Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja.
Credit: DH photo
Chennai: Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja has decided to donate the concert fees of his Symphony Number 1 ‘Valiant’ and his one-month salary that he earns as a Rajya Sabha MP to the National Defence Fund in the wake of tensions between India and Pakistan.
He also said he composed and recorded his first symphony and named it “Valiant”, unaware that in May, India’s real heroes, and soldiers would need to act with bravery, boldness, courage, precision and determination at the borders to counter the cold blooded killing of innocent tourists in Pahalgam.
“I am very confident that our selfless brave hearts will bring the enemies to their knees,” he said in a social media post.
The music maestro said as a proud Indian and a Member of Parliament, he has decided to make a modest contribution of his concert fees and one month’s salary to the National Defence Fund for the Valiant efforts. “…our country’s brave heroes to wipe out terrorism, and safeguard our borders & people. Jai Hind,” he added.
Ilaiyaraaja wrote himself into the annals of the history of music on March 8 this year by becoming the first Indian artist to conduct a full Western classical Symphony composed in the United Kingdom. A symphony is a long piece of music with multiple sections or movements, each with their own distinct features.
Composed by Ilaiyaraaja in just 35 days, the full-orchestra performance of the Symphony will be conducted by renowned British music conductor Mikel Toms with about 85 musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO). The symphony was recorded in London last year and a Behind the Scenes (BTS) video released this January has gone viral.
“There is nothing (called) good or bad in music. Each and every note is perfect on its own,” said Ilaiyaraaja.
The venerable Ilaiyaraaja achieved unparalleled success in the field of music though he never had a formal training and this thought has always weighed heavily on his mind. He recently told an event that “I don’t know music” despite having composed over 8,500 songs for about 1,500 feature films in nine languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi.