Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma (born 13 August 1968), known colloquially as Prince Rama Varma, is an

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ...

ian and a member of the erstwhile Royal Family of Travancore. He is a Carnatic vocalist as well as an exponent of the

Saraswati Veena The Sarasvatī vīṇa (also spelled Saraswati veena) (, , , Malayalam: സരസ്വതി വീണ) is an ancient Indian plucked veena. It is named after the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is usually depicted holding or playing the instrume ...

. He is also recognized as a music teacher, musicologist, writer and orator. He has performed at concerts and conducted music workshops all over

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and in several other countries including United States, UK,

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. YouTube videos of his concerts, classes and lecture-demonstrations are popular among music lovers, music students and professional musicians alike, and have exceeded 20 million views as of July 2022.

Early life

Rama Varma was born on 13 August 1968 and is a member of the Royal Family of Travancore. He is a direct descendant of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal. He started formal vocal music lessons in 1982 under Prof. Vechoor Harihara Subramania Iyer, a senior disciple of Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, who continued to be his Guru until his demise in 1994. Later, Varma went on to become a senior disciple of Dr. Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna. He also studied the Saraswathi Veena under Sri Trivandrum R. Venkataraman and Prof.K. S. Narayanaswamy.

Music career

Prince Rama Varma gave his maiden public performance in 1990, and released his first CD at the

Queen Elizabeth Hall The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts European classical music, classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Since then, he has given concerts and talks in several very small venues across the globe including

Arsenal de Metz The Arsenal Concert Hall is a cultural venue dedicated specially to classical and art music and located near the Esplanade garden in Metz, capital of the Lorraine region, France. The Arsenal is home to the Orchestre National de Lorraine and a ...

, France; Zuiderpershuis, Belgium; the

Royal Tropical Institute KIT, formerly the Royal Tropical Institute (Dutch: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen), is an applied knowledge institute located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is an independent centre of expertise, education, intercultural cooperation and hospi ...

and The

Waag WAAG ( FM 94.9 MHz), known as FM 95, is a radio station licensed for Galesburg, Illinois, United States. The station is owned by Galesburg Broadcasting Company. The station has a country music Country (also called country and western ...

, Amsterdam; the Korzo Theatre in The Hague; The Hindu Lit for Life Literary festival; Alliance Francaise and the Madras Music Academy. He was invited to perform at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by the then president of India, Dr.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam ( ; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007. Born and raised in a Muslim family in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Kala ...

. Varma is recognized for his pioneering efforts to make classical music in its purest form appealing to the masses, by explaining the lyrics and background of every song during his concerts. His renditions are marked by purity of notes and clarity in enunciation of lyrics in any language. Through his concerts, he propagates rare compositions of well-known composers such as the Trinity (

Saint Tyagaraja Sadguru Tyagaraja Swami (Telugu: సద్గురు త్యాగరాజ స్వామి; 4 May 1767 – 6 January 1847), also known as Tyagayya, and in full as Kakarla Tyagabrahmam (Telugu: కాకర్ల త్యాగబ� ...

Muthuswami Dikshitar Muthuswami Dikshitar (Mudduswamy Dikshitar) (, 24 March 1776 – 21 October 1835), mononymously Dikshitar, was a South Indian poet, singer, veena player, and a prolific composer of Indian classical music. He was the youngest member of what is re ...

Syama Shastri Syama Sastri (Telugu : శ్యామ శాస్త్రి; ; 26 April 1762 – 1827) or Shyama Shastri was a musician and composer of Carnatic music. He was the oldest among the Trinity of Carnatic music, Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshita ...

), Maharaja Swati Thirunal,

Annamacharya Tallapaka Annamacharya () (09 May 1408 – 23 February 1503), also popularly known as Annamayya, was a Telugu musician, composer, and a Hindu saint. He is the earliest known Indian musician to compose songs called '' samkirtanas.'' His devoti ...

and Dr.

M. Balamuralikrishna Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (né Muralikrishna; 6 July 1930 – 22 November 2016) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist, musician, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer, and character actor. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sa ...

, as well as compositions of lesser-known composers such as Etla Ramadasa, Kaiwara Amara Nareyana, Prayaga Rangadasa and Mallekonda Ramadasa

A fan of world music, Varma is inspired by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach,

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born Abhas Kumar Ganguly; ; 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of modern India ...

, K.L. Saigal, M.D. Ramanathan, Madurai Mani Iyer,

Jacques Brel Jacques Romain Georges Brel (; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed theatrical songs. He generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, but later throughout the world ...

and Eartha Kitt among others. He is the subject of a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

, ''Prince Rama Varma: Breaking Barriers, Building Bonds'' written by Lakshmy Menon on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

Teaching

Rama Varma's music classes and workshops are popular among music students ranging from beginners to professional musicians in India and abroad. He taught Indian music at the Rotterdam Conservatory, Codarts for many years. The

Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel Sri Venkateswara Bhakthi Channel (SVBC TV) is the pioneer devotional (bhakthi) channel of TTD. It is the first 24-hour satellite Telugu devotional channel dedicated to broadcasting Hindu devotional programs and live telecasts of poojas perfo ...

(SVBC) telecast over 200 episodes of his music lessons held at

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

and at Perla, a small village in North

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. Varma attempts to transcend language barriers in music through his workshops by teaching, for instance,

Rabindra Sangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' (; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengalis, Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Indian and also the ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-speaking students and Malayalam compositions to students in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

and

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

Music festivals

Rama Varma performing at Swathi Sangeethotsavam

Prince Rama Varma organises the

Swathi Sangeethotsavam Swathi Sangeethotsavam (Swathi Music Festival) is a ten-day festival of music celebrating the compositions of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal. The festival is held from 4 to 13 January every year at Kuthira Malika, Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvanant ...

, a 10-day annual festival held at the

Kuthira Malika Kuthiramalika () is a Travancore Kingdom palace built by Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma on the south-eastern side of Padmanabhaswamy temple, Thiruvananthapuram. Kuthira Malika translates to 'Mansion of horses', and it has been named so because of ...

Palace in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

from 4–13 January. The festival, dedicated exclusively to the compositions of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal, features maestros of Carnatic and

Hindustani Hindustani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Hindustan (another name of India) * Hindustani language, an Indo-Aryan language, with Hindi and Urdu being its two standard registers * Hindustani Muslims are the Urdu-speaking, Hindust ...

music, and attracts music aficionados from all over the globe. Varma also organises the annual Navarathri Mandapam concerts held in Trivandrum in connection with the

Navaratri Navaratri () is an annual Hindu festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess. It spans over nine nights, first in the month of Chaitra (March/April of the Gregorian calendar), and aga ...

festival. In 2006, he got veteran vocalist Parassala Ponnammal to perform there, and permitted women to attend the concerts, thus breaking a 300-year-old tradition of not allowing women inside the

Mandapa A ''mandapa'' or ''mantapa'' () is a pillared hall or pavilion for public rituals in Indian architecture, especially featured in Hindu temple architecture and Jain temple architecture. ''Mandapas'' are described as "open" or "closed" dependin ...

References

External links

Video interview from webindia123.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rama Varma 1968 births Carnatic instrumentalists Male Carnatic singers Carnatic singers Living people Musicians from Thiruvananthapuram Performers of Hindu music Travancore royal family Saraswati veena players Musicians from Kerala 20th-century Indian male classical singers 21st-century Indian male classical singers