Palghat R. Raghu Biography


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Sections

  1. Early Background
  2. Style & Technique
  3. Artistes Whom He Has Accompanied
  4. His Disciples
  5. Awards
  6. Tribute
    7.













Palghat R. Raghu

Palghat R. Raghu was born on January 9th, 1928 in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). He was a child prodigy. Recognizing his intuitive ability in rhythm as a child, he was inducted into the art at an early age. His first mridangam lessons were from Tinniam Venkatarama Iyer and Trichy Raghava Iyer.. Later he learnt the art from the legendary Mridangam wizard Palghat T. S. Mani Iyer. Ever since, he has accompanied numerous artists for the past 60 years with distinction.. He is a graduate of mathematics.

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Palghat Raghu is a percussion master who has developed a distinctive style of playing the mridangam. He is 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 adjusts 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. His tani avartanams with complex and highly mathematical Korvais bear the stamp of innovation, scholarship and majestic mastery of this complex instrument. The tani avartanams with other rhythm virtuosos such as Harishankar, Nagarajan (kanjira), Alangudi Ramachandran , TH Vinayakaram, Subhash Chandran (ghatam), remain quite memorable to this day.

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Listening to his accompanying KVN singing such classics as endaro mahanobhavo, Evarani, Mokashamo galadha, Annapurne visalakshi, or the RTP in Sankarabharanam, Bhairavi, Hari Kabbodhi etc, or Semmangudi's Dinamani rendition, or GNB's Brocheva and Subramania Namasthe, the listener is astounded by the stupendous anticipation and the uniquely melodious and exhilirating beats that Raghu generates on the mridangam to perfection that takes the audience to dizzying heights. A master of laya, he has accompanied with scholarship most major artists of the millenium, as well as, up and coming artists of our time. He has accompanied such vocal carnatic legends such as Sri: Papanasam Sivan, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Madurai Mani Iyer, GN Balasubramaniam, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Alathur Bros, Ariyakkudi, MD Ramanathan, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, KV Narayanaswami and other stalwarts, as well as, leading maestros of today such as TV Sankaranarayanan, Trichur Ramachandran, and OS Thyagarajan. He has accompanied instrumentalists such as Veena and violin vidwans, Doraiswamy Iyengar, Balachander, Flute Mali, Lalgudi Jayaraman, N. Ramani, T.N. Krishnan, MS Gopalakrishnan amongst many others. He has accompanied numerous prodiguosly gifted young artists such as Sanjay Subramaniam, TM Krishna, Chitraveena Maestro Ravi Kiran, Mandolin Sreenivas, Mysore Nagaraj, Abhishek Raghuram, amongst many others where he adjusts the playing style to nurture and encourage the artists in the classical kutcheri patha.

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He has trained many disciples in the art of Mridangam. Among the notable disciples are Trichur Narendran, Bombay Balaji, Manoj Siva, Trivandrum Balaji, Master Anand and numerous other artists in the east and west. Palghat Raghu has toured extensively in Europe, USA, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore etc. In addition to his brilliance in carnatic music, he has performed with such renowned artists such as Sitar Maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Flute Hariprasad Charausia, Santoor Shivkumar Sharma alongside the Tabla Wizard Alla Rakha in numerous concerts in India and Abroad. He has also been involved in East-West fusion music. He has been visiting professor of music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, SanDiego State University and University of Berkeley. He regularly conducts advanced mridangam classes for the benefit of his students and upcoming mridangam artists.

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Palghat Raghu is the torch-bearer of the illustrious Maha Vidwan Thanjavur Vaidyanatha Iyer's tradition of the art of mridangam playing, passed on to him by his most beloved guru Palghat Mani Iyer.

For his continuing contribution to Carnatic music, Palghat Raghu has been honored with numerous awards that include amongst many others:

Awards

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As a tribute to his guru, Palghat Mani Iyer, Palghat Raghu has started an organization in Chennai known as Gurusmaranam. In Mani Iyer's memory and honor, Gurusmaranam organizes concerts every year featuring up and coming artists. The proceeds are donated to needy musicians who have dedicated their lives to the art. After 60 years of dedication to the music, Palghat Raghu continues to be one of the most sought after and most highly respected mridangam artists to this day.

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