G.V. Atri (born G. Vijayakumar Atri, 21 May 1964, died - 30 April 2000) was an Indian singer in the

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

language (spoken in the state of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

of India).

Early years

He was born in

Kanakapura Kanakapura is a town in the Ramanagara district of Karnataka on the banks of the Arkavathi river and the administrative center of the taluk of the same name. Previously belonged to Bangalore Rural District. It was formerly the largest constit ...

and raised in

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

city. He was trained in the Hindustani form of Indian classical music during his formative years under his guru, Sheshadri Gavai of Bangalore.

Music career

Atri specialized in ''sugama sangeetha'' (light music), the modern singing form. He also sang as a playback singer for more than a dozen Kannada movies. He performed live on stage with avariety of songs. He was popularly known as "Junior P.B. Sreenivas", as his voice resembled that of the famous playback singer, P.B. Sreenivas. He composed and sang a few thousand songs encompassing a musical repertoire of romantic, devotional, patriotic, folk and children's songs for many of his albums. He was a member of the Karnataka Sangeetha Nrithya Academy, a Karnataka government institution. He organized music oriented social events such as ''sugama sangeetha'' seminars, recognition tof historic musicians and music competitions. He also organized a music workshop for the benefit of inmates of a Bangalore prison. He believed that music improves the qualities of human beings and it could reform even criminals. He founded the Sangeetha Ganga, a foundation and music school to train and encourage young and upcoming singers in Kannada. Many have attended Sangeetha Ganga.

Death

He died, along with five of his family members, during a bath in a river at Sringeri. Many awards have been instituted in his memory by public cultural organizations to discover and encourage young talents.

References

Singers from Bangalore 1964 births 2000 deaths Deaths by drowning in India 20th-century Indian male singers 20th-century Indian singers {{India-singer-stub