Subatra Jayaseelan has bagged Cultural Ambassador Award

Subatra Jayaseelan has bagged Cultural Ambassador Award

• August 20, 2021

The third and the youngest of three sisters, Subatra Jayaseelan was born to Mr &Mrs Jayaseelan in1980 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She holds a Bachelor of Accounting (Hons) from Multimedia University Cyberjaya. 

From the tender age of two, she had started singing Thirumurai. She started her formal Carnatic music education at the age of 6 under the tutelage of the Late Vaadhya Vidhya Visaaradha Sangeetha KalaaBooshanam Srimathi Vijayalakshmi Kulaveerasingam, who was a prominent ‘Guru’ in Carnatic music in the country and who was also a renowned violinist. She completed her aranggetramunder the guidance of her revered guru on 11 April 1999 at the Soma Auditorium, Kuala Lumpur. 

Besides her principal guru Srimathi Vijayalakshmi Kulaveerasingam, Subatra has also been trained personally by the great vidhwan guru Madhurai G.S.Mani (Sangeetham), SrimushnamV. RajaRao(Sangeetham) and guru Unni Mannur (Western Classical) of India. Currently, she is under the tutelage of Srimathi Shobana Bhalchandra, Chennai for Bharata Natyam. She is currently pursuing the Naattiyakalaimani Program and Masters in Fine Arts Vocal with Annamalai University, Chidambaram via distance education. 

In addition to her excellent scholastic accomplishments, she has proven her singing ability by performing in many prestigious programs in the country and has very good showmanship. Subatrais also a Gold Medalist of the National Thirumurai Competition in the year 1995. 

In 2005, Subatra had been handpicked by a panel of judges from thousands of applications as one of the participants for the Indian Music Training 2005 conducted by Mr. Bharadwaj, a renowned music director from India. Following this training which was organised by Astro, she was selected by Mr Bharadwaj himself as the headteacher for the Indian Music Training in 2006. 

Subatra and sisters were also the vocalists for the groundbreaking devotional album‘Tulasi’ which rejuvenated the Malaysian music industry with their brand of reggae-fused Carnatic music. Tulasi’s debut album remains a bestseller to this day. Other albums by the sisters include Vrnda (2007), Deiveega Ragam (2014) and Nadaraja Patthu (2015). They are also famed for recording a song with the legendary Padmashri Hariharan for his album “Just in Love” in 2013. In November 2012, their album ‘Vrnda’ was awarded the ‘Best Vocal Group’ by the US Global Music Awards. 

In the year 2003, Subatra co-founded Sugam Karnatica Arts Academy with her sisters, dedicated to the development of children and youth by providing quality arts education for all. Subatra is the Director of Academic Affairs in charge of Academic planning at Sugam Karnatica besides her weekly routine as a teacher. 

Sugam Karnatica runs many programs for children besides weekly classes, one of the largest being Samarpanam. Samarpanam is a 2 weeks school holiday program that concludes with a professional stage production. Subatra had been the Master Trainer for this program for over a decade before handing over the reins to the upcoming generation of leaders. 

As a teacher of the arts, she is very focused on rigorous student-centered learning in her teaching. Her leadership abilities are nothing short of phenomenal. She is responsible, motivated, disciplined and extremely talented. She has proven to be an exemplary person for the next generation by acquiring and preserving cultural and classical heritage. Her good judgement and mature outlook ensures a logical and practical approach to her endeavours. 

“I am greatly honoured, humbled and blessed to receive the ‘Cultural Ambassador Award’ for the Women Icon Awards 2021 powered by Times Women."