My Guru


My Guru: Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan

Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan hails from the well-known ‘Embar’ family known for its involvement in Music and Spirituality. He had his mrudangam initiation under Sri M.A.Krishnamurthy in Mysore in 1980. He continues to further his knowledge under Sri Neyveli Narayanan, a prime disciple of both Sri Late Thanjavur Upendran and Sri Umayalpuram K Sivaraman.

Ravi continues to accompany various leading musicians from India such as Sri O.S. Thyagarajan, Sri. Neyveli R Santhanagopalan, Dr.Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam, Sri Shankaran Nambodari, Sri, Delhi Sunderrajan, Sri Sikkil Gurucharan, Ravi’s  Mother Smt.Ranganayaki Sridharan, Sri Vidhyabhushana, Sri Ashok Ramani,, etc.  In the Bay Area, he continues to accompany all leading musicians for concerts, dance and fund raisers. He is also a sought after accompanist for dance and vocal arangetrams. Ravi was invited by UC Davis to conduct Laya Workshop in collaboration with Sri Sikkil Gurucharan.

He has also been running a percussion school – Nadhopasana Academy of Fine Arts where he enjoys teaching this great art to selective students. His students have been consistently winning prizes in Mridangam competitions in US at Cleveland, at Sivan Festival and Chicago Aaradhana. Some of his students are already sought after in the junior accompaniment segment. He has also been training his students in other percussive instruments such as Ghatam, Kanjira and Morsing. His percussion ensemble with these instruments have already won good reviews in the Bay Area.

Five of his students have successfully completed their arangetrams, accompanying great masters in the Carnatic field, receiving excellent reviews.

Ravi is very humble and owes a lot to all his Gurus who have shared their knowledge, his parents for instilling passion and encouraging him in this great art, and to his family, for a wonderful support to pursue his passion.

Ravi's guru is Vidwan Sri Neyveli R. Narayanan.  Therefore, he is the parama guru for all students of Nadhopasana Academy of FIne Arts.

Hailing from a family of music connoisseurs at Neyveli, Narayanan was initiated into the art of mridangam playing at the young age of seven, under the guidance of Sri S. K. Ganesa Pillai.  He made his debut at the age of 11 and ever since, he has been rising in his art by furthering his horizons and making a mark in the field of carnatic music.  An intensive training under the maestro late Thanjavur Sri Upendran brought about a great amount of professionalism in Narayanan's playing.  His guru taught him the intricacies and specialties of the thanjavur style of playing on the mridangam.

Narayanan is now blessed with the rare opportunity of being one of the favorite disciples of the mridangam legend Umayalpuram Sri K.Sivaraman, who is a Padmabushan awardee.  This great influence has brought in a great amount of clarity, precision and perfection in Narayanan's style.

Read more...

Read more about My School by clicking here.