About Jerry Amaldev

Born at Cochin, Kerala. April 15.
Parents: Veleeparambil C. Joseph and Moonjapilly D. Mary.
Wife: Late Jolly Amaldev. Children: Meera, Sangeeta and Dahlia. Son-in- Law : Amit John and Bharat Vaasan.

Composes music for the first song. Learns notation by himself.
Organizes and leads Bosco Kalasamithy Orchestra, parent organization of the present Cochin Arts and Communications (CAC), Cochin.

Obtains SSLC from St. Albert's High School, Ernakulam.
Begins to play the Church Organ by himself.

Gets Piano lessons from private tutors for 3 years.
Gets Tabla lessons from Mohammed Khan of AIR, Indore, for 3 years.

Obtains Intermediate degree from Holkar College, Indore, MP.

Obtains the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy from the Papal Athenaeum, Pune.
Gets trained in North Indian Vocal music under Madhusoondan Patwardhan of Vishnu Digambar Sangeet Vidyalaya, Pune. Composes and conducts songs for public programmes in Pune.

Gets trained in vocal music under S.C.R. Bhat and K.G. Ginde in Bombay.

Joins Naushad in Bombay. Assists him till 1969 in films such as Aadmi, Palki, Ram aur Shyam, Sunghursh, Dil Diya Dard Liya and Saathi.

Obtains the degree of Bachelor of Music from Xavier Univ., New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Joins Post Graduate Programme at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Work– Study programme involves class-room teaching of music for 2 years under the guidance of Prof. William W. Austin, Chairman, Dept. of Music, Cornell University.

Obtains the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Music Composition at Cornell University. Thesis: Part I, A Gat for Small Orchestra. Part II, Roumanian Folk Dances by Bartok, a study. Publishes INDIA, Raga Music for Piano through Warner Communications, New York.

From this year onwards teaches as private instructor Piano to children in New York City and Westchester county for four years. Great experience.

Teaches at Queens College, Flushing, New York.

Composes, orchestrates, records and distributes in the USA Atma ki Awaz, an L.P. in Hindi featuring Yesudas.

Music directs the first Malayalam movie, Navodaya's Manjil Virinja Pookkal. Bags Kerala State Award for excellence in music direction for the same.

Works as Principal of Cochin Arts & Communications, Cochin, a premier institute of Music and Arts in Cochin. Sets up its recording studio.

While pursuing freelance music direction for 75 movies and innumerable audio cassettes,the following tasks were fulfilled simultaneously.

Composes, conducts, gets recorded and synchronizes background score for the Tamil version of Franco Zefirelli's Jesus of Nazareth. Becomes member of Indian Performing Rights Society.

Composes music for Harindranath Chattopadhyaya's Nursery Rhymes for Tharangini Audio Cassettes, Trivandrum. Conducts at Cochin during the Pope's visit of India a choir of 500 and an orchestra of 40.

Bags the Kerala State award for excellence in music direction for the movie, APARAHNAM. Begins teaching music at Stella Maris College, Madras.

Bags the Kerala State award a third time for excellence in music direction for the movie, KAZHAKAM.

Begins composing Hindi songs for CPC, Doordarshan, New Delhi.

Begins to teach music at the American International School, Chennai, an institution of the State Dept., Washington D.C., USA.

Visits Europe twice pursuing research on Gregorian chant.
Lectures at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, on the feasibility of combining Indian ragas with Gregorian chant. Composes music for several religious and secular audio CD's.
Conducts, in Cochin and Madras, choral performances involving large numbers of singers and instrumentalists.

Joins the Choice Group, Cochin, as their music consultant.
Becomes conductor of the Rock of Ages, a choral group specializing in Western music.

For 3 years. Conducts a Syro Malabar Church choir at the inauguration of their Cathedral in Chicago, USA. Active in conducting music for various socially relevant films and television serials.

On 4th July 2010, establishes and conducts Sing, India with Jerry Amaldev, a secular choral group. On April 6th 2011 –“The Jerry Amaldev Foundation” got registered under the Charitable Societies Registration Act 1955 (Act XII of 1955).

After a gap of 20 years, Jerry Amaldev composes music for a Malayalam movie ”Action Hero Biju”, released on 4th February, 2016 which became a huge hit with a duet rendered by Yesudas and Vani Jayram – “Pookkal Panineer Pookkal”.

Currently leading an active role in the field of Music by conducting Concerts of SIWJA, Sing, India with Jerry Amaldev) in India and abroad, conducting Music workshops, Visiting faculty in Music Colleges and composing Film, Devotional and Secular music albums.