Lalgudi Trust
Lalgudi Trust, founded in 1980 by Padma Bhushan Sri Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, is dedicated to preserving, promoting, and advancing the rich legacy of the Lalgudi bani. Today, Lalgudi GJR Krishnan and Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi carry forward the Trust's vision through sponsoring youth concerts, education, archival preservation, and mentoring young musicians.
A pioneering initiative of the Trust is Violin Wise, through which violin making and maintenance have been actively nurtured. This effort has led to the emergence of four skilled luthiers who now serve the wider string community by crafting and maintaining quality violins—a significant contribution to the future of the instrument in India.
Every year, the Trust also presents Violin Vaibhavam, a flagship festival that encourages young violinists to pursue solo performance by providing them with a prestigious platform. Through these initiatives, the Lalgudi Trust continues to enrich the world of Indian classical music and inspire future generations.
Over the years, Lalgudi Trust has provided scholarships for the needy, gifted musical instruments to deserving and aspiring students, sponsored youth concerts in various venues all over India, and created endowments in leading Sabhas to award prizes to outstanding young Violinists.
VIOLIN- WISE
Since 2013, Lalgudi Trust has been conducting “Violin Wise”, a unique and first-of-its-kind workshop in the history of Carnatic Music. This wonderful workshop is held over a two-week period in Chennai, and brings together local violin craftsmen with one of the foremost western luthiers. Under the auspices of this workshop, Mr. James Wimmer, a passionate and expert Luthier from Santa Barbara, is brought to Chennai to impart his knowledge and skills to the local craftsmen free of cost.
In addition, the Trust sponsors specialized tools as well as a stipend for the craftsmen who are chosen to attend the workshop. Through this initiative, and through the ongoing work of the graduates of this workshop, Lalgudi Trust is helping to raise the quality of instrument care for string instruments all over India.
CONSERVATION PROJECT
The Lalgudi Trust's Conservation project has been taken up by Kadhir conservation in which trust‘s collection of letters, articles, journals, notation notebooks, posters, invites, photographic albums and paintings were archived and conserved between December 2021 and December 2022. This mammoth project is probably the first time ever that an entire parampara's tangible and intangible works have been reserved for posterity.
The Trust has grown steadily from strength to strength over the years. Since the passing of Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman in 2013, the Trust has been under the stewardship of Shri Lalgudi Krishnan. Donations to the Trust are exempt under sec 80 G of the Income Tax Act.