Vidwan Sri Ramnad Raghavan passes away

vanajan · Post by **vanajan** » 22 Nov 2009, 06:20

We just came to know the sad demise of Raghavan mama few hours ago.
May his soul rest in peace.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 22 Nov 2009, 07:19

Sad to hear this news.

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 22 Nov 2009, 07:25

A very sad news. Condolences to the members of his family.
hnajvooran

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 22 Nov 2009, 07:25

Extremely sad to hear this. May his soul rest in peace.

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 22 Nov 2009, 08:21

My condolences.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 22 Nov 2009, 08:22

Condolences to his family.

vijisubra · Post by **vijisubra** » 22 Nov 2009, 08:36

Sad. He played for me last year at Peoria, US. I was amazed at his alertness and enthusiasm. It is hard to match the stamina and entho of that generation, I think!
My condolences to his family.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 22 Nov 2009, 09:08

Condolences to his family and disciples

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 22 Nov 2009, 09:33

My deepest condolences to his family.
I had the pleasure of interacting with him for a few years when I lived in Connecticut. A wonderful man with a great sense of humour. And what a great musical family he represented.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 22 Nov 2009, 10:17

Our condolences.

ram · Post by **ram** » 22 Nov 2009, 11:04

Really sad news. My condolences

kedharam · Post by **kedharam** » 22 Nov 2009, 11:33

A very sad news...

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 22 Nov 2009, 17:07

Really sad news . wonderful artiste. one can listen to him playing in the VVV trio concerts with sankaran sir .. My condolences.

Arvind

Ramasubramanian M.K · Post by **Ramasubramanian M.K** » 22 Nov 2009, 17:37

Sad news!! Was a good friend of our family for over 50 years--during his stay in the US had many oporunities to interact with him and his family.Was very happy to share a few rare recordings of his brother RK--was devoted to his brothers--RK and RE.

Condolences to the family.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 22 Nov 2009, 18:19

A very sad news. Condolences to the family.

suma · Post by **suma** » 22 Nov 2009, 19:23

Very sad news. Condolences to the family.
Shri VV Sundaram used to mention that the idea of Cleveland aradhana came from Sri Ramnad Raghavan and he was the person instrumental in teaching the Pancharatnam and to take leadership. It is a great loss to all of us.

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 22 Nov 2009, 21:13

Condolences

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 22 Nov 2009, 21:27

My sincere condolences to the family.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 22 Nov 2009, 23:57

I still fondly remember the only concert of this man i heard live. He played accompaniment for Sri B Balasubramanian for a chamber concert at the residence of Sri Yadav Murthy Shankaran.

I still remember the enthusiasm and the great playing of this great vidwan.

May his soul rest in peace. My deepest condolence to the family.

rasaali · Post by **rasaali** » 24 Nov 2009, 23:45

This is a very very sad news. I had a chance to experience mama's humility first hand last year. Had the privilege of sharing the stage twice with him when he was visiting his daughter in wesleyan last year.

One of the concerts, he gladly accompanied the teenager Sahana Vasudevan (who I assume is the original) poster to bless her.

May his soul rest in peace.

KVS Vinay

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 25 Nov 2009, 02:49

Very sad news indeed.

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 25 Nov 2009, 03:36

Condolences to the family.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 25 Nov 2009, 05:08

Dear Ragam-ThaLAM,
ANY chance you can email a .jpg pic above to [email protected]?
I have known him forever & arranged the famous LGJ-N.R.- R.R Concert tour of N.A. in 1971. Thanks, VKV

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 27 Nov 2009, 00:42

Dear VKV -

If you right-click on the picture above and choose 'Save picture as' you can download it straight from here. Do let me know if this doesn't work, and I can email the picture.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 27 Nov 2009, 01:03

Dear Sri. r-t,
I do not know where you live. If you are in Chennai We are organising a private remembrance at Cleveland Sundaram's house - do not know the date yet. Its by invitation only with recollections by Sundarams, me & I dont know who else. I invite you myself to it if you are interested. let me know my email is: [email protected] Thanks a million... VKV

guhan · Post by **guhan** » 27 Nov 2009, 08:31

Hello. This is my first time posting.
Ramnad Raghavan, is my thatha. Indeed, as many of you have mentioned, he was a person with great humility and whose one and only passion is music. He had two big loves in his life, music and his wife (my paati) sarada. I just want to thank all of you for your kind words about him.

Guhan

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 27 Nov 2009, 12:47

In 1980, in our concert tour for nearly 3 months to US & Canada, we all have spent a very nice time together with Shri Ramanad Raghavan. Very nice person. Very sad to know this bad news.

My heartfelt condolenses to his family members. amsharma

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 28 Nov 2009, 01:35

vkv43034 wrote:Dear Sri. r-t,
I do not know where you live. If you are in Chennai We are organising a private remembrance at Cleveland Sundaram's house - do not know the date yet. Its by invitation only with recollections by Sundarams, me & I dont know who else. I invite you myself to it if you are interested. let me know my email is: [email protected] Thanks a million... VKV

Dear VKV,
I have emailed you. Will be honored to be part of this grand function!

Thank you.

trichur c narendran · Post by **trichur c narendran** » 29 Nov 2009, 23:49

I lost my dearest Raghavan mama last week.Though I had expected it to happen very soon I could not bear with his demise when Mr Ramanathan Sir conveyed it to me on the Saturday midnight it self.I felt satisfied, as my duty, that I could at least stay with him until he turned into ashes at Bezant nagar crematorium.My relationship with him was something like a continuation of our previous birth.He liked me very much, for the first reason, that I was a student of Sri Palghat Raghu sir.We knew each other for so many years.He has helped me many times whenever I was in USA .He treated me as one his sons and whenever we met(I don't remember how many times) he made me sit and practise Mridangam in his presence even from basic lessons. My wife Jyothi and myself used to visit him on every vijayadasami day to get his blessing.He never talked anything else other than music.He used to enjoy listening to Raghu sir's koruvais.When we visited him a couple of days before he was admitted in the hospital he discussed a lot about Raghu sir's masterly playing.Mami is also a very simple and practical lady.Mama could not have survived this long with out mami.I don't still know how mami will bear his absence.I pray to god sincerely that may his soul rest in peace.

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 02 Dec 2009, 17:10

i have heard very nice gumkis of him... may his soul to rest in peace

Ramasubramanian M.K · Post by **Ramasubramanian M.K** » 02 Dec 2009, 23:14

Trichur Narendran's tribute--coming as it does from a professional--is one of the best encomiums that any professional artiste can aspire to have. Ramnad Raghavan was tuly that kind of helping person as was witnessed by countless visiting artistes as well as music lovers in the USA. He always came to the resucue of organisers when the mridangam accompanient could not come for some reason or other--never stood on false prstige that he had not been engaged first although he was available. As Cleveland Sundaram has acknowledged,he has been a tremendous supporter of the Aradhana in its early stages.

His wife is a gem of a lady and whenever we visited Wesleyan she was a great and warm hostess.

Our heartfelt condolences to the family.

craghavan · Post by **craghavan** » 03 Dec 2009, 22:31

On behalf of my Mother Sarada Raghavan and myself I would like to thank all of you personally for your sympathies during our time of loss. Thank you for sharing your memories of my father. Your kind words are of great comfort to us during this difficult time.

Chandru Raghavan
[email protected]

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 05 Dec 2009, 13:29

ragam-talam wrote:
vkv43034 wrote:
Dear Sri. r-t,
I do not know where you live. If you are in Chennai We are organising a private remembrance at Cleveland Sundaram's house - do not know the date yet. Its by invitation only with recollections by Sundarams, me & I dont know who else. I invite you myself to it if you are interested. let me know my email is: [email protected] Thanks a million... VKV

Dear VKV,
I have emailed you. Will be honored to be part of this grand function!

Thank you.

It has been decided to make this a more formal occasion rather than an informal session.

The function will be held Monday, Dec 7, 2009 at Raga Sudha Hall, Luz Church Road, Mylapore at 6:00 PM. We have decided to have this function in a public hall and EVERONE IS INVITED.

The function is organized by the Global Music Forum of Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival. The agenda is:

Prayer by Kumaris Dharini & Vidya Kalyanaraman

Reminiscences by:

Madurai Sri T. N. Seshagopalan, Sri T. R. Subrahmanyam, Dr. V. K. Viswanathan (USA), Sri Guruvayoor Dorai, Cleveland Sri Balu, Smt. Charumathi Ramachandran, Cleveland Sri V V Sundaram, Neyveli Sri Santhanagopalan, Smt. Gomathi Sundaram and Sri K. Ramanathan.

We request the admirers of Sri Ramnad Raghavan to grace the occasion by their presence and honor the memory of this great vidwan.

V K Viswanathan
President, Global Music Forum of Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival

knshashikiran · Post by **knshashikiran** » 07 Dec 2009, 05:40

Ramnad Raghavan mama's demise is a shock to the entire music fraternity. He was undoubtly a great musician, who was instrumental in silently contributing to creating such a wide umbrella for all the musicians today to be able to take our music to US. In addition to being a great guru and mridangist, he was a great person. I will forever, cherish his playing for us in a few concerts as his musical blessings. My association to his family members is also very special. My sincere tribute to this great musician.

tkb · Post by **tkb** » 07 Dec 2009, 09:07

Our sincere condolences.

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 08 Dec 2009, 08:35

The function started at 18 00 hrs as scheduled . Cleveland Sundaram wanted rasiks to observe silence for a minute . Prayer by Dharini and Vidhya kalyanaraman. Ahimanamen in Begada. Cleveland Sundaram read the condolence message sent by LGJ. In it he mentioned that during his first visit to US along with N. Ramani he played mirudangam for all the concerts after few practice sessions before concert. Only he brought CM to US.
TRS
1. He was responsible for starting Thyagaraja utsavam at Cleveland
2. During his first visit to US in 1979 RR accompanied him on mirudangam which he can never forget.
3. sense of humour is more.
4. He studied along with RR's brother R Easwaran at carnatic music college chennai with vocal as main and mirudangam as ancillary.
5 He was conducting regular classes for Pancharatna kriti at US. A mirudanga vidwan virtually toiled for CM
6. Some 60 yrs back no vidwan was well versed in PR kritis and Varali kriti was not known then. Even ARI, GNB were no exception. MVI was regarded as naalum therinthavar as he used sing 4 PR w/o varali kriti. Other vidwans will give only lip movement. This was an actual fact at Thiruvaiyaru Aradhanai.
7. BMK after becoming secretary of the sabha made all vidwans to sing PR.
8. RR to his credit conducted Thyagaraja aradhanai at more than 20 centres in US teaching local ladies and students PR kritis.
9. He never performed vocal concerts
10. Cleveland balu used to arrange for breakfast , lunch and dinner for the aradhanai.
11. Both sundaram and balu learnt mirudangam from RR.
12. CS and CB are patrons of CM and not an artiste.
13. CS's gurubakthi made him to arrange for this gathering and he is happy to share his reminiscences on this occasion.

VKV

1. RR has organised Thyagaraja Aradhana in more than 150 centres and 1500 professional vidwans participated and more than 4000 children learnt CM and PR kritis in particular over 32 yrs.
2 .As he was working in NASA once he took a month's leave and drove 25000 miles along with RR for all his concerts.
4. RR suffered a lot for survival in US and at one stage he was sent to Cleveland under the care of CS and CB and they helped him a lot to get a job in the university as a CM professor for one semister and later it was made permanent.
5. He was a very simple man and used to help him in cleaning the house especially the garden by mowing out the grass.
6 It was an hectic job for arranging green card for his family which was handled meticulously at a peroid when he was without a permanent job. Finally this was also made possible .
7. His teaching was good and will patiently handle student till he gets proficiency.

Guruvayur Durai

1. He was not in station when RR passed away and only later he offered condolences
2. His association with him is more than 58 yrs
3. For his upanayanam Ramnad Krishnan performed.
4. GD 's sister learnt few kritis viz brovasamayamidhae, kalikiyundae from RK when they were residing in north mada street in mylapore.
5 RRaghavan used to teach him korvai after listening the concerts of Palani , PMI , CSMurugaboopathy
6 CM world did not utilise his 'abhara gnanam' and services fully
7. He used to mention that in difficult RTP , pallavi should be transferred into ' thathakaram' and can be well remebered for repeating during accompaniment. He taught him this technique
8. Before moving to next lesson he will verify whether sishya has learnt the previous lesson fully. He was unique in this aspect.
9. RR knew many sahithyams

Cleveland Balu

1. He was one of his family members.
2. He made him to learn PR Kirtanai and taught him mirudangam also.
3. He used to spend time even late hours to teach mirudangam
4. He was not a throwaway stone but a corner stone for the Cleve land Aradhanai.
5. He was instrumental for the conduct of Thyagaraja festival in Pitsberg.

Charumathi

1. Her first visit to US along with Lalitha Ragavan was memorable.
2. R R played mirudangam for her concerts.
3. He had played for her sister Laxmi viswanathan's dance performance too
4. In everyplace he was to explain that lalitha raghavan is not his wife and his wife's name is sharada
5. He used to mention R K's name everytime and used to admire his rendering kritis in sahana and kiravani
6 She has learnt from RK also.
7. From her twelfth year she was with MLV
8. RK had taught her a jawali in sahana
9. RR used enjoy good food and used to mention that peria Gomathi and chinna Gomathi are expert in preparing vathal kozhambu and Undia a gujarathi dish resply
10 He was an humble person with open mind and had enormous laya gnanam . His wife Sharada also is of the same calibre.
11. Dr L.Shankar used to call him as chithappa
12. SSI mentioned once about Artiste's tour to foreign country jocularly as ' ingae sellamal irundhal thaan angae sellavendum'

Cleveland Sundaram

1. His first meeting with RR was on 2nd October 1971 at pitsberg university
2. LGJ and N Ramani met him for the 1st time only in US
3. He was having strong faith in astrology and mentioned once that a person with the Letter 'S' only will help him and it was C S
4. For 5 yrs he stayed with CL Balu and his wife Gomathi { peria } was very kind and generous in hosting him till his wife Sharada came to US
5. He had sacrificed a lot for his brother's fmly .[ This was mentioned byR K's son durig his speech also]
6. He encouraged playing of Marumba an Indoneasian wind instrument in Band troupes.
7. While driving for a concert of Charumathi , RR taught her a difficult pallavi sung by RK and Charumathi grasped it fully and performed this RTP on the same day.
8. RR used to mention his wife Sharada as Sthree Ratnam as she was behind his success
9. In Wesley University he was a professor for 18 yrs and he has turned out 10 Ph D students to his credit.
10.He was appointed initially only for 6 months for a semester . He taught students Sollu kattu and Konnakol which they reproduced and this achievement made him permenent and served for 18 yrs.

Gomathi Sundaram

1. She has learnt more than 80 keerthanais from him
2. Eti janmamu, Laavanya rama , Yagnathmudu etc to name few
3. He was a good vocalist and always used to talk about his brother RK
4 He has taught her in Thathakaram only the swara singing.
5. He took classes to her and friends hours together for teaching the PR kritis

RK' son

When he was young his father passed away in 1973 and since then RR took care of his family.

As it was very Iate could not stay till the end. All spoke in tamil only. TNS and NSG did not attend the function. PS Narayanasamy was present and when asked to come to the front by CS did not accept the invitation . All spoke a lot about Ramnad Krishnan. There were only 60 rasikas and the hall was partially empty. Since all rasikas are senior citizens the function could have arranged in the morning session. All mentioned that RR being a mirudanga vidwan taught many children CM . The above write up may not be complete and would have omitted some important points and anecdotes. Kindly excuse.

Thanjavooran

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 08 Dec 2009, 12:38

Dear Thanjavooran, I thank you personally & on behalf of the Global Forum of the Cleveland Thyagaraja festival committee and the many admirers of Ramnad Raghavan for your comprehensive & excellent coverage of the event; Of course I have found your observations to be relevent & of value. VKV

guhan · Post by **guhan** » 14 Dec 2009, 23:01

Thank you to Thanjavooran sir and VKV sir for organizing an event in remembrance of my thatha. Thank you for sharing all your kinds words. I am sure my thatha is smiling at the love he's receiving from all his friends and fellow artists.