On Jan. 19 (Saturday), Nadabrahma is celebrating Piteelu Mysore T. Chowdaiah Samsmarana Day in a unique way. It is the 52nd death anniversary of the legend. At 5.30 pm, a bust of Chowdaiah Sculpted by Kanaka Murthy is being unveiled by Dr. T.V. Venkatachala Shastry. Then the sculptor Kanaka Murthy and Dr. Annavarapu Ramaswamy will be honoured.
Dr. Annavarapu is the recipient of this year’s Dhanurvainika Brahma Award instituted in honour of legendary Sangeetha Kalanidhi Mysore T. Chowdaiah.
Later, Nonagenarian Dr. Annavarapu Ramaswamy will give a Violin Solo Concert. He will be supported by Dr. S. Nataraja Murthy on violin, Vid. C. Cheluvaraju on mridanga and Vid. C.A. Raghunandan Rao on ghata. The programme is an endowment by family & well-wishers of Chowdaiah convened by M.H. Ananda Kumar, Mayura and Vid.Mysore A. Chandan Kumar.
Profile: Dr. Annavarapu Ramaswamy (born 23rd March 1926) is an Indian Classical Karnatak Violin Vidwan and Guru, whose musical journey entered into 9th decade. He is in the fourth line of direct disciples in Guru Shishya Parampara of Tyagaraja and is a disciple of Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu. Annavarapu learnt music under Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu. He accompanied Karnatak musicians such as Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu, M. Balamuralikrishna, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, T.R.Mahalingam, Sundaram Balachander and Hindustani Musicians like Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Bhimsen Joshi, Jasraj on national and international venues.
He invented new Ragas and Talams such as Vandana Ragam, Sri Durga Ragam and Tinetradi Tala and Vedadi Tala. For the past 7 to 8 decades, he has been doing service to society, teaching students free of cost. He has given lectures on music in USA, Canada, European countries (UK, France etc.) and Asian countries (Muscat, Bahrain, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Doha and Sri Lanka).
Dr. Annavarapu Ramaswamy or Annavarapu, started learning music from a very young age under musicians such as late Maganti Jagannadham Chowdary (a native of the same village, Somavarappadu, near Eluru) and later from ‘Gayaka Sarvabhowma’ late Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu of Vijayawada. His father was a Nadaswara Vidwan and brother a ghata artiste at All India Radio. The rigorous music training in the Gurukula Sampradaya helped him to become one of the most sought after violinists in India. He has received National & State Sangeetha Academy Award along with many other prestigious awards, both National and International.
This post was published on January 18, 2019 6:28 pm