Smt.Gaythri Venkataraghavan @ Australia

 

Smt. Gayathri Venkataraghavan,began her training in carnatic music at a young age under the tutelage of Smt.Rajalakshmi and then under Smt. Padma Veeraraghavan, a disciple of Palaghat Sri.K.V.Narayanaswamy. She was also trained in various Kritis by Smt.Rukmini Ramani, Sri.V.Subramaniam and Smt.Lakshmi Natarajan.

Her advanced training was under Acharya Choodamani Late Sri.A.Sundaresan . He was an outstanding musician and a dedicated Guru, and a disciple of Sri.C.V.Krishnamurthy Iyer, Sri.Ramnad Krishnan and Alathur Sri.Sivasubramanya Iyer.

Gayathri is presently under the guidance of Padma Bhushan Sri. P.S.Narayanaswamy.

At an young age as Gayathri Ramani, she has won a number of prizes in inter-school and Inter-college competitions and also in competitions held by Music Academy, Indian Fine Arts Society, Mylapore Fine Arts, Saraswathi Vageeyakara Trust Etc.

Gayathri Venkataraghavan is an ‘A’ grade accredited artiste of All India Radio. She won the All India Radio National level competition in 1993. Her regular performances for the A I R include a prestigious National Broadcast in 2006.She has sung various themes for Archival purposes for the AIR.

She has performed for Doordarshan national and regional telecasts, and for various other television channels. She has had the honour of anchoring a documentary feature “Engum Nirai Nada Bhrahmam” a tribute to the immortal icon of Carnatic music Bharath Ratna Smt.M.S.Subbulakshmi for Doordarshan. The concert prizes that she has won by the Grace of Almighty at the Music Academy conference, include The D.K.Pattammal award for Lady vocalist in 2001, T.T.Rangaswamy award in 2002, H.Natarajan Prize 2003 and 2004 , The Pappu Kamakshi Award in 2006 and the Award for Swara singing during 2007.

She has been performing regularly at various centres in India . Her performances abroad include ones at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival 2005 and 2008 at Ohio State, USA and Toronto in Canada. She also performed at the SIFA annual festival at Singapore in Feb 2007. She has also toured the United States and Canada extensively for a concert tour in September and October 2007.

In 2003 she was awarded the Kalki Krishnamoorthy award and in the same year she was given the Nada Oli title by Nada Inbam, Madras. She was awarded the SIMANA award instituted by The Carnatic Music Association of North America, Inc.NJ (USA) Dr.MLV Endowment by Narada Gana Sabha 2006.

She has been awarded the Shanmuka Sangita Shironmani title by Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha, Mumbai and the Isai Peroli title by The Karthik Fine Arts Chennai.