Neela Ramgopal (25 May 1935 – 1 March 2023) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist and Carnatic music teacher. Some of her works included ''Tamizh Inbam'', ''Rama Upasana'' and ''Narayana Enniro''. She was a recipient of awards, including the

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in Englis ...

, the Sangita Kala Acharya Award by

Madras Music Academy Madras Music Academy is one of the earliest established music academies in South India. Before the concept of infrastructure was introduced to India in the early 1920s, it was a gathering for elite musicians simply called (and is still more ...

, and the Sangeetha Chudamani award from the Rama Seva Mandali.

Biography

Neela Ramgopal was born on 25 May 1935, in

Kumbakonam Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum) or Kudanthai is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the States of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the headq ...

in Tamil Nadu into a

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

Iyer family. Her father was a landlord. The family migrated back to their village in Tyagarajapuram where she went to school in Thiruvidaimarudur. It was only at the age of 23, she started studying Carnatic music seriously. She started studying

Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...

with lessons from Sadagopalachari in Kumbakonam and later under N. M. Narayanan, T. K. Rangachary and

M. L. Vasanthakumari Madras Lalitangi Vasanthakumari (popularly referred to as MLV) (3 July 1928 – 31 October 1990) was a Carnatic musician and playback singer for film songs in many Indian languages. MLV and her contemporaries D. K. Pattammal and M. S. Subbulak ...

. Ramgopal taught students from 1965, the year her very first independent public concert came in. During this time she performed regularly as a radio artist with the

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

rising to be an "A Top" grade artist. She published a book of 50 Tamil compositions in Kannada script. In addition, she also recorded audio CDs of krithis in all the 72

Melakartha Ragas Mēḷakartā is a collection of fundamental musical scales (ragas) in Carnatic music (South Indian classical music). ''Mēḷakartā'' ragas are parent ragas (hence known as ''janaka'' ragas) from which other ragas may be generated. A ''melaka ...

. Some of her recorded albums included''Tamizh Inbam'', ''Rama Upasana'' and ''Narayana Enniro''. Ramgopal was noted to have trained over 700 students over her career. She was also noted to be an early adopter of technology offering her training lessons online. She received the

, the Sangita Kala Acharya award from the

and the Sangeetha Chudamani award from the Rama Seva Mandali.

Personal life

Ramgopal moved to

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

after her wedding at 19, initially living in

Basavanagudi Basavanagudi is a residential and commercial locality in the Indian city of Bangalore. It is located in South Bangalore, along the borders of Jayanagar. The name "Basavanagudi" refers to the Bull Temple, which contains a monolith statue of the ...

before moving to J. P. Nagar. She had two children. She was known to have been a polyglot with works in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

, and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, and was referred to as Neela ''Maami'' by her students. Ramgopal died on 1 March 2023 in Bangalore. She had been diagnosed with cancer earlier. She was aged 87.

Books

Awards and honors

2016 *Gurukripa Award 2017 *Sangeetha Kala Acharya Award from the

2011 *Kanchana Shree title 2018 by the Kanchana Shree Lakshminarayana Music Academy Trust *Best performer award from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai *Best performer award from Madras Music Academy *Gana Prakeerthi award from the Nagarkoil Trust *Sangeetha Kala Samragni award from the Ramakrishna Gaanasabha *Sangeetha Chudamani award from Rama Seva Mandali *Karnataka Kalasri award from the Karnataka state government Sangeetha Nrithya Academy

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramgopal, Neela 1935 births 2023 deaths Women Carnatic singers Carnatic singers Indian women classical singers 21st-century Indian singers 21st-century Indian women singers Women musicians from Tamil Nadu Singers from Tamil Nadu Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Deaths from cancer in India