Rajeswari Satish (aka Rajeswari Ranganathan) is a South Indian Carnatic vocalist, currently based in New Jersey, USA. Rajeswari’s career spans over twenty five years of teaching and thirty five years of performance.
Introduced to music by her mother and vainika Smt. Vijayam Ranganathan, Rajeswari began her formal training with Sri M.A. Venugopal at the age of seven. With the Cultural Talent Search Scholarship from the Government of India, she continued her training with Sangeeta Kala Acharya Sri C.S. Krishna Iyer and later with Padmabhushan Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy. Rajeswari has had the opportunity to learn several kritis from Padmabhushan Lalgudi Sri G. Jayaraman, Sangeetakalanidhi Smt. R. Vedavalli, Sangeeta Kala Acharya Smt. Suguna Varadachari and Sangeeta Kala Acharya Seetha Narayanan. Rajeswari considers it her immense fortune to have received guidance from these illustrious gurus.
Throughout her grade school and college years in India, Rajeswari won several prestigious prizes and awards at numerous state and national levels. These include prizes at the Madras Music Academy annual competitions, the Sangeet Natak Akademi competitions, and consecutive top prizes at the Kerala State Youth festivals. At nineteen, she began regularly performing at All India Radio as an accredited artist.
After completing a degree in Civil Engineering, Rajeswari moved to the US and acquired a master’s degree in Computer Science. Her inner quest for a lifelong journey in music started rather inconceivably, during her early years in America. From her mid-twenties onward, she chose to focus primarily on music. Rajeswari aspires to adhere to the same high musical standards that her esteemed gurus set, in her teaching, practice and performance.
Rajeswari has performed numerous concerts in India, including several organizations in Chennai during the December seasons, and in prestigious venues in the USA (Cleveland Aradhana, CMANA, NJ) and in the UK (Nehru Center, Milapfest). She has imparted comprehensive training to several students all the way from their initial lessons to full-fledged concert performance levels. Many of her students have won prestigious prizes in national level competitions in the USA. The state of New Jersey awarded her student a Folk Arts Apprenticeship award to pursue advanced training with Rajeswari as the master artist. A familiar face in the community, Rajeswari serves as a key member at Yuva Sangeetha Lahari, an organization that promotes youth talent, and as a founding member at Sunaadam, an organization of performing and teaching musicians settled in the USA.
A new chapter in Rajeswari’s musical career commenced in 2018 as she embarked on her academic journey. She is currently a doctoral student of Ethnomusicology at The Graduate Center, CUNY, where she will focus on the musical and social aspects of Carnatic music.
Guru Parampara
