Memories of Veena Vidwan Trivandrum R Venkataraman

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Nada Inbam organised a function to pay homage to Trivandrum R Venkataraman (Veena Venkataraman) at Ragasudha, , Mylapore, Chennai on 24 jan 2010.

It was SVK (Ragasudha Krishnan -founder of Nada inbam and a crusader for quality music) who was instrumental in propagating Sri Venkataraman Sir's chaste veena music in Chennai.

Those who spoke at the occasion included N.Murali, P S Narayananswamy, T K Murthy, V V Subramaniam, Cleveland Sundaram, Nadopasana srinivasan, Geetha Krishnamurtrhy, Kalpagam Swaminathan, Kalyani Ganesan and a few admirers. Ms Geetha, a disciple of Venkataraman Sir was into tears when she narrated the sad experience of receiving the news of Sir's accident in her mobile.

Everyone hailed Venkataraman Sir's soft but solid playing technique, and his unassuming nature and a beaming personality.

Iyer brothers from Austarlia, his disciples, had thoughtfully sent in a video clipping of Venkatarama Sir's concert and the 20 minutes Sankarabharanam (Enduku Beddala) was a fitting tribute to his authentic and pleasing style.
*******

And here's some personal account of my association with Sir while in Trivandrum during 1965 to 1990.

We had settled in Karamanai village, Trivandrum and my father Sri K Sundara Rama Iyer was a great patron of music. He always insisted us to lisen to Venkataraman Sir's music . But somehow or other I couldn't come under his direct tutelage. I had my training from my mother Smt K S Ammini Ammal herself a vanika and singer. (She had played Veena with Sri T N Krishnan on Violin while at North Parur in Kerala - decdaes back; thus goes the story).

Venkataraman Sir was very fond of me especially since I got auditioned for both vocal and Veena at AIR Trivandrum in 1982. Smt Lakshmi G Krishnan - first guru to Venkataraman Sir at TVM was the first achiever in this category ('Laksmi Akka'- to Sir, is 87 and now in Alwaye, Kerala with her son Sri Rangarajan, Professor of English at The Maharaja's College, Ernakulam - also a Veena upasaka). Sir followed suit and few know that he used to give vocal concerts too over AIR TVM durng he seventies which we have enjoyed. He was a A top artist of AIR later.

Whenever I went to AIR for broadcasts (during the nineteen eighties and mostly 'live' performances) he used to oversee the arrangements and approve the list of songs. "If you could use the Taala strings effectively, better to avoid an ill-tuned Tambura"-he used to remark jokingly. Those were the times when we didn't have elrctronic sruti box/ tambura.

"It is quite fine if you are a dedicated amateur than a being a average professional" he maintained.

He was a person with a high sense of humour and presence of mind. Once it was time for the broadcast and he told me; " Ambi, the mridangam artist is caught in a traffic jam and expected to arrive in a few minutes, please render a raga aalaapana for the first song and he would join in!". And that worked out fine!

I had written about my cherished experience with Venkataraman Sir's pristine music in a tribute that was published by Indian Express (Sunday Magazine ) dated 17 January 2010.

[ashwin_anand]

It is indeed a great loss to the musical fraternity. I had the good fortune of listening to the veena maestro in what was probably one of his last concerts on Dec. 26th at Nada Inbam. It was a memorable concert indeed! It was indeed a great shock to hear of his tragic demise soon after.

[skanchana2002]

Dear rasikas,

Please follow the link below to view the You Tube upload made available by the Iyerbrothers (Shri Ramnath and Shri Gopinath) and their school in Melbourne in remembrance of Guru Late Trivandrum Shri. R. Venkataraman.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 6CCBBEA3F7

[skanchana2002]

Sorry, the above link is not working.

the one below should work

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 6CCBBEA3F7