Background
Palghat Ramaswamy Raghu was born in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) to Palghat Ramaswamy Iyer and Ananthalakshmi Ammal.
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Palghat Raghu
Edit ProfileCareer
As a child, he was immensely talented and inducted into mridangam lessons very early in his life. His first mridangam lessons were from Tinniam Venkatarama Iyer and Trichy Raghava Iyer. He was a graduate of mathematics.
Raghu was a percussion master known for his distinctive style in playing as well as his effortless finger techniques and technical brilliance.
His unique style which involves imaginative use of the Toppi (left part of Mridangam) combines melody with rhythm and lifts the concert performance to high levels. Using different techniques, he adjusted his playing style to not only different artists and instruments but also captures the bhava and sahitya of music
His distinctive style is recorded in numerous concert tapes and CDs. The tani avartanams with other rhythm virtuosos such as Harishankar, Nagarajan (kanjira), Alangudi Ramachandran, T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram, Subhash Chandran (ghatam), remain quite memorable to this day.
Raghu toured extensively in Europe, United States of America, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
He performed with artists such as Sitar Maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, Flute Hariprasad Chaurasia, Santoor Shivkumar Sharma and Alla Rakha in numerous concerts in India and abroad. He had also been involved in East-West fusion music He had been visiting professor of music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, San Diego State University and University of Berkeley.
He regularly conducted advanced mridangam classes for the benefit of his students and upcoming mridangam artists.
Palghat Raghu"s grandsons are carnatic musician Abhishek Raghuram and mridangam artist Anantha R. Krishnan.
Achievements
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Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1983 Palghat Mani Iyer award (first recipient) Padma Shri in year 1985 Mridangam Chakravarty award Kalaimamani (Tamil Nadu) Sangeetha Choodamani by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai (1978) Mridangam Nada Mani (Shankaracharya) Nada Brahmam - award from Narada Gana Sabha( 2000) Nada Nidhi (2001) Sangeetha Kalanidhi (2007).
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Born
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Died
June 2, 2009 (aged 81) -
Nationality
India
Awards
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Sangeet Natak Akademi Award; Padma Shri Sangeet Natak Akademi Award; Padma Shri; Kalaimamani; Sangeetha Choodamani; Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1983 Palghat Mani Iyer award (first recipient) Padma Shri in year 1985 Mridangam Chakravarty award Kalaimamani (Tamil Nadu) Sangeetha Choodamani by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai (1978) Mridangam Nada Mani (Shankaracharya) Nada Brahmam - award from Narada Gana Sabha( 2000) Nada Nidhi (2001) Sangeetha Kalanidhi (2007)Sangeet Natak Akademi Award; Padma Shri Sangeet Natak Akademi Award; Padma Shri; Kalaimamani; Sangeetha Choodamani; Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1983 Palghat Mani Iyer award (first recipient) Padma Shri in year 1985 Mridangam Chakravarty award Kalaimamani (Tamil Nadu) Sangeetha Choodamani by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai (1978) Mridangam Nada Mani (Shankaracharya) Nada Brahmam - award from Narada Gana Sabha( 2000) Nada Nidhi (2001) Sangeetha Kalanidhi (2007)