S. Ramanathan

Who was S. Ramanathan?

S. Ramanathan was a Carnatic music singer and musicologist.

He learned music from Tiger Varadachariar, Sabesa Iyer, Ponniah Pillai, and Sathur Krishna Iyengar. He received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, where he also taught.

He had disciples who have carved names for themselves such as P.UnniKrishnan, S. Sowmya, Savithri Sathyamurthy, Seetha Narayanan, Vasumathi Nagarajan, Sukanya Raghunathan,Geetha Bennett, Vidya Hariharan,Thiagarajan/Raju,Banumathy Raghuraman,Latha Radhakrishnan, Padma Gadiyar,Vanathy Raghuraman

He also has composed many varnams and kritis, which have been popularized by his disciples.He also won the Sangeetha kalanidhi award.The American ethnomusicologist David Nelson studied with him.

In 1981 Ramanathan released an album of Carnatic music, Navagraha Krtis, Cāturdaṡa Rāgamālika and Srī Gurunā: By Muttuswāmī Dīkṣitar, on Folkways Records.