Viji Subramaniam

Viji Subramaniam, also known as Viji Shankar, (15 August 1952 – 10 February 1995) was an Indian singer. She was the daughter of singer Lakshmi Shankar (Hindustani vocalist born into a South Indian family) and Rajendra Shankar (elder brother of sitarist Ravi Shankar, a Bengali). Like her mother and uncle, Subramaniam was a musician and trained in both the Indian classical systems.

Subramaniam was born Vijayashree Shankar in Madras into a south Indian Brahmin family and grew up in Bombay. A singer from an early age, she regularly accompanied her mother in concert, Among the prizes she received for her performances as a singer on radio and television, Subramaniam won the All India Radio "President of India" medal in 1972. In 1974, together with her aunt Kamala Chakravarty and Lakshmi, Viji joined Shankar's Music Festival from India, a revue sponsored by George Harrison. produced by Harrison and recorded at his English estate, Friar Park. Following the Music Festival's European concerts in September–October 1974, Subramaniam was among the musicians and singers on Shankar's North American tour with Harrison at the end of that year.

Subramaniam received a master's degree in music from the California Institute of the Arts. She met her husband, Indian classical violinist L. Subramaniam, in London in 1974 while they were both participating in the Music Festival from India.

In 1992 Vijayashree and Subramaniam launched the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival (LGMF) in memory of her father-in-law. Now an annual feature and held in various cities around the world, this festival brings together eminent Indian and international artists on the same stage. Among those who have performed at LGMF are Yehudi Menuhin, Bismillah Khan, Allah Rakha, Kishan Maharaj, Arve Tellefsen, Malavika Sarukkai and Christian Eggen, from cancer. Part of one of her vocal performances appears in Violin from the Heart, a 2006 documentary film on L. Subramaniam by French director Jean Henri Meunier. Her daughter Gingger Shakar is a Los Angeles-based violinist and composer of film soundtracks, and has credited Viji's influence in providing her with a diverse musical background, saying: "We'd go to classical concerts and listen to rock music on the way back home. She was a very open-minded person and because of that I was able to soak up so much." Also musicians, Bindu Subramaniam and Ambi Subramaniam were among the featured performers at the 22nd staging of LGMF, held as a six-city Indian tour over December 2013 and January 2014.