Mandolin Shrinivas passes away

Chennai, Sep 19 (IANS) Famous mandolin player and musician Uppalapu Shrinivas, popularly known as Mandolin Shrinivas, died here Friday in a private hospital due to illness. He was 45.

He was admitted to Apollo Hospital here some days back due to liver problem and breathed his last Friday morning around 9.30, hospital officials said.

Born Feb 28, 1969, in Palakolu, Andhra Pradesh, Shrinivas as a mandolin player of Carnatic music discipline was a child prodigy.

As a six-year-old boy, Shrinivas would play his father Satyanarayana's mandolin. His brother U. Rajesh is also a noted mandolin player.

A world renowned musician, Shrinivas gave his first public performance in 1978 in Andhra Pradesh. Three years later he performed at the Madras Music Season for the Indian Fine Arts Society.

Soon he started trotting the globe. In 1983, Shrinivas performed at the JazzFest Berlin and later toured Canada, Australia and many other countries.

In 1988, he was awarded Padma Shri. Later in 2010, he was honoured with Sangeet Natak Academy Award.

He was also the recipient of the prestigious Sangeeta Ratna award.

He rendered performances with Western artist like Michael Brook, John McLaughlin, Nigel Kennedy, Trey Gunn, Michael Nyman and others.

Shrinivas also performed with Hindustani classical musicians like Hariprasad Chaurasia and Zakir Hussain.