The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A versatile artist remembered

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Saturday, Feb 12, 2011
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A versatile artist remembered

Special Correspondent

“S. Rajam was a musicologist, scholar, musician and painter”

“He was known for his mastery of vivadi ragas and compositions of Koteeswara Iyer”

CHENNAI: It was an evening that kindled fond memories of musician S. Rajam.

Speakers reminisced how the revered musician, scholar, painter and teacher touched lives and enriched the world of fine arts with his mighty contributions, at ‘Remembering S. Rajam', a programme organised by the Sunaada Trust here on Thursday.

N. Murali, president, The Music Academy, said Rajam not only adorned the vast field of Carnatic music, but also added value to the locality (Mylapore) where he lived for nearly 90 years. The musician led an extraordinary life, marked by fascination and passion for the arts, he said.

“He was known for his mastery of vivadi ragas and compositions of Koteeswara Iyer. But he had an equally rich repertoire of Thyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar compositions,” he said.

Highlighting the contributions of Rajam, the artist, he said his painting of the Trinity adorned several places, including The Music Academy. “His creative bent of mind and knowledge of music reinforced each other,” Mr. Murali said.

Multimedia presentation

A multimedia presentation on ‘Muthuswami Dikshitar & Rajam' by Pappu Venugopala Rao, musicologist and secretary of The Music Academy followed. Mr. Rao said Rajam, who was a musicologist, scholar, teacher, musician and painter could well be described as ‘Sakalakala Acharya'.

Inspired paintings

He spoke of Rajam's paintings which were inspired by Dikshitar's compositions and said he had worked on far more paintings of Dikshitar's compositions, compared to those of Thyagaraja's or Shyama Sastri's.

Lalita Ram and S.B. Khanthan, who worked on a documentary on Rajam, and artist Maniam Selvan who had made a portrait of the musician, were honoured on the occasion.

Founder Trustee of Sunaada Trust Premeela Gurumurthy and Trustee G.C.Sekhar spoke.

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