Vittal Ramamurthy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Vittal Ramamurthy is a leading and popular violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist in the Carnatic music

Carnatic music

Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...

tradition of South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

. He is an outstanding
soloist as well as an excellent accompanist. He is a Grade 'A' artiste of All India Radio

All India Radio

All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

and has performed extensively in national radio and television, in addition to live concerts.

Musical training

Born in a family of musicians and music connoisseurs, Vittal started his musical journey at home. He started learning Carnatic music from his mother, Krishnaveni, who is the main guiding force in all walks of his life. He was introduced to violin by his grandfather, Late Sangeethabhushanam B.V. Subba Rao. He continued training under Hosahalli Venkataram and T. Rukmini. He has been fortunate to learn the nuances of violin playing from the legend and violin maestro Padmabhushan Lalgudi Jayaraman

Lalgudi Jayaraman

Lalgudi Jayarama Iyer is a well-known Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer.-Early life and background:...

. Under his able tutelage, he blossomed into a versatile musician.

Style

His authentic rendering of Carnatic music is rich with creativity and innovative improvisation. His playing scores high on the melody

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

scale and is embellished with heart-warming sangatis. His excellent style encompasses aesthetic grace, rhythmic accuracy and captivating melody.

His accompanying style is to subtly blend with and complement the main performer in the best traditions of the Lalgudi style. Sensitive accompaniment, harmony, grace and maturity mark his widely acclaimed performances. He has a strong vocal background also. This adds essence to the quintessence of the Lalgudi style which is characterized by purity, clarity, melody and above all deep
emphasis on Sahitya. His bhava-filled raga expositions stand testimony to his talent and arduous training.

Soloist and accompanist

He has performed in 1500+ concerts worldwide. He has been blessed to accompany his guru, Lalgudi Jayaraman

Lalgudi Jayaraman

Lalgudi Jayarama Iyer is a well-known Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer.-Early life and background:...

in his vocal, violin duet
and trio concerts. He has accompanied great vocal stalwarts like D. K. Jayaraman

D. K. Jayaraman

D. K. Jayaraman , the renowned brother of D. K. Pattammal, was a Carnatic music singer.After learning music from his sister, he furthered his musical skills under many known masters in the field, including Muthiah Bhagavathar and Papanasam Sivan. Like his sister, Jayaraman was known for his moving...

, Dr. Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna

Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna

Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna is a Carnatic vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and a playback singer. He is also acclaimed as a poet, composer and respected by all Indian classical musicians for his knowledge of Carnatic Music....

, R K Srikanthan

R K Srikanthan

Rudrapatna Krishnashastri Srikantan is a vocalist of the Karnataka Sangeeta tradition of South Indian music.- Family background and early life :...

, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy

Nedunuri Krishnamurthy

Dr. Nedunuri Krishnamurthy is a famous Indian Carnatic vocalist. His tonal quality and "Continuity" are his special assets.-Early life:...

, Madurai T. N. Seshagopalan

Madurai T. N. Seshagopalan

Madurai Thirumalai Nambi Seshagopalan is a noted Carnatic musician and composer. As well as being a master of the veena and harmonium, he is an exponent of harikatha....

, T. K. Govinda Rao, T. V. Sankaranarayanan, K. J. Yesudas

K. J. Yesudas

Kattassery Joseph Yesudas is an Indian classical musician and playback singer.Yesudas sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music. He has recorded more than 50,000 songs in many languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Marathi, Punjabi,...

, Bombay Sisters

Bombay Sisters

-Early life:Bombay Sisters were born in Bombay. They have been trained by H. A. S. Mani, Musiri Subramania Iyer and T. K. Govinda Rao.-Career:Part of the trend of duo singing in Carnatic music, which started in the 1950s, with performers like Radha Jayalakshmi, and Soolamangalam Sisters, they have...

and Sudha Raghunathan

Sudha Raghunathan

Sudha Raghunathan is a Carnatic music singer from South India. She was awarded a Padma Shri for excellence in singing. She was born in Bangalore and went to Good Shepherd Convent. She did higher education at Bangalore, Karnataka and obtained a Masters Degree in Economics.She started singing at...

. He has also accompanied the current generation vocal artistes like Vijay Siva

Vijay Siva

N Vijay Siva is an eminent Carnatic music singer, and is the disciple of the vocalist, D. K. Jayaraman.-Background:Vijay Siva was born to Akhila Siva and A.N.Siva on 29 March 1967....

, Neyveli Santhanagopalan

Neyveli Santhanagopalan

Neyveli Santhana Gopalan is a noted, respected Indian Carnatic vocalist. He has distinguished himself with numerous concerts worldwide, and is the recipient of many awards from music associations in India and overseas. He is known for his traditional and purist styles of rendering ragas, musical...

, Sanjay Subramanian, T. M. Krishna

T. M. Krishna

T.M. Krishna is a Carnatic music vocalist. Hailing from a family of music connoisseurs, he was exposed to the south Indian classical music at an early age. His first concert was at the Spirit of Youth series organized by the Music Academy, Chennai . Since then, he has travelled widely in India and...

, P. Unni Krishnan, Bombay Jayashri

Bombay Jayashri

Bombay Jayashri Ramnath is an Indian Carnatic music vocalist. She has also recorded songs as a playback singer in South Indian films. She has many albums to her credit, released as cassettes and CDs....

, S. Sowmya

S. Sowmya

S. Sowmya is a Carnatic music singer. She learnt music initially from her father Dr. Srinivasan, and later from S. Ramanathan and Smt.T. Muktha. In 1998, Sowmya co-founded Carnatica - an online institution dedicated to classical music & dance instruction, archival, talent search and other related...

and others.

He has also accompanied great instrumental stalwarts like N. Ramani

N. Ramani

N. Ramani is a renowned Indian Carnatic flautist.-Early life and background:N. Ramani was born in Tiruvarur in Tamil Nadu. Aside from the influence of his place of birth, Ramani was born into a musical family...

(Flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

), Kadri Gopalnath

Kadri Gopalnath

Dr. Kadri Gopalnath is an Indian saxophonist and one of the pioneers of Carnatic music on the saxophone.-Early life:...

(Saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

), N. Ravikiran (Chitravina), Shashank Subramanyam (Flute

Flute

). He has participated in the World Music Festival in 'Théâtre de la Ville

Théâtre de la Ville

The Théâtre de la Ville is one of the two theatres built in the 19th century by Baron Haussmann at Place du Châtelet, Paris; the other being the Théâtre du Châtelet...

', Paris and other International Festivals in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

and Dubai

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

. In addition to his solo recordings, he has accompanied all the popular artistes in hundreds of commercial audio recordings. He is the most sought after accompanist today.

Teacher and musicologist

In his quest to spread the tradition of Carnatic music, Vittal Ramamurthy has disciples worldwide. He has students in India, USA, Canada, Australia and France. Many of his students have become leading performers today.

As a Musicologist, he has given Lecture Demonstrations and workshops at some major universities like the prestigious Shepherd School of Music

Shepherd School of Music

The Shepherd School of Music is a university school of music located on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. Shepherd School is itself very selective, accepting overall about 10-15% of all graduate applicants and 15% of all undergraduate applicants...

(Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

, Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

), Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) and Harvard University (Boston, Massachusetts).

In his passion for music and selfless contribution to the growth of Carnatic music, Vittal Ramamurthy and family organize summer camps in his native town, Dharmasthala

Dharmasthala

Dharmasthala is a temple village on the banks of the Nethravathi River in the Belthangadi taluk of the Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka....

in Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

every year. About 80 to 100 children from surrounding villages attend this camp which is in the style of the Gurukulam system. They stay in his house and learn music for a whole week and share it with all their friends. Eminent artistes are invited to give workshops and concerts to these young musicians. Artistes like Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Vijay Siva, T. M. Krishna, Vellore Ramabhadran and Sankari Krishnan have participated in these workshops.

Awards

Kalaimani
Yuva Kala Bharathi
Swara Gyana Bharathi
Best Violinist (from Music Academy and Sri Krishna Gana Sabha of Chennai, India)
Asthana Vidwan of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam
Vadya Kala Vipanchee
Best Teacher Award from the VD Swami Arts Academy
Maharajapuram Santhanam Foundation Meritorious Award for Achievement

External links

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