Thrissur C. Narendran is a Mridangam artiste from Kerala, India. His intricate rhythmic patterns, sense of proportion, sharp anticipation, short & carefully thought out phases of silence, and the ability to give the Mridangam the much-needed soft touch sets Trichur C. Narendran a apart. Narendran has also accompanied more than five generations of musicians.
Early life
Narendran was born to Late Venugopala Raja of Manakulam Palace and sister in an ambience of Music and Art.
Musical training
Born in a family of musicians and scholars, Narendran was initiated into an early training in Mridangam by Sri Kongorppilly Parameswaran Namboodiri who spotted his talent during a dance rehearsal at an annual family get together at Manakkulam Palace, and started teaching Narendran the basics of Mridangam when he was just seven. It was David Bhagavathar of Kunnamkulam who instilled in him the interest in music and inspired him to seriously take up the Mridangam. Later it was Sri E P Narayana Pisharodi and Koduvayur Radhakrishnan who trained him further. Narendran had the rarest privileges to be one of the early disciples of Palghat R Raghu from 1973. It was the scholarship awarded by the Government of India that provided the fecundity for him to learn the finer and the most intricate techniques of mridangam playing from Mridangam Maestro Padmashri Palghat R. Raghu.
Career
Narendran has been exposed to the concert platform from a very early age of 10.
Narendran had the rare privilege of performing together with his guru Palghat R Raghu in the Jass Yatra Festival in Bombay in the year 1978.
From a very young age, Narendran has been accompanying throughout India with maestros like Semmangudi Srinivsa Iyer, M S Subbulakshmi, Palghat K. V. Narayanaswamy, Dr M. Balamuralikrishna, T. M. Thiagarajan, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Voletti Venkateswarulu, Dr S. Ramanathan, D. K. Jayaraman, M. D. Ramanathan, S. Kalyanaraman, Maharajapuram Santhanam, D. K. Pattammal, T. Brinda, M.L. Vasanthakumari, K S Narayanaswamy, T.N. Krishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, Dr S. Balachandar, Dr N. Ramani, L. Subramaniam, T. Viswanathan, Jon B. Higgins, M. Chandrasekaran, V V Subramanyam, R. K. Srikantan, TR Subramaniam, T K Govinda Rao, Madurai G S Mani, T. N. Seshagopalan, Trichur V. Ramachandran, T. V. Gopalakrishnan, T. V. Sankaranarayanan, Neyyattinkara Vasudevan, K J Yesudas, O. S. Thyagarajan, Bombay Sisters, E. Gayathri, Padmavathy Ananthagopalan, Rajeswari Padmanabhan, and Karaikudi S Subramanian
He has provided accompaniment to the present day vidwans like U. Srinivas, N. Ravikiran, N Vijay Siva, P. Unnikrishnan, Sanjay Subrahmanyan,Maharajapuram S Ramachandran, T M Krishna, Sreevalsan J. Menon, Maharajapuram S Srinivasan, Sudha Raghunathan, Bombay Jayashree, Shashank Subramanyam, Palakkad R Ramaprasad,TNS Krishna, Sankaran Namboothiri,Abshek Raghuraman,Sikkil Gurucharan and so on. He also has many foreign concerts to his credit :-
1982– USA With K S Narayanaswami
1982– JAPAN with Dr L Subramanyam
1983– USA – CANADA– England with K. V. Narayanaswamy
2008– GERMANY & FINLAND With Dr. Karaikudi S Subramanian & Shankari Krishnan
2015- USA Concerts with Palakkad R Ramaprasad
2017- USA Concerts with Palakkad R Ramaprasad
2018- USA Concerts with Palakkad R Ramaprasad
2018- AUSTRALIA To perform in a Violin Arangetram of Manisha Jothin disciple of Vidwan Murali Kumar
2019- USA Concerts with Palakkad R Ramaprasad
Stint with A.I.R
It was at the age of 17 that he won first prize in A I R Music competition. In the Commercial CD released by A I R of Palghat K V Narayanaswami, with M S G on the violin, Narendran has provided mridangam accompaniment. He was on the staff of All India Radio from 1992 to 2011. He is a Top rank artiste of All India Radio.
