Years active 1956 (1956) – present | Origin Arkalgud | |
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Members Shri R.N. Thyagarajan & Shri R.N. Tharanathan Genres Carnatic music, Classical music Similar R K Srikantan, Hyderabad Brothers, R K Shriramkumar, T V Sankaranarayanan, Neyveli Santhanagopalan | ||
The Rudrapatnam Brothers are an Indian Carnatic vocal duo, consisting of brothers R. N. Thyagarajan and R. N. Tharanathan. The brothers come from a family of musicians from Rudrapatna village off the Kaveri banks in Arkalgud Thaluk of Hassan district in the southwest Indian state of Karnataka. Vocalist Tiger Varadachariar, on seeing the musical atmosphere there, once claimed that “Rudrapatnam is the Thanjavur of Karnataka”. Music, Veda adhyayana, and studying Sanskrit were integral parts of their family tradition.
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Rudrapatnam brothers live at mylapore fine arts club on 18 dec 2004
Early life and career
They are grandsons of R. K. Krishna Sastry, a musician, Harikatha exponent, playwright and a Sanskrit and Kannada scholar. They are sons of R. K. Narayana Swamy, a disciple of Musiri Subramania Iyer, the doyen of Carnatic music. Their uncles are R. K. Venkatarama Sastry, R. K. Ramanathan and R. K. Srikantan.
They were initiated into Carnatic music and trained by their father and Sastry, the famous violinist and disciple of Mysore T. Chowdiah.
Education
Thyagarajan earned a M.Sc. in mathematics and worked as a lecturer in mathematics for several years before joining All India Radio in 1976. He was the Assistant Director, Chennai Doordarshan Kendra and retired as Deputy Director, Doordarshan Kendra, Bangalore in 2003.
Tharanathan earned a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry and was a Chemistry Lecturer and retired as Additional Director, Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition in Central Food Technological Research Institute (C.F.T.R.I), Mysore. He was a visiting professor and Fellow at Max Planck Society, Germany and a recipient of Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowship. He has visited Germany several times and worked on research projects.
Musical career
One review saw the brothers as deeply influenced by their predecessors, describing their music as adhering to the tradition of Carnatic music. They claim influences from Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and the GNB.
They claim the tradition of Saint Thyagaraja Swamy Sishya Parampara in more than one way. Musiri, their guru’s guru belongs to the sishya lineage of Manambuchaavadi Venkatasubbayyar. Sastry was a sishya of Veena Subbanna who was part of the Walajapet sishya parampara and sishya of Mysore Sadasiva Rao.
They emphasize the music of Nayaki, Varali, Begada, Mukhari, Sahana, Madhyamavathi and Thodi.
Concerts
They began their concert career in 1956 and since then performed regularly around the world. They have given performances across India accompanied by artists such as Lalgudi Jayaraman, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, V.V. Subramanyam, M. Chandrasekaran, Ramanathapuram C. S. Murugabhoopathy, T. K. Murthy, Palghat R. Raghu, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, Vellore Ramabhadran, Karaikudi Mani, V. Kamalakar Rao, Trichy Sankaran, Srimushnam V. Raja Rao, K.S. Manjunathan and T. H. Vinayakaram.
In 2016, the Rudrapatnam Brothers received the coveted Central Sangeet Natak Academy Award from the honourable President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee. In 2017, the brothers received prestigious “Sangeetha Kala Acharya” Award from the Madras Music Academy.