A K C Natarajan

A. K. C. Natarajan is one of the senior-most musicians in Carnatic music and the artist who made the clarinet a concert instrument in the south Indian classical tradition. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of art, from Tamil Nadu ^[1].

From nagaswaram to clarinet

Natarajan was born on 1 July 1929 in Tiruchirappalli to A. K. Chinnakrishna Naidu and Rukmini Ammal, in a family devoted to wind instruments ^[2]. At ten he began singing lessons with Alathur Venkatesa Iyer, and Iluppur Natesa Pillai taught him the nagaswaram, but the clarinet won him over, giving his first public concert on it in 1946 ^[2].

He joined All India Radio in 1949, working at Calicut and New Delhi, where he played in the Vadya Vrinda ensemble with Pandit Ravi Shankar ^[2]. In 1952 he left the job to perform full time ^[2]. The nagaswaram master T. N. Rajarathinam Pillai gave him the title “Clarionet Everest”, and in 1958 admirers presented him with a golden clarinet ^[2].

A style of his own

His raga alapanas, his swara passages and his way of presenting kritis are seen as distinctive, and his work has been studied by William Powell of Wesleyan University in the United States ^[2]. He has toured the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and played jugalbandi concerts with leading musicians and with jazz groups abroad ^[2]. The mayor of Cleveland gave him the key to the city in 1970 ^[2].

A top-grade artist of All India Radio, he has served as secretary of the Thyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha at Thiruvaiyaru ^[2]. He was still performing at 92 when the award was announced ^[2]. His honours include the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Kalaimamani of the Tamil Nadu government and the Music Academy’s Sangita Kalanidhi ^[2].