The Madras Music Academy Journal describes Dr. Shastry as:
"Srikantham Nagendra Shastry, a musician with impeccable credentials. An accomplished vocalist and an authority on javalis."
Achievements
Concerts
Dr. Shastry has performed on various prestigious sabhas such as The Madras Music Academy, Karnataka Gana Kala Parishat, Bangalore Gayana Samaja, Sri Rama Seva Mandali at Fort Hight School, Madurai Sourashtra Sabha, Mysore Palace, Jaganmohan Palace, Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, BTM Cultural Academy, ISKCON, Krishna Sangeetha Sabha, Ayanar and Vijaya College, JSS Sangeetha Sabha to name a few.
Expertises
Raga Tana Pallavi - He is an expert in rendering Raga Tana Pallavis set to 108 talas, 175 talas 1008 talas. He has performed varieties of Pallavis like Shodasha Kale pallavi, Avadhana Pallavi and many more.
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Dashavidha Raga Navati Kusuma Manjari - A rare musical wonder which contains toughest of the avadhana talas like Panchamukhi and Shanmukhi. After its inception by Sri Ajjada Adibhatla Narayana Dasu, Nagendra Shastry is the first person to perform it for the first of its kind with his troupe of nine students after a gap of nearly 100 years.
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Unique style in rendering Javalis and giving Lecture demonstrations - He has a collection of more than 1000 rare and envied javalis and known for his uniqueness in presenting javalis and the same was appreciated by veteran artists like Dr. TR Subramanyam, Karpagam Swaminathan, Dr. SR Janakiraman, Dr. Pappu Venugopal Rao, MS Gopalakrishnan and others during his lecture demonstration and performance of Javalis at Annual Conference of Madras Music Academy.
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Skilled Orator - Shastry is a seasoned orator whose unique style of communicating complex musical ideas in a lucid manner have been highly appreciated by reknowned critics such as Dr. BVK Shastry and Dr. SN Chandrashekhar.
Literary works and publications
Some of his music literature works include:
1. Apoorva Sadashiva - Rare Unpublished compositions of Mysore Sadashiva Rao
2. Ashesha Padmanabha Samputa - Lifehistory, achievements and compositions of Veena Padmanabhaiah
3. Rasa Raja Vaibhava - Rare javalis on Mysore Wodeyars
4. Venkataramana Vaggeya Vaibhava - Compositions of Walajpete Venkataramana Bhagavatar
5. Kala sinchana - Biography of 5 eminent artists published by Department of Kannada and Culture, Govt of Karnataka.
6. "Musical references in ancient Kannada literature" for which he received a double PhD (Music and literature) from Dravidian University
7. Chintalapalli Parampara Ratnamalika - A compilation of compositions belonging to Chintalapalli Parampara.
8. Co-editor for publishing comprehensive works of Vid. Mattur Shankaramurthy in 9 volumes published by Karnataka Sangeetha Nrutya Academy, Govt of Karnataka
9. Comprehensive collection of Cheluvindala Gaviranga Dasaru - Editor of a collection of over 100 krutis of Cheluvindala Gaviranga Dasa
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Apart from this, he has contributed hundreds of articles for various magazines and books exceeding 5000 pages.
Awards
1. "Kanchi Kamakoti Asthana Vidwan" from Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham
2. "Raja Yogindra" award instituted by Royal Family of Mysore in the name of HH Jayachamaraja Wodeyar
3. "Nadajyothi Puraskar" conferred by Nadajyothi Sri Tyagaraja Bhajana Sabha
4. Felicitation during Brahmotsava inagural function from Dasa Sahitya Project, TTD by Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandra Babu Naidu
5. "Bengaluru Siri" from Govt of Karnataka
6. "Adibhatla National Award" from noted film director Padmashree K. Vishwanath
7. "Ananya Shastra Koustubha" - A state level award conferred by Ananya for expertise in Karnataka Sangeetha Shastra
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and many more ....
Shastry as an Archivist
Dr. Shastry has collected and preserved palm leaf manuscripts related to ancient literature and music. He has a collection of gramophone discs and cassettes of over 100 years of music. He has a rare collection of around 5000 books on music, literature, spirituality and history. Dr. Shastry's collection also includes tamburas used by Ramnad Srinivas Iyengar, Bhairavi Kempegowda, Papa Chudamani and other eminent artists.