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K Ramaraj was born on June 9, 1936 at Rangoon (Burma). He hails from a family of music connoisseurs of of the Coimbatore district (Tamil Nadu). His father Poojyashri Kovai Krishnabhagavatar was a versatile vaggeyakara and an eminent exponent of Harikatha. His mother, the late Smt.Lakshmi, was a student of Palghat Sri Radhakrishna Iyer (grandfather of mridangam maestro Sri.Palghat R. Raghu. His younger sister (Vatsala) was an illustrious disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Nedunuri Krishnamurthy. Among other close relatives who helped form the musically luminous atmosphere of his development is his maternal aunt Vidushi Smt. Rajam Rama Krishnan, disciple of Kovai Krishnabhagavatar, Tanjore S. Kalyanaraman, Sangita Kalanidhi Mudikondan Venkatrama Iyer and Veena Vidwan Sri Raghavan.
The formative years of his career, from 1954-63, began with employment in a sugar factory at Pithapuram (E.Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh).He had close friendship with Shri. Nedunuri Krishnamurthy and Sri.Voleti Venkateshwarulu, but also "kindled the inherent flair to compose classical pieces, whereby moulding into a blossoming composer in a sustained manner."
After 1963, he moved to Madras and changed employment, which allowed him to meet with musicians such as Mr.P.Ramachandriah, Prof. Sri.TR Subrahmanian, Sri.Rajkumar Bharathy, Smt.Rajee Gopalakrishnan, her father Sri. P.V.Natarajan (in the US), and recently Sri. Ram Kaushik (Nashville, TN, USA), "whose motivation all along the years contributed to the perpetuation of the ardent desire ...to humbly dedicate his classic creations to the Music World."
He composed songs in Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit. He has focused on composing in rare ragas so that these rare forms are brought into current use. They have been published in Tamil script in the book Innisai Paamaalai, Vol.I (Dec 2002), and are composed in both common and rare ragas. His compositions are highly acclaimed by (other than those above) Mr.S.R.Janakiraman, Dr.V.V.Srivatsa, and Prof.P.Ramachandriah, among others.
Sri. Ramaraj has three sons. Raja Ramaraj has done his MBA at Vanderbilt University (USA) and is working as a high profile accounting professional working (as Director of Finance) with an international top-ranking mutual fund. He is Also a versatile mridangam artist. Radhaprem Ramaraj is a software engineer working as a Global Support Manager in a multinational firm. Sharath Ramaraj has studied at Virginia Tech, is a software engineer at a US insurance firm, and is also a skilled vocalist.
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