My musical odyssey

About my journey in music
Background and training

I come from a musically inclined family of north Kerala. My late uncle Raman Namboodiri was a disciple of Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar.

I started learning music at an early age, under Harippad K P N Pillai. I later honed my skills under Palghat K S Narayanaswamy and Tanjore S Kalyanaraman, a direct disciple of G N Balasubramanyam.
During his schooldays, I participated in several competitions and bagged top prizes. Armed with an MA in Music from Kerala University, I started giving concerts.

Concerts

I have, thus far, performed in some 700 concerts across India, France and Italy. I have been accompanied in these concerts by the who's who of Carnatic music, including mridangam maestro Dr T K Murthy, tabla maestros Bikram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose (for a Carnatic-Hindustani jugalbandhi) J Vaidyanathan, Mavelikkara Velukkutty Nair and Thiruvananthapuram Surendran.

Award

In the year 2000, I won the prestigious Yuva Sangeetha Sudharnava Award, instituted by the Puthukkode Krishnamoorthy Foundation, for the best upcoming Carnatic classical singer in Kerala. The award was presented to me by the Travancore Maharani, Gauribhai Thamburatti.

Playback singing

I have sung playback for a Malayalam film, titled Panchapandavar. The music for this film was composed by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri. Earlier, I had sung track for many leading music directors like Vidyasagar, Beni Ignatious, Ousepachan and Sharat. I had sung track for films such as Ennu Swantham Janaki Kutti, Mayilipeelikkavu, Talolam, Kaikudanna Nilavu, Agni Sakshi.

Prizes won
1) State Youth festival: 1st prize in Light Music and Classical Music (1989, 90)
2) Interzone College Festival: 1st prize in classical music (1994)
3) Keralotsavam: 1st prize in classical music

Albums
1) Naveen (Magnasound)
2) Rock to ragas (Magnasound)
3) Dance Natyam (Along with playback singer Sujatha)
4) Oorja (Magnasound)
5) Bhajathim Devi (Kalavardhini)
6) Echoes of Eco (Vivekananda Mutt)
7) Rythmscape (Sony, fusion music)
8) Enmanam Ponnambalam (East Coast)
9) Panchapandavar (Malayalam film)

Important concerts

1) Karthick Fine Arts (Chennai)
2) India International Centre (New Delhi)
3) Tulasivanam Sabha (Thiruvananthapuram)
4) Lakshmanagana Sabha (Thiruvananthapuram)
5) Rasika Ranjini (Kolkata)
6) Kathakali Sabha (Mumbai)
7) Hava Mahal (Jaipur)
8) Swathi Music Dais (Calicut)
9) Carnatica Gurukulam (Bangalore)
10) Yogakshema Sabha (Bangalore)

Programmes on air

I am a graded artiste of All India Radio, Kozhikode. I have also performed many programmes on Doordarshan, Asia Net, Surya TV and Amrita TV.