Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar is a noted South Indian musician playing the flute.
Born in a reputed musical family on 23 August 1963, Mala started learning flute at the age of five from her gurus Padmasree Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt Sikkil Neela (Mother) and Smt. Sikkil Kunjumani (Aunt).
Lessons progressed slowly until her 15th year when her parents decided to do go for her arangetram. This was done at “Sakthivel llam”, Mylapore (spiritual guru’s house Sri Mani Swamigal) in an unconventional manner with Sri. S.D. Sridhar on the violin and Sri Srimushnam V. Raja Rao on the Mridangam. Later Mala passed through auditions in All India radio for youth programme where she performed at regular intervals.
It was at this time that Mala happened to be auditioned and selected by Doordarshan Kendra in 1980 to perform in “Ilam thendral” programme (a 15 minutes slot)-live. She had played Thyagaraja’s tholijenma-belahari, Ramakatha sudha-madhyamavathi and a song in Bihag. This programme brought Mala lots of appreciation from many great musicians like late Smt. Brindamma and late Sri Nagarajan- reputed Khanjira artiste. It was at this point that late Sri Yagnaraman of Krishna Gana Sabha (who happened to watch the TV programme) gave her the first opportunity to perform Mala's debut concert at the sabha in August 1980. From then on, her musical responsibilities gradually increased.
At this juncture, Mala got the first prize from All India radio for “wind instrument category” blessed by late Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi (MSS) in 1982 and was there upon graded to give regular concerts in radio. At the same time, her inter collegiate music competitions (represented Stella Maris college where she studied) were also instrumental in building up her confidence to emerge as a successful musician.
When Mala was in her final year, that she had the opportunity to participate in the “Violin Venu Veena” trio ensemble with Smt. Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi on the violin and her friend Padmavathi on the Veena. Soon this became successful and Lalgudi mama suggested such an ensemble for concerts. They both performed our debut concert at Krishna Gana Sabha along with Veenai Jayanthi on 1.1.1986. Mala's association with Lalgudi mama’s family taught her many values in life such as discipline, hard work and dedication to the cause of music.
Mala joined the family of the legendary M.S. Subbulakshmi through marriage on 20 June 1986. This indeed provided an additional mileage to attain perfection in her musical career. Besides the VVV ensemble, she also had the opportunity to perform with Sikkil Sisters as flute trio which helped her to improve her repertoire in the concert platform. In this way, Mala was very lucky to get the right kind of encouragement from her inlaws in her musical journey.