Biz lessons from music: Change rules if you don't get to do what you want to, says violinist Dr L Subramaniam

Chasing Passion is a four-part series distilling lessons from acclaimed masters across genres. In the last part of the series, world renowned violinist Dr L Subramaniam talks of his father’s struggles to make the violin heard as a solo instrument and what he, as his son, did  to give it an international stature. In his struggles and victories are lessons that the boardroom could adopt to pursue excellence.

“My father was my hero. Ever since I can recall, I wanted to follow him in whatever he did. He was a violinist and I wanted to be like him,” says acclaimed violinist Dr L Subramaniam of his father, V Laxminarayana. A music prodigy, who began as a vocalist, Subramaniam picked up the violin at 6 and received the President’s award in the All India Radio Violin Competition at the age of sixteen. He relates what lessons can be taken from the music room to the boardroom in an conversation with Firstpost.

Know what you want to do

Going down memory lane, Dr Subramaniam talks with a lot of affection about his parents who were accomplished musicians. His admiration is however reserved for his father, who was his hero. “My father was, like others during the time, just an accompanist in a music performance and depended on other musicians for survival,” he says.

Since a violinist was always part of an orchestra, he had to subdue his craft. “If, as a violinist, you got more responses, you would not be called to perform or be an accompanist at other recitals. My father did not get any concerts as a soloist here in India. You could not play it solo here and expect to be able to support yourself financially,” explains Dr Subramaniam.

Laxminarayana went off to Jaffna in Ceylon as Sri Lanka was then called, to pursue his chances of getting the violin recognised as a solo instrument, perform as a soloist and also teach others. He worked as a professor of music in Jaffna.

“If you don’t get to do what you want to in a given fixed format in your profession, change the dynamics,” says Dr Subramaniam.  He says, you cannot fight the system in the format that it is widely followed and appreciated. What you can do then is to make a difference by going down an uncharted path.

Inculcating a habit

As a family that was steeped in music, Laxminarayana wanted his five children to adapt to music very early in life. He set up an arduous discipline for his children. “From the time I was 4 years old, I have been waking up at 4 am and practicing music till 5.30 am. As children, some days getting up was a bit difficult. Since we lived in a small house, all of us slept in one room. At dawn, my father would pinch all of us with his toe! And if we still did not wake up, some water would be thrown on our faces. If after all this, we did not wake up, we could continue sleeping. But I would listen to him play and would want to be besides him. I enjoyed being around my father. My mother could sing. In the evening, the entire family sat together and we would have a family orchestra with mum and some of us singing, playing the harmonium and father on the violin. Mother was very spiritual,” he says. The practice continued every day – before school and after school hours.

You can’t hope to go anywhere in your career if you do what everyone else does, says Dr Subramaniam. “You have to make that extra effort. Squeeze in time to do something extra that will make you confident with hours of practice,” he advises, adding that you can collect the best books, music available in the genre that you are in but “you have to practice for clarity, to create your own niche.”

Have a back-up plan

Dr Subramaniam wanted to follow his father and learn the violin though his father encouraged him to learn the harmonium. “But I was adamant that I wanted to learn the violin. After  a little struggle, I got my way but I was only a child and did not realize the hardships my father went through and I would too."   Subramaniam found his muse in the violin when he was six years old. He recalls repeating his father’s notes on the violin. “My father never praised me but I heard him tell mother once that I was talented. I was also taught the mridangam and harmonium because my father said to me that knowing to play other instruments would help me in my career,” he says.

Since he was good at academics, Dr Subramaniam pursued a career in medicine. “But I never gave up my daily music practice,” he says. “When I was in my second year of medicine, my father took me to a German violinist who after he heard me play said: Your son has great potential. Why don’t you send him to me? My mother said, “If you go now, you will always remain a 12th pass. You are in the second year of medicine. Go finish the course. My father tried to convince my mother by saying that the degree was only a piece of paper. I cried a lot as I was keen to go and learn from the violinist but mother would not relent.”

For the boardroom, there is an interesting lesson here: Always have an alternative in hand, in case you meet with failure. “You can’t bank on one line of business. Be knowledgeable in other forms in case of a failure,” cautions Dr Subramaniam.

Hone your craft

Pursuing medicine, Dr Subramaniam made time for violin practice. “I would practice daily even if it was late. I enjoyed doing that. It was not a strain. When I picked up my violin, I was happy. I still am. As soon as my lessons in class were over, my father would give me violin classes,” he says. Along with it, he also pursued western classical music. Right after his MBBS degree, Dr Subramaniam got an offer to study for a Master’s Degree in Western Classical Music in California and also got an offer to teach music. “All that I wanted to do was to carry forth my father’s dream of making the violin a solo instrument and give it international recognition,” he says.

Dr Subramaniam is very popular for fusion music with accomplished maestros in other fields of music in India and abroad. “That comprises only a small percentage of my repertoire but people love it,” he agrees. When Richard Bach asked him to write music, he took that up and wrote pieces for an entire orchestra. He has since  written for ballets, done film scores, symphonies and much more.

If you are clear about what you intend to do, choose all options and combinations to strengthen and make your path different from others. “Don’t bother about criticism. If you present something different, what no one else is giving and people enjoy it, the audience will come. Don’t get entangled with the economics at the start. That will take care of itself as you master the art. Learn to enjoy what you are doing. You are your own first customer,” he says.