Maestro and music wizard Ilaiyaraja celebrated his birthday last week (2 June) in a simple manner. The most revered music composer who has composed over 5000 songs and provided background music for more than 840 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 28 years, is still the sought-after.
He has won the Indian National Film Awards for best music composition thrice. From a remote village in Pannaipuram, Ilayaraja has come a long way to establish a name for himself. His career in music composition took off in 1976 when he began composing film music scores.
His earliest work for the movie Annakkili earned him recognition for its successful fusion of Tamil folk music and popular Tamil film music. Ilaiyaraja is renowned for his orchestration technique, characterised by an effective synthesis of Western and Indian instruments and musical modes. The popular appeal of Ilaiyaraja's music also lies in his flair for catchy melodies.
He composed the theme music for the Miss World 1996 Pageantry that was held in Bangalore. He is the first Asian to have composed a full symphony for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and his Thiruvasagam in Symphony, an oratorio of ancient poems performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Laszlo Kovacs is highly appreciated.
Winner of several awards and accolades, Ilayaraja says he is still a student of music and has much to learn.
