 |
| Son of Padmabhushan Sri. Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, the distinguished poet and theatre Director, Sreekumar frequents the worlds of diverse media - as playback singer in films, a much sought after presenter in Television and as Assistant Station Director in All India Radio, Mumbai . The base for this is his enviable skill in Carnatic Music, the foundation of which was laid when he was barely a toddler;he was taught by a succession of music maestros such as Ambalappuzha Sivasankara Panikkar, Trichur Vaidyanathanand Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma .The effects of this grooming can be witnessed in his career path –he has won the first Prize in Classical Vocal in the University Youth Festival for 5Years; the Akashvani (All India Radio) Annual Award for the best musical feature produced in 1989 (“Gurussakshath Param Brahma” on Adi Sankaracharya and “Parayipetta Panthirukulam” in 1990 .Besides hosting the highly popular ‘Ragolsavam’ for Kairali TV, and lending his voice for playback singing for a dozen films he has brought out many audio cassettes of devotional music in which his soulful and precise rendering of the Ramayana, Bhagavatha, Lalitha & Vishnu Sahasra Namam, Soundarya Lahari, Dhyana Slokas have been much acclaimed. |
 |
| Sowmya learned her musical alphabets at her father’s knee, a chemical engineer who instilled in her a passion for both classical music as well as for Chemistry. She took a Masters in Chemistry from IIT following it up with a gold medal winning MA in Music , apparently mastering the intricacies of Carnatic ragas with the same ease with which she conquered the complexities of organic bonding. Her musical education was completed under the tutelage of Sangeetha Kalanidhi, Dr.S. Ramanathan and Smt T. Mukhta, one half of the famed Brinda-Mukhta duo. Her intense desire to propagate the tradition of South Indian Music saw her harnessing the possibilities of the web as well as modern electronics to great effect . She is the Co-author of ‘Nadanubhava’, the world’s first encyclopedic CD- ROM on Carnatic Music ; Co-creator of “ Nadopasana-My Own Carnatic Tutor”, the world’s first self-help Carnatic music guru based on Video CD and Karoke format.; she has also established an online institution “Carnatica” devoted to music and dance instruction ;its wealth of archival information on Carnatic Music has made it one of the most visited portals for music related information. |
 |
A Calicut University Kalaprathibha, Sreeram has always been immersed in music. He played the flute and mridangam for concerts and other music programmes, did the ‘nattuvangam’ and vocals for Bharatanatyam, was a guest artiste at Kalamandalam, and composed ‘adavus’ and ‘jathis’ for dance.
Sreeram’s debut song ‘Tirupaachi arivaala…’ went on to become a huge hit. . Sreeram’s song ‘Vettrikodi kattu…’ for the Rajnikant film ‘Padayappa’ turned into a smashing hit. Sreeram has so far sung around 80 Tamil songs that include peppy numbers such as ‘Tirunelveli halwa…’ (‘Samy’), an innovative fusion number that had just two words ‘Love Check’ along with Sivamani’s drums from the film ‘Paathale Paravasam,’ some fast numbers like ‘Kannamoochi attam…’ from ‘Kannamoochi Yenada,’ and interesting duets like ‘Mundasu sooriyane…’ (‘Sandaikozhi’), ‘Urranthotathula…’ (‘Veyil’) and Ulagame nee…’ (‘Ivan’). In Malayalam, Sreeram has composed the music for ‘Mazhamega Pravukal’ and ‘Melvilasam Shariyanu.r. Some of the songs Sreeram rendered in Malayalam like ‘Kadamizhiyil kamaladalam…’ (‘Tenkasipattanam’), ‘Pottukuthedy….’ (‘Ravana Prabhu’), and ‘Indumathi…’ (‘Rakshasa Rajavu’) are testimony to his talent.
Sreeram is a regular member of fusion bands like Heart Beat and Silk Route, still plays for film recordings, does ad jingles and even finds time for the odd classical concert. His wife, Baby has composed over 200 ghazals, some of which have been sung by Hariharan, 50 swarajathis, javalis, varnams and thillanas. Their eight-year-old son Bharat Narayanan has already recorded the Navagraha krithis for which T. K. Murthy has accompanied him on the mridangam. |
|
 |