Ganabharathi has organised Raaga Yajna on Dec. 29 at 10.30 am at its Ramabai Govinda Rao Rangamandira in Kuvempunagar. This is a unique educative programme to  throw light into the intricacies and nuances of the rare ragas which would be very much useful for the students and aspirants of music.  

Prof. R. Visweswaran will be the resource person.  The first session of this series will be dealing with the ragas Darbar and Nayaki.

Profile: Prof. R. Visweswaran is an eminent Veena player, composer and teacher. He belongs to an illustrious family of musicians and scholars, and was groomed in his art by his brother R. Seetaram. 

Visweswaran’s achievements and contribution to music lie across the fields of pedagogy, scholarship, compositions and practical music. Holding a Master’s degree in Indology, he headed the Department of Instrumental Music at the University College of Fine Arts in Mysore for the greater part of his career. 

This was the locus of his work as a teacher and the arena for the development of his musical pedagogy. He has written and published extensively on the subject. 

As a practical musician, he has performed in India and other countries, some important engagements being those at the National Veena Festival in Bhopal, the International Music Conference in London, the Edinburgh Music Festival, the Aberdeen Music Festival and the Queen’s Festival at Belfast. 

His new raga compositions include Enakshi, Smriti, Antarakaisiki, and Rajarajeshwari. Among his students are Suma Sudhindra, N. R. Prashanth and Nagamani Srinath. Among his publications are Vaaggeya Visweswari, Facts of Music and Sangeeta Shastra Rasaayana.

For his wide ranging work in music, Visweswaran has been honoured by several organisations. These honours include Sangeeta Choodamani title conferred by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai and K.K.M.M. Chowdiah National Award bestowed by the Academy of Music, Bangalore.

Visweswaran received Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Award for his contribution to Karnatak instrumental music (Veena).