Jayaprada Ramamurthy


Jayaprada Ramamurthy is an Indian flautist from Andhra Pradesh. She is known to be the first female flautist from Andhra Pradesh, and the first woman and the youngest to receive an "A-grade" in Carnatic Flute from All India Radio and Doordarshan. She plays both Carnatic and Hindustani styles of music. She received many awards and honors including the Ugadi Puraskaram from Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Biography

Jayaprada Ramamurthy was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh to Prema Ramamurthy a noted Carnatic vocalist and Venkataramana Ramamurthy, a scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai. Her maternal grandfather, Srinivasa Sastri who was Zamindar of Ballari, used to play the flute. Although a musician, her mother Prema was not interested in her daughter pursuing a career in music due to the difficulties she faced in supporting the family after her husband's death. She completed her doctorate in commerce for her research on marketing of performing arts and intellectual property rights, from Osmania University in Hyderabad, Telengana.
Jayaprada started playing flute at an early age without any formal training. Although her mother was not interested in pursuing a career in music for her daughter, realizing her interest in the flute, she took her to Chennai for training flute under the guidance of Padma Shri awardee N. Ramani. Under the guidance of her guru, she began performing on stage at the age of twelve. Her first performance was at the Ganapati Temple in Secunderabad.
Jayaprada later received advanced training in Carnatic and Hindustani flute under many other noted artists including Hariprasad Chaurasia, B. R. C. Iyenger, Sudarsanacharya, and N. S. Srinivasan.

Career

Jayaprada Ramamurthy, who began her career as a Carnatic singer, sang in various concerts with and without her mother Prema Ramamurthy as a teenager and won several prizes in music competitions.
Jayaprada, known to be the first female flutist from Andhra Pradesh, is the first woman and the youngest to receive an 'A-grade' in Carnatic Flute from All India Radio and Doordarshan. She can play twenty different types of flute. She is also recognized as the first woman to use the bass flute and the western key flute on the concert stage. She has also developed a new raga in Carnatic music, Uma.
In 2019, Jayaprada was appointed as the director of Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel, the official channel of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.
Jayaprada is also promoting Indian classical music and flute through the establishments Global Flute Foundation, and Viswa Uttara Arts Foundation started by her.
Jayaprada plays both Carnatic and Hindustani styles. She has done solo performances in various venues across the country and outside. She has also authored a book titled Basics of Flute Playing.
Jayaprada made her film debut as a flautist in the film Om Namo Venkatesaya directed by Raghavendra Rao. After that, she also performed in films like Baahubali 2 and Vakeel Saab. She has collaborated with music director M. M. Keeravani on several projects.

Awards and honors

Jayaprada received the Ugadi Puraskaram from Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2012. In 2019, she received the Kartik Award of Excellence. She received the Merit Award for classical music from Acharya Nagarjuna University in 2023. She has also received the national fellowship from Ministry of culture, Government of India.
Jayaprada is also received honors like Asthana Vidushi position from many Hindu religious institutions including the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, the Mysore Datta Peetham, Mysore, Karnataka, the Yadagirigutta Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam, Telangana, and the Srisailam Devasthanam, Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh.