Abhishek Raghuram (born 1985) is an Indian carnatic

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

Life

Abhishek was born into a family of notable musicians. He is the grandson of

mridangam The ''mridangam'' is an ancient percussion instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is the primary rhythmic accompaniment in a Carnatic music ensemble. In Dhrupad, a modified version, the pakhawaj, is the primary percussion in ...

maestro Palghat R. Raghu. His mother Usha is the niece of violin maestro

Lalgudi Jayaraman Lalgudi Gopala Iyer Jayaraman (17 September 1930 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. He is commonly grouped with M.S. Gopalakrishnan and T.N.Krishnan as part of the violin trinity of Carnatic mu ...

. Veena exponent

Jayanthi Kumaresh Jayanthi Kumaresh (born 1969) is an Indian classical musician best known for her mastery of the Saraswati veena. With a performing career of more than forty years, she has given concerts throughout India and abroad, recorded widely, and engaged ...

is his mother's sister. Mridangam exponent Anantha R Krishnan, another grandson of Palghat R Raghu, is his cousin. Ghazal and playback singer

Hariharan (singer) Hariharan Anantha Subramani (born 3 April 1955) is an Indian people, Indian playback singer, playback, bhajan and ghazal singer who predominantly sings in Tamil language, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu language, Telugu languages. H ...

is a relative on his father's side. Abhishek started out as a mridangam player under the tutelage of his grandfather Palghat R Raghu but later, on his grandmother's insistence, he went for vocal training. Initially he trained under his mother Usha. From 1994, he began taking lessons from P. S. Narayanaswamy. After completing his B.Sc in Mathematics from

Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, named after Swami Vivekananda, was formally inaugurated on 21 June 1946 by professor, philosopher, and politician, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. It is in Mylapore, the centre of Chennai, India, on 20 acres (81 ...

, he joined

Anna University Anna University is a public state university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The main campus is in Guindy. It was originally established on 4 September 1978 and is named after C. N. Annadurai, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Histor ...

for his Masters in Computer Science but later abandoned it to pursue music. He has performed with musicians such as T. K. Murthy, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman,

Karaikudi Mani Karaikudi Mani (born Ganapathy Subramanyam; 11 September 1945 – 4 May 2023) was an Indian mridangam player. Early life Ganapathi Subramaniam popularly known as Karaikudi Mani was born on 11 September 1945, in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu as the so ...

Trichy Sankaran Trichy Sankaran (born 27 July 1942) is an Indian percussionist, composer, scholar, and educator. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 2011. As a mridangam ''vidwan'', he has been called a "doyen among the percussionist ...

, G. Harishankar,

Thiruvarur Bakthavathsalam Thiruvaarur Bakthavathsalam (born 25 November 1956) is a renowned mridangam Vidwan. In 2021, he was awarded the ''Sangeetha Kalanidhi'' award by the Madras Music Academy. Early life Bakthavathsalam was born in the Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu ...

Ganesh and Kumaresh Ganesh and Kumaresh are an Indian duo of violinists known for their contributions to the Carnatic music tradition of South India. The brothers are recognised as modern contemporary artists in "Sastriya Sangitam". They were honoured with the Sang ...

, the Mysore brothers,

Jayateerth Mevundi Pandit Jayateerth Mevundi (Kannada: ಜಯತೀರ್ಥ ಮೇವುಂಡಿ) is an Indian classical vocalist of the Kirana gharana (singing style). Early life Jayateerth was born in Hubli, Karnataka. He was brought up in a musical environm ...

Mahesh Kale Mahesh Kale (Born 12 January 1976) is an Indian American classical vocalist and playback singer renowned for his specialization in Indian Classical ( Hindustani), Semi-Classical, Devotional music including Natya Sangeet. Mahesh Kale won In ...

, and

Sanjeev Abhyankar Pandit Sanjeev Abhyankar (born 5 October 1969) is a Hindustani classical music vocalist of the Mewati Gharana. Trained under Pandit Jasraj, he was a child prodigy and started his singing career at age 11. Since then has recorded over 60 solo alb ...

. He considers mandolin maestro

U. Srinivas Uppalapu Srinivas (28 February 1969 – 19 September 2014) was an Indian mandolin player in Carnatic classical music and composer. U. Srinivas was called the Mozart of classical Indian music and he was a child prodigy. He was awarded the Padma ...

to have had the greatest influence on his sense of Carnatic music. In the year 2014, Abhishek directed the Children's Carnatic choir organized by the Bhoomija trust as a fund-raiser for Drishti Eye Care, Bangalore and was presented by Zakir Hussain in the "Barsi" festival dedicated to his father

Alla Rakha Alla Rakha Qureshi (29 April 1919 – 3 February 2000) was an Indian tabla player who specialised in Hindustani classical music. Widely revered as one of history's most iconic players of the tabla, he was a frequent accompanist of sitar player ...

. Abhishek was involved in the making of the album ''Kaadalan Bharathi'', composed of songs of Subramanya Bharati's, and also gave a mridangam recital along with Anantha R Krishnan for the 70th birthday celebrations of Karaikudi Mani. Since 2012, Abhishek is an "A" grade artiste of All India Radio. In 2017, he performed at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York during the exhibition 'Modernism on the Ganges' at the

Met Breuer The Met Breuer ( ) was a museum of modern and contemporary art in the Breuer Building at Madison Avenue and East 75th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It served as a branch museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art ( ...

celebrating the work of the Indian photographer Raghubir Singh.

Awards

Abhishek has won several prizes in the competitions conducted by the

Madras Music Academy Madras Music Academy is one of the earliest established music academies in South India. Before the concept of infrastructure was introduced to India in the early 1920s, it was a gathering for elite musicians simply called (and is still more ...

Narada Gana Sabha Narada Gana Sabha is one of the foremost music associations in the city of Chennai, India. It regularly organises programmes during the Chennai Music Season. History The Narada Gana Sabha was founded on 9 February 1958, in Mylapore. After f ...

, Mylapore Fine Arts Club, Tyaga Brahma Gana Sabha and others. He won his first prize, a gold medal awarded by

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 was not publishe ...

, at the age of seven, for his mridangam playing in the all India Mazhalai Medhai contest. He also won a first prize in the pallavi singing competition organized by the S. Balachander Trust in 1996. *Best concert in the Spirit of Youth concert series conducted by Music Academy in 1997. *'Most Inspiring Youth Artiste' Best Junior vocalist – The Music Academy, Madras in Dec 1999 *'Asthana Vidwan' title from the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam in October 2006 *'Yagnaraman Youth Excellence Award' by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai in July 2009 *'Shanmukha Sangeetha Shironmani Award' by Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, Mumbai in December 2009 *Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2013 *'Yogam Nagaswami Award' for Best Senior Vocalist – Madras Music Academy, December Season 2013-14 *'Sangeetha Choodamani Award'- Krishna Gana Sabha

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raghuram, Abhishek 1985 births Living people Male Carnatic singers Carnatic singers Anna University alumni