Yella venkateswara rao biography of christopher

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A Mridangist has to blend his playing to the main artiste who might belong to different Baanis and each concert has to be elevated and uplifted by different styles of playing and adaptation”.

YVR used to be a regular and highly sought after artiste for many erstwhile stalwarts like, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Alathur Brothers, MDR, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Maharajapuram Santhanam, Musiri Subramania Iyer, Madurai Somu, PSN,KVN, MMI, GNB, R.K.Srikantan, Dr.Balamurlikrishna, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Voleti Venkateswarulu, S.Balachander, Emani Sankara Sastry, Doraiswamy Iyengar, Flute Mahalingam, Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana, Lalgudi Jayaraman, MSG, Dwaram Venktaswamy Naidu, Mysore Chowdiah and other accomplished artistes like Mandolin Srinivas, Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath, S.Shankar, Hyderabad Brothers, Malladi Brothers, Rudrapatnam Brothers etc.

He was also among the few who used to accompany women artists at a time when many were reluctant to do so.

When I started giving solo performances, I used to begin traditionally and later improvise based on audiences’ responses. Whenever one hears the name Yellaa, one should think of the Mridangam instrument.

With his exponential experiments, he brought special recognition to Mridangam. The demand for his accompaniment came at a time when there were other well-known contemporary Mridangam artistes in Carnatic Music.

YVR’s playing and creativity is a testament to Mridangam playing.

I can say YVR literally sang with his instrument.

There will always be multiple ideas arising in his mind and how he played them is what a percussionist needs to learn. It has been named as Nava Mridangam. And recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records. The muktayas he can play with his left has artistes and audiences spellbound.

YVR has been part of many musical confluences of classical, jazz, fusion genres and has extensively travelled around the world.

YVR accompanying Lalgudi GJR Krishnan – Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Jugalbandi concert

YVR’s insight for aspiring percussionists? –

“The goal shouldn’t be to just accompany the main artistes.

The Jakarta chapter of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union awarded him Hosha Banka Award, for his performance on multiple mridangams in connection with a program titles, Sivathandavam, in 1979. among others. I was lucky to witness such an event.

Each concert experience of YVR had combination of subdued strokes, relevant mel kaalams, in no concert he would dominate at all – it always used to be elevation only.

His handling of the Eda(left), Gumki is a trademark in itself. It is not easy to play all the ideas – to transfer them to playing is no easy task. However, with Yella Sir, he used to enjoy so much and has never asked YVR to play according to his needs. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2007; the same year as he received the Vishala Bharathi Gaurav Satkar of the Delhi Telugu Academy.

Also, solo recitals started all over soon after his initiative toward Mridangam. 

Yella associated great legends like M.S. Subbu Lakshmi, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Mangalampalli, Hariprasad Chourasia, KJ Yesudas Bhimsen Joshi so on. No one could anticipate his playing as it is always dynamic and rooted in Nadam.

The nuances of the Tala, tonal ability – it was just not a traditional Tani avartanam.

Yellaa performed many times at the temple of Bhadrachalam. 

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