Neyveli Santhanagopalan
| Neyveli Santhanagopalan (b. 1963) 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 compositions and swaras. Currently, Santhanagopalan acts as anchor for the Jaya TV program "SaRiGaMaPa". He is one of the comparatively young amongst Carnatic vocal musicians and his style is distinguished by his adherence to strict raga interpretation, especially in his rigorous manodharma (creative interpretation) and raga sancharams (bringing out the essential elements or qualities of a raga). This quality of his is evident in his deep mastery of neravals and lack of ostentation in ragam-tanam-pallavis. As a consequence, he is often favorably compared by musical connoisseurs as following the more "purist" and academic vocal traditions of K. V. Narayanaswamy, Ramnad Krishnan and Nedunuri Krishnamurthy. His conformity and respect for the traditional approach to carnatic vocal music is equally evident in his orthodox manner of concert attire (the panchagacham and namam).  More »
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Nithyasree
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Nithyasree, (born August 25, 1973) also previously referred to as S. Nithyashri, is an eminent Carnatic musician and playback singer for film songs in many Indian languages. Nithyashree has performed in all major sabhas in India and has presented her concerts in many destinations around the world. She has received multiple awards and honours, and has released more than 100 commercial albums.Padmashree Nithyasree was born to Lalitha Sivakumar and I. Sivakumar. Her paternal grandmother, D. K. Pattammal, and her granduncle, D. K. Jayaraman, were prominent Carnatic vocalists who were established disciples of Ambi Dikshithar, Papanasam Sivan, Muthiah Bhagavathar, and others. Her maternal grandfather was the mridangam maestro, Palghat Mani Iyer. Her mother, Lalitha Sivakumar, was her first guru (teacher). Like her mother, Nithyashree was also the disciple of D. K. Pattammal, and would accompany her in concert. Nithyashree's father, an accomplished mridangist and disciple of Palghat Mani Iyer, would constantly show his support and accompany Nithyashree when she performed.
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O.S.Thyagarajan
| O.S.Thyagarajan – the name says it all!! This great musician is a classicist of traditional outfit who paints in glorious colours the fine shades of raga, krithi and swara in his numerous concerts. He had his earlier training under his father Sangeetha Bhooshanam O.V.Subramanian, Padma Bhushan Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and Sangeetha Kalanidhi T.M. Thyagarajan. An ‘A- Top’ graded artist of the All India Radio and of Doordarshan, he has been giving a large number of concerts well appreciated and relished. The Titles won by him are "Sangeetha Choodamani” (Sri Krishna Gana Sabha), Sangeetha Kala Sagara (Kalasagaram, Hyderabad), "Nada Gana Kala Praveena”, "Sangeetha Samrajya” Madurai, "Nadha Booshanam” Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, and New Delhi. He is regularly featured by all leading sabhas in Chennai as well as throughout India and has toured many countries, including USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Middle East, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa, and many cities in Europe. He worked as Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, and Annamalai University for 5 years. He has trained many disciples too.
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O.S.Arun
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O.S. Vaidyanathan or Arun, as he is more popularly called, is undoubtedly one of the most gifted Carnatic Musicians in the Country. He is known for his sonorous voice that he wields with much confidence and musical personality and which he employs in tandem with his superior stagemanship. Arun inherits the mantle of singing from a family where music has been a way of life. Arun was given to Carnatic Music in the Parivar Parampara, and he began his music lessons under the careful ear of his father Vidwan O.V. Subramaniam. Arun later qualified Alankar Purna from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. He also topped the Sangeetha Shironmani diploma course in Carnatic music conducted by the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at Delhi University. Known for its vitality, Arun’s Music has combined grace of sound grammar and warmth of feeling. He also has a wide repertoire of songs, which has earned him a keen following. More »
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Priya Sisters
| Shanmukhapriya and Haripriya, popularly known as the Priya Sisters, are eminent Carnatic music singers.hey hail originally from Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.They started learning Carnatic music from their father, Sri V.V.Subbram, at an early age. In order to nurture their musical talent, their father shifted base to Chennai. Later they became the disciples of the renowned duo Radha and Jayalakshmi who were disciples of the legendary G.N.Balasubramaniam. They learnt many nuances and subtleties of music during the five-year tenure under them including the advice that the singing should be so clear that the listener should be able to notate the entire kriti. Improving their repertoire was a major project and learning, a continuous process. Hence they joined Professor T.R.Subramaniam. They learnt many pallavis and kritis from him.Currently, Shanmukhapriya and Haripriya are under the guidance of T. R. Subramaniam. They are part of the trend of duo singing in Carnatic music, which started in the 1950s, with performers like Radha, Jayalakshmi, Soolamangalam Sisters and later continued by Bombay Sisters. More »
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Ranjani and Gayatri
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Ranjani and Gayatri are Carnatic concert vocalists and violinists, and sisters.Ranjani and Gayatri were born to N. Balasubramanian and Meenakshi (a Carnatic vocalist as well). Born into a Palakkad Iyer family deeply involved in classical music, Ranjani and Gayatri's musical talents were discovered at a very early age. They started their violin training at the early age of nine and six respectively from Sangita Bhooshanam Prof. T.S. Krishnaswami at the Shanmukhananda Sangeeta Vidyalaya, Mumbai. Ranjani and Gayatri beg an their music career as violin duet artistes even before they reached their teens. Through their intense training from Sangita Bhooshanam Prof. T. S. Krishnaswami, they quickly established themselves as top-class violinists of international repute. The sisters achieved success as violin duet performers, and subsequently they also proved successful as violin accompanists. Both Ranjani and Gayatri have accompanied various artists on the violin, including D.K.Pattammal. The sisters have given vocal concerts since 1997, after they became students of Padma Bhushan Sangeeta Kala Acharya P.S.Narayanaswamy. They have learnt quite a few Bhajans from vocalist Seetha Narayanan. Their chance meeting with an amateur Hindistani vocalist in Chennai, Vishwas Joshi, an official of the World Bank working in Washington, from whom they learnt a few abhangs and gavlis, paved way for further learning from Manek Bhide and Appasaheb Deshpande of Kolhapur. More »
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Rajkumar Bharathi
| Rajkumar Bharathi is a noted classical singer and music composer from India. He is the great grandson of the renowned renaissance poet Subramanya Bharathi. Rajkumar is an Electronics and telecommunications engineer graduated from the prestigious College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai. Rajkumar Bharathi a native of Chennai stands today as one of the most popular artists of his generation. He has also got a great following in the Indian state of Karnataka owing to his pleasing style of rendering Dasara Padagalu. Rajkumar Bharathi was introduced to music by his mother Lalitha Bharathi at an young age of 5. He was also trained later under the tutelage of some well known classical musicians like Valliyur Gurumurthi, Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna and T. V. Gopalakrishnan. For Rajkumar Bharathi it was but natural to be associated with Music owing to his families keen interest in art and literature. By the instructions of his master T. V. Gopalakrishna, Rajkumar decided to quit his job in an R&D division and devote his time for classical music. More »
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Sangeetha Sivakumar
| Sangeetha Sivakumar is among the popular musicians in the field of Carnatic music. She has a mellifluous, resonant voice and her command over the technical aspects of Carnatic music is highly appreciated by musicians, critics and rasikas alike. She is an upholder of the G.N.Balasubramaniam bani. Her music is known for its crispness, clarity of thought and presentation. She has the great capacity of being extremely creative within the bounds of tradition and classicism. She started learning music at the age of 9, from Sri K.P.Vasu of Calicut and later became the disciple of famous vocalist, Smt.Charumathi Ramachandran. She has been regularly performing in various sabhas all over India. She has toured Australia, United States, Canada and Singapore for concert performances. She has won many awards from various institutions. She is also known for her passion in working with the youth, initiating them into the artform. She is a much sought after teacher and has many students in India and abroad. At present, she is also working on an ongoing project along with her husband Sri T.M.Krishna, in the name of 'Kalaachaara Marumalarchi' - a trust formed by them to revive the classical art forms in the temples of Tamilnadu. The aim of this venture is to conduct classical music, dance and other cultural programs as a regular event in the annual temple festivals in the smaller towns and villages of Tamilnadu. This ambitious project has been a huge success and has met with tremendous response so far. More »
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Sanjay Subrahmanyan
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Sanjay Subrahmanyan (born January 21, 1968) is a Carnatic Music singer from India. He performed in many concerts in India and overseas and has won many awards for his excellence. He believes that listening takes a musician closer to perfection.He is very simple and very open. He is a strong cricket fan. Sanjay Subrahmanyan was born in Chennai Tamil Nadu, India. He began learning music at the age of seven. Initial training was under V. Lakshminarayana on the violin as well as in vocal music. He later switched to vocal music and was trained by Rukmini Rajagopalan for a period of almost eight years. His skills were further sharpened under Calcutta K.S Krishnamurthy and the training under him led to innovations and blending of tradition and modernity. Sanjay continues to learn from Nadaswaram maestro Semponarkoil SRD Vaidyanathan. More »
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