Vidya Subramanian
Smt. Vidya Subramanian, rasika, entrepreneur and vocalist, gets into listeners and musicians, supply and demand, income streams and more, in this candid conversation. She says listeners and musicians fall in two broad categories and that, for the vast majority of listeners, physical concerts will take a back seat, for now, to other more mundane, yet pressing, matters.
This video is part of the Melodies during Maladies podcast. After almost two full months of worldwide quarantine due to COVID, restrictions gradually began loosening in late May 2020. In this podcast, musicians, concert organisers and audience members share their thoughts on getting back to physical concerts.
Vidya Subramanian is founder of Vidya Subramanian Academy, an online portal that imparts training in Carnatic music and other traditional arts to students from all over the world. Vidya was featured in a special documentary on BBC World News for her work in online teaching of Carnatic music. Awards won by Vidya include the CA Entrepreneur Award 2019, the Kalaimamani Award 2018 and others. Vidya was recognized as an inspiring woman entrepreneur in the technology / social impact space by NITI Aayog and FICCI in their Road to Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 event. Vidya is a Carnatic vocalist and disciple of Lalgudi Sri. G. Jayaraman. She is currently under the guidance of Dr. Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam. Vidya is also a Chartered accountant with an MBA in Finance from Boston College, USA.
Check out the earlier Quarantunes podcast where several Carnatic and Hindustani musicians shared their thoughts while quarantined.
Learning Bharathanatyam is very costly, leave the arangetram part of it, and music learning today is also costly considering the online music learning either imparted from India or from a foreign Country. We will not be talking much about online music classes, but for the long presence of Covid19. I know from my personal knowledge in the carnatic music industry, the spouses are also connected with either Carnatic music as musicians or in music related engagements or as some professionals. Most of the Doctors have their life partners as Doctors. So, as Vidya was telling, most of the musicians somehow manage even at this crucial period. Online music learning cannot serve as perfect substitute for class room learning from a music teacher, and also it is possible for such students to return to class room teaching, when we say good bye to Covid19. But Mrs.Vidya Subramaniam, was able to touch upon all the aspects of Covid19 from Musicians, employees, ordinary workers point of view, and found she was echoing the sentiments of the majority. As a Women of the modern era Vidya has many qualifications to her credit and has been bestowed with many awards also. Only recently another Women entrepreneur was chosen as the EY entrepreneur of the World for 2020 and she is Mrs.Kiran Mazumdar Shah the Biocon Boss, the Biotech company. Very happy to hear Vidya Subramaniam is also a technology entrepreneur, besides being a musician and Music teacher . We are passing through a very tough phase of our life time and we pray sincerely that our Children go back to their classes without a Covid like break in future.