Sunday, May 21, 2000, 5:30 pm
R.N. Thyagarajan &
R.N. Tharanathan
(The Rudrapatnam Brothers)
(Vocal Duet)
with
R.K. Sriramkumar (Violin) &
Bombay Balaji (Mridangam)
Venue:
HHH Cowles Auditorium
University of Minnesota, West Bank campus, Minneapolis
About the artists:
R. N. Thyagarajan and R. N. Tharanathan, popularly known as the Rudrapatnam Brothers, hail from a family of reputed musicians, who are zealously keeping their tradition for 3 generations from Rudrapatnam, a sleepy village on the banks of the Kaveri river in Karnataka state, South India. Music was an integral part of the family along with veda adhyayana, study of sanskrit and agriculture. They are trained by their father Sri R.K. Narayanaswamy, a disciple of Sri Musiri Subramania Iyer and their uncle late Sri R.K.Venkatarama Sastri, violinist and a disciple of Sri Mysore T. Chowdiah. The brothers possess a chaste classical style and demonstrate excellence in rendering compositions. Clarity in Ragam, purity in Sruti, stability in Gamakas, and correctness in the articulation of the Sahitya characterize their highly style. Among vocal duos, they distinguish themselves especially for the exquisite manner in which their voices blend together. They received awards in All India Radio vocal music competitions from the late Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, then President of India, thrice, in 1961, 1963 and 1964. The brothers went on to receive the best concert award from the prestigious Music Academy, Madras in 1981, the Rajyotsava award by the Karnataka state government in 1992, the Gana Sudhakara title at Udipi in 1979, the Gana Kala Tilaka title at Goa in 1995. They have given their vocal duet performances all over the India and have extensively traveled for concert tours around the globe including the USA, Singapore and Malaysia. They are A grade artists of AIR and have been giving radio programs since 1961 and in Doordarshan Bangalore and Chennai. Albums of their concerts have been brought about by the Sarasvathi project, Amsterdam, Netherlands, CMANA New York, USA and others.
R. K. Shriramkumar had his initial training in violin playing from Smt. Savitri Satyamurthy and then had advanced training from his grandfather Sri. R.K. Venkatrama Sastry. He presently receives guidance from Vidwan Sri. V.V. Subramanyam. He has also had training in vocal music from Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri. D.K. Jayaraman. Sriramkumar has regularly accompanied many senior musicians such as D.K. Pattammal, M.S. Subbalakshmi, K.V. Narayanaswamy, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Brinda, Ravikiran, S. Balachandar and T.N. Seshagopalan in concert tours in India, USA, Canada, Australia and UK.
Bombay Balaji hails from a family of artists. Balaji started his initial training in Mridangam at the age of six from the legendary maestro, the late Palghat Mani Iyer. He also completed an eight year integrated course at the Bharatiya music and arts college, Bombay, under the able guidance of Trichy Raghava Iyer. Balaji has continued his training under Palghat Raghu over the past nine years. Balaji’s debut concert was in 1981 ( at the age of 11), as accompanist to violinist Prof. T.N. Krishnan. He has since played for almost all the leading musicians and instrumentalists in the Carnatic field, including K.V. Narayanaswamy, T.N. Seshagopalan, Late Sri. Kalyanaraman, Mandolin Srinivas, and D.K. Pattammal. Balaji is a grade A artist of All India Radio. He is a recipient of several awards including the prestigious Henry Cowel award from the Music Academy, Chennai, the first prize in the talent promotion contest organized by the Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai, ,and the first prize at the 1986 All India Radio competition. He is presently undergoing training in vocal music from Sri Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan.
© Copyright 2001 Indian Music Society of Minnesota