Ambi Subramaniam is a master fiddler, so it’s nearly impossible to choose his best fiddling performance. The breakneck speed that he plays, sometimes simple and at times powerful, leaves the listener no time to breathe; it’s so intense. The Bangalore based 29-year-old Ambi is very down to earth, simple and just like any Gen X youngster, until he picks up his violin. 

Hailed as “India’s Itzhak Pearlmann” by Ozy Magazine, Ambi has been trained by his father and guru Dr. L. Subramaniam since he was three years old. He gave his first performance at the age of seven. He has received the Ritz Icon of the Year Award, the Rotary Youth Award, two GiMAs (Global Indian Music Award for Best Fusion Album and Best Carnatic Instrumental Album), Big Indian Music Award (Best Carnatic Album). In 2007, he released his first album and two years later he received a ‘Golden Violin’ from Sri Jayendra Saraswati.

Along with his sister Bindu Subramaniam, he runs the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (SaPa), which trains young children to grow into performing musicians. He also co-wrote India’s first series of textbooks dedicated to teaching the Indian violin.

Ambi has performed extensively with his family and collaborated with Larry Coryell, Ernie Watts, Corky Siegel, Shankar Mahadevan and many others. His first album, released in 2007 when he was a mere 16 years old, won both BIMA (The British Interactive Media Association, which annually gives British awards for excellence in the digital world) and GIMA (Global Indian Music Academy award) awards. Ambi is truly "the new king of Indian classical violin".

Verus Ferreira spoke with the Ambi on his musical journey.

Let’s start in the beginning. At what age did you take up learning the violin?

I started learning the violin when I was three years old, and that time you had smaller violins. I think it didn’t really start formally, like somebody going to a class, or sitting down in front of a teacher and taking lessons. My dad obviously was playing a lot of music at home, practicing and that kind of thing. So I think it started very informally where I had the violin in my hand and I would try and imitate what my dad was doing. Then of course it became a bit formal, once I started enjoying the instrument. Then my brother my sister and I learnt to sing, how to play the piano, we learnt carnatic and western violin.

What would you say your style of music is?

It’s a very interesting question. Like I mentioned, we learnt a lot of different things, because for me I tried to be as versatile as I can, so that means that sometimes you don’t want to label all that you are doing, and you keep trying different styles so you can keep growing. Of course I was initially taught Carnatic music and western classical music. Along with way when I played with my mom you know sometimes, that would be a complete Bollywood set. Then it was a challenge for me to kind of figure out how I would play in those situations and how do I adapt what I am doing to suit that style of music, or suddenly if I am in a situation when I am with a set of musicians, say in Spain playing Flamenco music, how do I bring out individuality. I’d play something that suits that style of music. I think genres of course is carnatic western classical and a contemporary genres, but I think style is something that keeps evolving.

Do you still learn from your dad L Subramaniam?

Of course, I think there is so much to learn from both my parents, and I think my dad is just incredible, obviously not only in terms of his musical skills and him being a legendary musician, but there are so many things that you learn from him as a person as well, so that never stops. Probably the way you learn over time, changes, like I mentioned when I was three years old, I would just sit there and watch him and that’s the way I learnt. Much later, he would play phrases and I would try to repeat, and then there was a stage where we were performing a lot together. So I learnt a lot by playing with him onstage and now the way l learnt is very different. So sometimes he will hear a piece I have done and he will give me feedback. That learning process is always there, but the way you learn changes over time.

You also sing and play the piano.

Yes I do enjoy singing and playing the piano a lot, but I think, you have to make a choice if you want to really go deep into anything, so that point, while I enjoyed it, I made it very clear that the violin is the main thing and singing and piano should help that. I do sing and play the piano, but it’s mostly for myself.

When did you first start your concert playing? What memories do you have of it?

I think the first time I was on stage was when I was six years old and I remember my brother and I we were singing for something. My first violin performance was when I was seven and I think it is very important to have very positive experiences when you are on stage. When I say that, it’s completely different from being skillful on stage. Did I play well or not, I’m sure I wasn’t that great at age seven, but I went on stage and came off stage feeling very good. I think that was very important for me, because from my young age, I enjoyed going on stage because of that. Sometimes even though you’re a very talented artist, young old or whatever, you go on stage and the first few experiences, if for whatever reason, you don’t have a good experience, either the audience criticizes or you don’t feel good, then that makes a difference in your entire performance career. So for me, I always felt good when I came off stage, so that really helped me later on as well.

Is the violin you play different from violins played in Carnatic music?

So I play a five string. Normally violins are four strings, there’s an extra string at the bottom which is the viola string, so that gives it a bigger range, but that also makes it harder to play, but otherwise apart from that, the violin is very similar, it also has an electric pickup, while others it is very similar to a violin you would see otherwise.

What brand of violin do you use?

There are many violins that are made in India, and it’s really nice to see the violin skill making really improving in India in the last decade or two. It’s something that hasn’t traditionally been made in India. I use a violin from the US. I generally try not to use too many violins, unlike a guitar or something, as a violin doesn’t have frets like a guitar, so every violin has its own uniqueness, it has its own challenges as well. For example, if I pick up a new violin tomorrow, the spacing will be completely different, so all of sudden if I try to play the same way that I play on my current violin, it would be completely out of tune. In general, I try not to use too many violins.

You play Western music too, yet are a Carnatic musician. Can you explain?

We’ve all learnt different styles of music and at heart I am a carnatic musician and then everything else. But I think learning different kinds of music, different skills, I think if it is music or any other field, I think they all find a way, where they all kind of come together and they help each other. So if I come across a musician that is really fascinating and kind of doing something amazing, I would try to learn from that person, and try to understand how another musicians mind works, how they kind of think of their music. So I think that at some point they all come together and you realize that if I am playing this Mozart piece, Beethoven or Bach, this can help my carnatic music or this exercise in carnatic music can help my western playing. You then find a unique space for yourself where you are able to bring out your creative voice.

You hold an MBA in Finance, and a Ph D. If not music, what do you think you would’ve done?

Well to be honest, I really enjoy cricket as well and I had a flair for Math’s so probably, I would’ve been a cricket statistician or maybe something like that.

Do you think it's important for Indian musicians to collaborate with international ones?

I think it is important for all musicians to collaborate, whether it is international musicians or other musicians from India. Within India there are so many musicians with so many thought processes, so I feel that if it’s difficult to find an international artist or track someone say in the US, Senegal or Turkey, don’t worry, India is a land of musicians, so there might be someone in the neighborhood who plays music totally different from what you do. So I think that’s a great place to start and when you collaborate with other artists, you realize that a there are so many ways of doing things, ways of doing music, so I thing understanding that and trying to create a piece of music with somebody else that’s a very special kind of process.

Along with your sister Bindu, you manage the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (SaPa) in the field of Music education. Can you tell us something about it?

SaPa has been very close to our hearts and the aim of SaPa is to create that music ecosystem where teaching students not only Indian music, but also global music, trying to make sure that they have access to some of the best musicians from around the world. We work with about 30,000 children and our aim is also to keep it as multi dimensional performers. And I think at SaPa we also work at creating artists that have varied interests. So like we may have a student that is learning carnatic voice and western songwriting or learning carnatic violin and the drums. It is important to find things that excite you and work on skill building. At some point you will find that you can bring all these things together and then when you have all of these things together, and its unique for you, then your music will also sound unique, because you are creating your own individual  identity. That’s one of the important part of what we do at SaPa.

The other important part is to make sure that budding musicians have a home. A lot of our teachers are part of an amazing community where we incredible teachers who are all fantastic musicians. So it’s really fun to be a part of the community and see what everyone else is doing. For us it’s a great space for collaboration.

You are also part of contemporary world music band SubraMania, which you formed with your sister Bindu. Can you tell us something about it?

My sister and I started SubraMania in 2013 and that’s been a great space for us to collaborate with different artists. Initially when we started it, it was a great place in creating something new and have fun with a lot of experimentation. So like in one song we wanted to have gypsy influences into our music, so we studied a little bit of that music and tried to write a piece where there were gypsy influences in Indian music. Then another piece where we tried to incorporate Spanish influences, flamenco influences, sometimes African rhythms. So this place is to test out different things, experiement and just kind of have fun with music and also create new music that is memorable for us firstly and hopefully memorable to those who listen to it. 

Who are your music idols?

There are a number of them. There are a lot of violinists, like Israeli violinist Maxim Vengerov, Joshua Heifetz who are incredible violinists. I also take inspiration from a lot of composers because that is a big part of what I do is composition. Sometimes I’ll look at compositions that Tchaikovsky wrote, or maybe a great carnatic great composer wrote, and that really lifts me at that time and that also puts things in perspective. Like I remember I wrote a couple of carnatic compositions and I was feeling kind of good about it. I remember I was once given this book about this incredible composer Muthiah Bhagavathar. The last 30 pages of that book, was just listing all the compositions that he had written. So I think at that point in time I put things in perspective saying ok fine, I am happy with two, but a great composer has 30 pages of just listing compositions. It just drives you to do more things and get better.

Are you working on any new project? What are your plans for the year 2022?

I hope by then we would be able to have some more live performances. I think given the situation in the last year and two, we’ve been extremely lucky and we’ve been able to kind of make studio work, make a lot of albums, and I think that process will continue. But I think for the entire music industry and for music in general, it would be great if we can open up once things are safer.

What advice would you give to young musicians who would like to take up music?

The best advice I can probably give is work on skill building. So whatever you are interested in, pursue those things and keep working on skill without necessarily having an end goal in mind, because honestly nobody one knows what’s going to happen in three, five, ten years time. It’s good to have plans, but for me personally, every three years I kind of look back and I find that I am doing something that no way I could have predicted. But it’s important to be kind of flexible and be ready when an opportunity presents itself. Sometimes you don’t have the time to prepare for something, so if you keep working on your skill building, if you like playing the violin or piano, try to get very skillful at playing the violin or piano, if you like production, try to get very skillful at that, so that when an opportunity presents itself, you will be ready for that.  Besides being skillful, you also have to be very consistent with whatever you do.

What is your message to the readers of The Teenager Today?

What anybody does whether its music or anything else, it’s good to keep working on skills that interests you, even if you think that this doesn’t go with something else that I also like. One thing that we always talk about at SaPa is that you don’t have to be just one thing. We have a lot of very talented kids who are interested in coding and also in music. They also like doing music, but they also like painting or design. It’s very nice to pursue all these things that you like. None of us know what jobs are going to exist in five, ten or fifteen years, so you could be creating something special and at some point in time you’ll be having skill sets that other people don’t have. 

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira