Lalitha Seshadri

LALITHA SESHADRI'S OBITUARY
Lalitha Seshadri, 88, of Round Rock, Texas, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on July 12, 2024.
Born in Tiruchirapalli, India, Lalitha was a renowned Indian classical Carnatic musician, an accomplished artist and painter, and a teacher and mentor to many in the DFW area. Lalitha had her initial music training under M. A. Venugopal, disciple of Sri. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, and later under renowned maestros Sri. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer himself, and Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna. She started her singing career at the age of 14 and has innumerable performances ever since to her credit in prestigious organizations like the Music Academy, Indian Fine Arts, and Krishna Gana Sabha in Chennai, and at temples and music organizations in Singapore, Malaysia and the US, earning the acclaim of critics and music lovers alike.
Lalitha's first Radio broadcast was in 1951. She was an "A" grade artiste in the All India Radio (AIR), both in classical and light music. She had participated in numerous musical features produced by Tiruchy, Pondicherry and Chennai AIR stations, and had worked as a Staff Artist at Tiruchy AIR.
After immigrating to the US, "Mami" as Lalitha was fondly known, was very active in the Indian American community in Dallas since 1985, founding and leading the Indian Fine Arts Academy in Dallas (a Classical Indian Music organization), enabling musical concerts of maestros from India and for developing and showcasing local talent. Lalitha has taught and mentored music talent in the DFW area and has produced musical features – Sri Thyagaraja's Nowka Charitham, Prahalada Bhakti Vijayam, Pibare Rama Rasam Sri Purandara Dasar's compositions Muddu Krishna, and organized and conducted group performances on every composer's day for the IFAA.
In 1989, Lalitha had the unique privilege of receiving the title of "Sangeetha Saraswathi" from her Guru (teacher) Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, given by the Carnatic Sangeetha Sabha, Dallas. Earlier she had received the title of "Innisai Mamani" for her contribution to Carnatic music in India.
Lalitha has numerous recordings on cassettes and CD's to her credit produced by Sangeetha, HMV and Koel. LP vinyl records for AVM's Kalyana Padalgal, and Thyagaraja's Pancharathna Krithis were recognized with gold discs.
At the age of 12, Lalitha's pencil sketch portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, caught the attention of Pandit Nehru himself who autographed and complimented her on the back of that drawing. Lalitha further developed her art skill and passion for painting while in Paris, France. Her oil portrait of Sri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati was admired and blessed by the Kanchi Shankaracharya himself; another of Lalitha's astounding oil portraits was that of the Puttaparthi Sai Baba.
Lalitha was the epitome of positivity, patience, resilience, enterprise, fun and humor. She was forever willing to teach and share music, just as effortlessly with a child as with an adult.
Lalitha is predeceased by her husband Dr. M.S. Seshadri. She is survived by son Anand Seshadri and his wife Sandhya Seshadri (Richardson, Texas), daughter Anjana Narayanan and her husband Dr. Mohan Narayanan (Round Rock, Texas); 4 grandchildren: Dr. Ajay Narayanan and wife Dr. Ahana Yogesh, Vijay Narayanan, Myna and Krish Seshadri; sisters Vasantha Subramanian, Geeta Venkataraman, and Mala Sutton; and nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Sankara Nethralaya, a non-profit, non-commercial, eye care institution in India that reaches out to the poorest patients, a charity near and dear to Lalitha and Seshadri https://www.sankaranethralayausa.org/donation-page.html