Sri Alathur Venkatesa Iyer comes from the direct lineage of the Thyagaraja sishyaparampara. Born in a comfortably affluent family, Sri. Venkatesa Iyer flowered forth into a rarely excelled musical maestro well equipped in both lakshana and lakshya. His sense of laya was supreme; he enjoyed a rich repertoire of the compositions of the Trinity, Meesu Krishna Ayyar, Tirupati Narayanaswami, Vedanayakam Pillai, Suddhananda Bharathi and others at a time when such an asset with musicians was rather rare. The rhythmic and lyrical expressions in Tiruppugazh enamoured him and he gave musical expression to it in a style rich with intricate laya. Venkatesa Iyer is considered to be one of the greatest masters Carnatic

music has ever had! Venkatesa Iyer was a disciplinarian and was strict in imparting training. He did not have a huge stream of disciples since his style was highly traditional and writ with difficult rhythm expositions which required austerity and highly dedicated practice amongst the students.

Among his popular disciples include the Alathur Brothers, the clarinet maestro A.K.C Natarajan, popular vocalists such as Sarojini Sundaresan, Chingelpet Ranganathan, J.Venkatraman, the matinee-idol of yester decades, the sweet-voiced M.K.Tyagaraja Bhagavathar and a handful of others. Alathur Brothers, Sangeetha Kalanidhis Siva Subramanyaiyer and Srinivasa Iyer were the most popular of his disciples, the former being his son. In the present day, A K C Natarajan, Sarojini Sundaresan, Chingelpet Ranganathan and J.Venkatraman are still keeping the great Alathur style alive.

Coming from the lineage of Saint Thyagaraja, he had passionate devotion towards him and his songs. He founded the Sadguru Sangeetha Sabha at Tiruchirapalli and organised annually a ten-day Thyagaraja Utsava (festival).

He developed a style that is well known for richness and precision in laya and methodical presentation of rare and well-known Krithis. Though he was a life-long devotee of Thyagaraja, he specialized in rare Dikshathar compositions and out of his respect for the great composer, he purchased the site at Tiruvarur where Dikshitar's house stood to construct a shrine for Dikshathar.

Sri Venkatesa Iyer set to tune and composed intricate chittaswaras for Meesu Krishna Iyer Krithis predominantly in Janya ragas. Special mention must be made here about the krithi 'Naada Brahma ' set to tune in the Naada Brahma raaga which is one of its kind in Carnatic Music. He taught them with fervor to his senior lady-disciple Sarojini Sundaresan.

The Alathur style is famous for singing Ragam Tanam and Pallavi in difficult patterns of Talas (rhythms). Foundation for this difficult exercise is set at a very early stage for the students of this style.

Alathur Venkatesa Iyer is also respected as a great Harmonium artist by critics and connoisseurs to date.

RAAGALAYA Foundation commemorated this great legendary figure of Carnatic Music on December 05, 2003 in Chennai, India, when Sarojini Sundaresan released two CD albums dedicated to her Guru Alathur Venkatesa Iyer, as Alathur Favorites. Stalwarts in the field of Carnatic Music such as Dr. N. Ramani, A.K.C Natarajan, Madurai T.N Seshagopalan, Prof. T.V Gopalakrishnan, Chingelpet Ranganathan, T.K Govinda Rao, P.S.Narayanaswami, M. Chandrasekaran, K.S.Mahadevan, Karaikudi Krishnamurthy (of London) and several others paid their homage to the maestro and felicitated Sarojini Sundaresan for her Guru Bhakti and dedication in upholding the tradition of the Alathur style and spreading it all over world.