'Bombay' Jayashri sets the tune

On the opening night of the Bengal Classical Music Festival 2015, Jayashri Ramnath (popularly known as 'Bombay Jayashri') will close the day's schedule with her Carnatic vocal performance. 

An Academy Award-nominated music composer, Jayashri gave her first concert in 1982. Since then, she has performed at various festivals and venues in India and abroad. 

The ever-innovative Jayashri has collaborated with various eminent global artistes, among them Egyptian singer Hisham Abbas and Senegalese singer Thione Seck. In 2008, she was part of an Indo-Finnish venture “Red Earth and Pouring Rain”, where she sang “Kuṟuntokai”, an ancient poem from Sangam literature with Avanti, a Philharmonic Orchestra from Finland and set to music by Eero Hämeenniemi. In 2012, she sang the poetry of Mirza Ghalib composed by Eero Hämeenniemi at the Vantaa festival, Finland.

Jayashri is also a much sought-after playback singer and her limited foray into film music has won her the Filmfare award for the popular number “Vaseegara” for the Tamil film “Minnale” which later was remade in Hindi as “Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein”.

Jayashri worked with Oscar-winning director Ang Lee on “Life of Pi”. She wrote and performed the lyrics for “Pi's Lullaby”, which was nominated for the 2013 Oscars in the Best Original Song category.

Jayashri featured in the first full length Carnatic music film “Margazhi Ragam”, conceptualised by Director P Jayendra. Along with T. M. Krishna and YACM, she initiated “Svanubhava”, a week-long annual Music Festival, exclusively for students of music.