Trivandrum R Venkataraman

R Venkataraman (31 August 1938 - 5 January 2010) is a renowned classical musician and veena maestro from India, in the Carnatic Music genre. He was a member of the famous veena-violin-venu trio along with Lalgudi G Jayaraman and N. Ramani.

Early days and personal life

Venkataraman started his training in vocal music when he was four years old, under the guidance of his father Rama Subba Sastri. He started his veena lessons when he was eight under Lakshmi G. Krishnan. Venkataraman went on to became a student of Padma Bhushan K. S. Narayanaswamy. He later developed his vocal music skills under the guidance of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and C. S. Krishna Iyer.

Career

Venkataraman's career spanned five decades. During the years 1965 to 1968, he was part of the famous Veena-Venu-Violin trio concerts along with Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and N. Ramani.

Tours

Venkataraman has toured extensively between the years 2001 and 2005. Some of his performances have been in Australia, France among other countries. In addition to is performances he was well known for his lecture demonstrations.

Students

He has been the guru for numerous students for the veena and vocal performances. Some of his prominent students are Prince Rama Varma (vocal and veena), Sesha Nambirajan (veena), Iyer Brothers (veena), Seetha Balakrishnan (veena) and Sugandha Kalamegam. (vocal).

Awards & felicitations

• Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy award for 1982^[1]
• "Shanmukha Vadivu" award by the Music Academy (1990)
• "Chellapally Ranga Rao" award by the Music Academy (1990)
• Honored by the Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer trust (1999)
• "Sangita Kala Acharya" title conferred by the Music Academy (2009)^[2]

Death

The maestro and and his daughter Devisri died in a car accident at Ulundurpet on the 5th of January 2010. The accident happened when the car they were traveling in met with an accident while crossing a bridge on the national highway.^[3]

References