- Palghat Kollengode Viswanatha Narayanaswamy
Infobox Person
name = K. V. Narayanaswamy
birth_date = birth date|1923|11|15|mf=y
birth_place =Palghat ,Kerala ,India
dead=dead
death_date = death date and age|2002|4|1|1923|11|15|mf=y
death_place =Chennai ,Tamil Nadu ,India Palghat Kollengode Viswanatha Narayanaswamy ( _ta. பால்காட் கொல்லெங்கேடெ விஷ்வநாத நாரயணசுவாமி) (November 15, 1923 - April 1, 2002) ("KVN") is one of the most renowned Carnatic
vocalists of the 20th century. He was born inPalghat ,Kerala ,India , in a family of continuing music tradition. His father Fiddle Viswanatha Bhagavatar was a violinist of repute; his grandfather Narayana Bhagavatar and his great-grandfather Viswam Bhagavatar were also musicians.His first guru was
mridangam vidwanPalghat Mani Iyer . He had further training, first under C.S. Krishna Iyer, a highly competent vocalist who was inPalghat , and then under violinist Papa Venkataramiah. Subsequently, he entered "gurukulavasam" under SriAriyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar in 1942. From then on, KVN remained an ardent disciple of Ramanuja Iyengar until the latter's passing away [in 1967] .KVN's concert career spanned over 40 years. He delighted listeners all over India and abroad with his immense classicism and sweet voice. He had a wide repertoire and was capable of extensive variations both of his concert fare and the technical make-up of the concert. He serves as a model musician, who has paid attention to every aspect of music carnatic musicians strive for, be it lyrical purity in various languages, gifted adherence to shruti, vast repertoire and innovative aspects.
Narayanaswamy performed in the
Edinburgh and Commonwealth Music festivals and in the Berlin Festival. In 1965, he went toWesleyan University in the U.S. for a two year stint. Besides teaching there, he went on a coast-to-coast concert tour during which he gave lecture-demonstrations as well. In the first part of this tour, he had only mridangam andtambura accompaniment but noviolin . He was one of the four main artists in a large festival of music held at theHollywood Bowl inLos Angeles in the summer of 1967 which attracted an audience of 12,000 people. The others wereBismillah Khan ,Ali Akbar Khan , andRavi Shankar . He also participated in the East-West Encounter inDelhi in 1964.In 1974, KVN went to
Berkeley, California in the U.S. for a year, in the company of such other renowned artists as dancerBalasaraswati and sitaristNikhil Banerjee . This was organized by the American Society for Eastern Arts. He travelled toNorth America ,Europe andAustralia multiple times thereafter on various concert tours.KVN joined the Music College in
Madras as a lecturer in 1962 whenMusiri Subramania Iyer was its principal. He retired as Professor of Music in 1982.In 1984, Narayanaswamy went to
San Diego State University inCalifornia as an artist-in-residence under theFulbright scholarship. He was the first Indian to be awarded a Fulbright grant in the music field and only Indian among four Asians to be given the award that year. For nine months he taught at the university and also gave performances all over North America.Narayanaswamy received many awards and titles for his musical excellence. Among them are the
Sangeetha Kalanidhi from theMadras Music Academy (1986); the Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi award (1970); the President of India's 'Padma Sri' award (1976); the centralSangeet Natak Akademi Award (1976); the title of 'Sangita Kala Nipuna' from the Mylapore Fine Arts Society of Madras (1982); and the title 'Gayaka Choodamani' from the Tulasivanam Sangita Parishat of Trivandrum (1983). In 1975, the Bharati Society of America conferred on him the title of 'Geeta Bhushanam,' while Bhairavi bestowed on him the title 'Sangita Ratnakara.'Narayanaswamy had been a member of the Experts' Committee of the Madras Music Academy for many years. He has several disciples both in India and North America.
"See also:"
Carnatic music References
* [http://www.narada.org/kvn/kvnbio.html] , "Palghat K. V. Narayanaswamy: Quiet Flows a River of Music" (article courtesy of SRUTI magazine, Issue 27/28, December 1986)
External links
* [http://www.narada.org/kvn/index.html Sri KVN Home Page]
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