  India in April 1994,  by the World University of Arizona, USA in June 1994 and by Madurai Kamaraj University in 1996 for his achievements in and contributions to music.

Has many non-film albums to his credit.  Notable among them is Vedic Chants , a rendition of the Vedas by an eight year old girl.

Has recorded a carnatic classical album, which is scheduled for release in 1994.  This is his first major attempt in composing krithis in carnatic classical music.  This album contains seven krithis composed by him in Tamil and Sanskrit. 

Has two fusion music albums to his credit.  How To Name It? and Nothing But Wind.  The second album features noted flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia as the solo flautist.

In July 1993 recorded his first major work in western classical music, his Symphony No.1 with the world famous Royal philharmonic Orchestra of London under the baton of John Scott.

With Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother as its patron and Lord Yehudi Menuhin as its President, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the best in the western classical world.  Ilaiyaraaja is the first Asian whose symphony was performed by the RPO.

And he is also the first Indian who has written a western classical symphony.  Composing a symphony is the ultimate in composing music in the western classical tradition.  That is on the lines of such great composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, et.al. who had given us so much of great music.  The time taken to complete a symphony to be played by a full scale symphony orchestra varies from composer to composer; depending upon his mood, the complexity of music, etc.   If Mozart took a few days to complete a symphony, Brahms took fourteen years to complete one of his symphonies.  And Ilaiyaraaja well known for his speed of composing completed this symphony in just one month's time.

John Scott, who conducted the RPO during the recordings, is one of the leading conductors of England.   He is also well known as a composer.  He won an Emmy Award for Wild Dogs of Africa in 1971 and his music for the film Antony and Cleopatra is much acclaimed.

The recordings were done at the Walthamstow Town Hall in London on 19, 20 and 21 July 1993.

 Ilayaraja was born in 1943 in a  small village  near Madurai, Tamil Nadu (India), Pannaipuram. He was the third son to Ramasamy and Chinnathayi. Althoug he was named as Gnanadesikan he was affectionately called as  Rasaiyya. Later in his life, he began to stick the Raja named by his tutor Dhanraj Master under whom he learnt  a considerable chunk of instrument skills. Finally Ilayaraja name was given to the tamil film director Panju Arunachalam. Ilayaraja has many conferred upon him. Of all the title "Isaignani" given by Karunanidhi(current CM) gained more popularity. Other titles were Nadhabramam (God of music creation), Ragadevan (king of tunes), Maestro, Isai Chakravarthy.