Great Musical Pioneer ‘Mandolin’ U Srinivas Dies

Born on February 28, 1969, he started to play the mandolin, a little-known instrument in India, when he was only six years old. Even though, at the time, the mandolin was an alien instrument in South Indian classical music, Srinivas learnt to play Carnatic ragas on the mandolin with so much ease and dexterity that his name has become synonymous in India with the mandolin and he is popularly called Mandolin Srinivas.

Real World had the honour to work with him on two albums. Rama Sreerama was a memorable live performance of traditional Carnatic compositions that took place in a candle-lit Wood Studio. Dream was the highly-experimental musical partnership with producer/guitarist Michael Brook featuring collaborations with Nigel Kennedy, Nana Vasconcelos and Jane Siberry.

A calm, gentle and mediative young man, Srinivas was surprisingly modest for an artist of such international critical acclaim, as he said “Where is the end to music? The more your learn, the more you want to know”.