Rajan Somasundaram, best known as Composer Rajan, is a composer, drummer, violinist and

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

based in

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

. He is known for making the first ever music album on Tamil

Sangam period The Sangam period or age (, ), particularly referring to the third Sangam period, is the period of the history of ancient Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Sri Lanka (then known as Tamilakam) spanning from c. 6th century BCE to c. 3rd century CE. ...

poetry in association with Durham Symphony and prominent international musicians. The album became Amazon's Top#10 bestseller under 'International Music albums' category in July 2020. The album was called a "A Major event in the world of Music" by ''The Hindu Music review''. He composed the theme song of the 10th

World Tamil Conference The World Tamil Conference ( ta, உலகத் தமிழ் மாநாடு) is a series of occasional conferences to discuss the social growth of the Tamil language. Each conference is attended by thousands of Tamil enthusiasts around t ...

with many international musicians as a tribute to

poet

Kaniyan Pungundranar Kaniyan Poongunranar, also Poongundranar or Pungundranar (), was an influential Tamil philosopher from the Sangam age from around 6th century BCE. His name Kaniyan implies that he was an Kaala Kanithar (astronomer) (''kaala kanitham'' in Tamil li ...

Early life and education

Rajan was born in

Thiruvarur Thiruvarur () also spelt as Tiruvarur is a town and municipality in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Thiruvarur district and Thiruvarur taluk. The temple chariot of the Thyagaraja temple, weighing and mea ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

state and started learning Carnatic music since he was 9 years old at the birthplace of

Shyama Shastri Shyama Shastri (; 26 April 1762 – 1827) or Syama Sastri was a musician and composer of Carnatic music. He was the oldest among the Trinity of Carnatic music, Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar being the other two. Early life and career Shy ...

. He graduated with a master's degree in Engineering.

Career

In 2017, Rajan created a new Carnatic Raga,

Svadhya Svadhya is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' ''Shadava'' rāgam . It is a ''janya'' rāgam (derived scale), as it does not have all the seven ''swaras'' (musical notes). It is sai ...

, and released a single titled ‘Maya- The reflection of Self’ composed in the raga. In 2018, he released the first ever musical form for the prominent Sanskrit Advaita classical literature,

Ashtavakra Gita The Ashtavakra Gita (Sanskrit: अष्टावक्रगीता; IAST: aṣṭāvakragītā) or Song of Ashtavakra is a classical text in the Advaita Vedanta tradition in the form of a dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra and Janaka, king ...

Saksi I, in the raga Svadhya. Rajan has worked on jingles, corporate commercials and documentaries including 'Welcome to North Carolina'. Rajan composed the theme song of the 10th

scheduled at Chicago. He has composed the first ever musical form for the 2000 year old poetry, Yathum Oore, written by

Sangam Period The Sangam period or age (, ), particularly referring to the third Sangam period, is the period of the history of ancient Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Sri Lanka (then known as Tamilakam) spanning from c. 6th century BCE to c. 3rd century CE. ...

poet

. Rajan mentioned that as a tribute to one of the most progressive ancient poetry that calls for unity and equality, he composed the theme song to cover multiple genres of music and brought in many international musicians of varying genres, ethnicity and languages. Singers

Karthik (singer) Karthik (born 7 November 1980) is an Indian playback singer and composer. Karthik started his professional singing career as a backing vocalist and has since been working as a playback singer. He has sung more than 8000 songs in 15 Indian l ...

and academy nominated

Bombay Jayashri "Bombay" Jayashri Ramnath is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer, and musician. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. Born into a family of musicians, Jayashri represents the fourth ge ...

sang the song along with various international artists. Tamil writer

S. Ramakrishnan S. Ramakrishnan is a writer from Tamil Nadu, India. He is a full-time writer who has been active over the last 27 years in diverse areas of Tamil literature like short stories, novels, plays, children's literature and translations. He has w ...

appreciated the selection of Yathum Oore poem as the theme song to portray the Tamil cultural identity. In January 2020, Rajan released the first ever music album on ancient Tamil Sangam poetry collaborating with Durham Symphony and leading international artists, titled

Sandham- Symphony Meets Classical Tamil ''Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil'' is a studio album in Tamil by American Composer Rajan Somasundaram that involved various international artists. It is based on Sangam period ancient Tamil poetry and the first ever music album on San ...

. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' music review called the album "A Major event in the world of Music". His Pop-Rock single 'Girl Power' sung by KiRA Mazur became Top#10 most requested song on Chicago FM in June 2021. His background score for the documentary movie 'Anthara nadai' on Poet Abi was widely appreciated. Rajan's music for the movie '

A Tribute to Venmurasu A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

' featuring legendary Actor

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...

among others was released by Movie Director

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...

in a virtual public event. The movie taken to celebrate the successful completion of World's longest Tamil Novel

Venmurasu ''Venmurasu'' ( ta, வெண்முரசு ''Veṇmuracu'') is a Tamil novel by writer Jeyamohan. A modern renarration of the Indian classical epic ''Mahabharatha'', it is considered Jeyamohan's most ambitious work to date, with "a scope ...

was developed into a music album titled A Musical Tribute to Venmurasu includes a 12 minute musical tribute sung by

Sriram Parthasarathy Sriram Parthasarathy is a Carnatic music, Carnatic Classical Vocalist and a renowned playback singer . He hails from a family of Classical Musicians. Discography Sriram Parthasarathy is a disciple of Neyveli Santhanagopalan. He has recorded s ...

Saindhavi Saindhavi is a Carnatic music vocalist and an Indian film playback singer. She has been performing from the age of 12. Personal life Saindhavi married her schoolmate, composer G. V. Prakash Kumar, on 27 June 2013 in Chennai, India. They were ...

and Rajan Somasundaram. Rajan selected some highly poetic lines from Neelam, one of the Venmurasu Novels and created this Musical tribute. Writers A.Muttulingam, Director

Vasanthabalan Vasanthabalan (sometimes credited as Vasantha Balan) is an Indian Tamil film director and screenwriter, known for his Tragedy Films in Tamil Cinema. He has made critically acclaimed films including ''Veyil'' (2006), ''Angadi Theru'' (2010) and ' ...

and Nanjil Nadan appreciated the unique combination of melody, rhythm and grandeur in creating a fitting musical tribute to Venmurasu. The album was released worldwide through Apple iTunes and Spotify.

References

External links

Official YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Somasundaram, Rajan Living people Carnatic composers 21st-century Indian composers Year of birth missing (living people)