IMSOM Concert: Palghat Ramprasad (Carnatic Vocal)

Palghat Dr. Ramprasad, the grandson of the legendary Mridangam player Palghat Mani Iyer started learning music from a very young age from his father Sri T.R.Rajaram. RamPrasad’s entry into the concert platform was in the year 1988 in Youth Association for Classical Musical popularly known as YACM in Chennai, when he was less than 8 years old. He won the “Best Artist” of the series. From then on, he has been regularly performing concerts in and out of India in the last 28 years.

Ramprasad aims at adhering to the traditional classical style with more emphasis on “Neraval” singing, which according to his Grandfather is the test of a true vocalist. In this regard Ramprasad has had the rarest of blessings to get first hand information through his father and his uncle T.R.Rajamani about Sri Mani Iyer’s view on carnatic music and how a concert should be performed.

Legends and senior vidwans such as “Sangeetha Kalanidhi” Sri T.K.Murthy, “Sangeetha Kalanidhi” Late Sri Palghat Raghu, Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri T.V.Gopalkrishnan, “Sangeetha Kalanidhi” Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman, “Sangeetha Kalanidhi” Sri Ramabadhran, Sri Trichy Sankaran, Sri M.S.Anantharaman, and Sri Sikkil Bhaskaran, to name a few, have accompanied Ramprasad.

Awards / Accolades : Ramprasad is an “A” grade artist in All India Radio (AIR) and performs regularly on all the leading television channels. He teaches music to students in India and abroad, and all his students are performing artists themselves in their own right. Ram also conducts vocal classes through a school that he has created, known as “Palghat Mani Iyer School of Music” in Mylapore, Chennai. Dr Ramprasad works as a senior economist at Athena Infonomics, India and is a visiting post doctoral fellow at The Harvard School of Public Health. In the academic front, Ramprasad completed his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Georgia. He holds a Bachelors’ degree in commerce, a Masters Degree in Economics, in which he was awarded 7 gold medals and holds the record for the highest marks scored

Sampath Narayan a.k.a. Trivandrum N. Sampath's dexterity on the violin makes him one of the most sought-after accompanists on the Carnatic concert circuit in Kerala. He has had the privilege of accompanying many senior musicians such as T.V. Sankaranarayanan, O.S. Thyagarajan, T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Mathangi Satyamoorthy, Parassala Ponnammal, Sreevalsan J. Menon, Trichur V. Ramachandran, and Ravikiran, to name a few. Sampath believes in building knowledge through listening and believes that the key to excelling as a violinist lies in constantly updating and expanding one's repertoire of ragas and compositions.

Sampath is at present an A grade artiste of All India Radio, and is also studying for a doctorate at his alma mater, Sree Swati Tirunal Government College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram, where he is researching on Tygaraja kritis in raga Thodi.

Born in a family of musicians and scholars, Narendran was initiated into an early training in Mridangam by Sri Kongorppilly Parameswaran Namboodiri who spotted his talent during a dance rehearsal at an annual family get together at Manakkulam Palace, and started teaching Narendran the basics of Mridangam when he was just seven. It was David Bhagavathar of Kunnamkulam who instilled in him the interest in music and inspired him to seriously take up the Mridangam. Later it was Sri E P Narayana Pisharodi and Koduvayur Radhakrishnan who trained him further. Narendran had the rarest privileges to be one of the early disciples of Palghat R Raghu in 1973. It was the scholarship awarded by the Government of India that provided the fecundity for him to learn the finer and the most intricate techniques of mridangam playing from Mridangam Maestro Padmashri.

It was at the age of 17 that he won the first prize in All India Radio Music Competition. Since then, Trichur Narendran has won numerous awards & accolades including Maharajapuram Santhanam Foundation Meritorious Award (1999), Asthana Vidwan of Kanchi Mutt (2001), Layavadhya Chatura by Anna Nagar Music Circle Trust & Sadguru Sangita Vidyalaya (2010), Laya Kalavipanchi from Dr Balamuralikrishna (2011), Dasa Kalaratna by Shri Purandaradaasar Trust, Chennai (2015), and Kalaseva Niratha from Tyagaraja Vidwath Samajam (2017)

Trichur Narendran moved to Chennai in 1973. He taught Mridangam at San Diego State University USA as a Visiting Professor from 1984 - 1986. He was on the staff of All India Radio from 1992 - 2011. He has since retired and settled down in Chennai.