Gayathri Venkataraghavan () is an Indian Carnatic vocalist. She lives in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Education

Venkataraghavan trained in Carnatic music at an early age under Rajalakshmi, Padma Veeraraghavan, Rukmini Ramani, V. Subramaniam and Lakshmi Natarajan. At a young age, as Gayatri Ramani, she won a number of prizes in inter-school and Inter-collegiate competitions as well as at competitions held by Music Academy and other sabhas including Indian Fine Arts Society, Mayilapore Fine Arts and Saraswati Vaggeyakara Trust. Her advanced training started in 1990 under Acharya Choodamani Sri. A. Sundareshan, a disciple of Sri C. V. Krishnamurty Iyer, Sri Ramnad Krishnan, and Alathur Shri Shivasubramanya Iyer. She moved to Madurai / Tirunelveli after marriage. Although it witnessed a hiatus in her career, she successfully bounced back into the performing scene after eight years and continued her training under A. Sundareshan. Gayathri later trained with P. S. Narayanaswamy (PSN), a disciple of

Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer Semmangudi Radhakrishna Srinivasa Iyer (25 July 1908 – 31 October 2003) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist. He was the youngest recipient of the Sangeetha Kalanidhi awarded by the Music Academy in 1947, a distinction he holds to this day a ...

, until PSN's death in October 2020.

Performances

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' wrote that her singing shows "modesty and sincerity", and praised her for choosing rare

kritis A ''kriti'' () is a form of musical composition in the Carnatic music literature. The Sanskrit common noun ''Kriti'' means 'creation' or 'work'. A kriti forms the mental backbone of any typical Carnatic music concert and is the longer format o ...

in a 2016 concert. In a 2015 concert, ''The Hindu'' wrote that she "comprehends the strong link between the devoutness of classical music and its manifestation in the form of kritis." They have also called her voice "melodious."

Discography

Her commercial albums have been released by Charsur Digital Workstation and other companies.

Awards and titles

* D. K. Pattammal Award for Lady Vocalist (2001) * T. T. Rangaswamy Award (2002) * Kalki Krishnamoorty Award (2003) * Nada Oli title by Nada Inbam, Madras (2003) * H. Natarajan Prize (2003, 2004) * Carnatic Music Association of North America award * Pappu Kamakshi Award (2006) * MLV Endowment Award by Narada Gana Sabha (2006) * Isai Peroli title by Kartik Fine Arts (2008) * Shanmukha Sangeeta Shironmani from Shanmukhananda Sabha (2008)

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Singers from Chennai Women Carnatic singers Carnatic singers Indian women classical singers 21st-century Indian women singers 21st-century Indian singers Women musicians from Tamil Nadu {{India-singer-stub