Palghat R. Raghu

Infobox Person
name = Palghat R Raghu
birth_date = birth date|1928|9|01|mf=y
birth_place = Rangoon, Burma
occupation = mridangist

Palghat R.Raghu (b. 1928-01-09) is a famous Carnatic musician and percussionist.

Early life

Palghat R. Raghu was born on January 9th, 1928 in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). As a child, he was immensely talented and inducted into mridangam lessons very early in his life. 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.

Unique Technique

Palghat Raghu is a percussion master who 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 , T. H. "Vikku" Vinayakram, Subhash Chandran (ghatam), remain quite memorable to this day.

Awards

* Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1983
* Palghat Mani Iyer award (first recipient)
* Padma Shri in year 1985
* Mridangam Chakravarty award
* Kalaimamani (Tamil Nadu)
* Sangeetha Choodamani
* Mridangam Nada Mani (Shankaracharya)
* Nada Brahmam - award from Narada Gana Sabha( 2000)
* Nada Nidhi (2001)
* Sangeetha Kalanidhi (2007)

Legacy

Palghat Raghu has toured extensively in Europe, USA, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. In addition to his brilliance in carnatic music, he has performed with such renowned artists such as Sitar Maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, Flute Hariprasad Chaurasia, 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, San Diego State University and University of Berkeley. He regularly conducts advanced mridangam classes for the benefit of his students and upcoming mridangam artists.

Palghat Raghu is universally considered to be 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.

Sources

[http://www.geocities.com/nand12/PRRHome.html Official Homepage of Palghat R Raghu]