Pandit Rajeev Taranath

Rajeev Taranath was born in Bangalore on 17 October 1932. He took his first training in vocal music from his father, Pandit Taranath, sang in public at nine, and was broadcasting on All India Radio before he was twenty.

He held a PhD in literature and was Professor and Head of English Literature at the Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, before giving up that career and moving to Calcutta to study sarod with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He continued to learn from his guru until Khan's death in 2009, and also received guidance from Ravi Shankar, Annapurna Devi, Nikhil Banerjee and Aashish Khan. As a Ford Foundation scholar between 1989 and 1992 he researched and published on the teaching techniques of the Maihar-Allauddin gharana.

He performed widely in India, Australia, Europe, Yemen, the United States and Canada, and composed music for Indian films including Samskara, Kanchana Sita and Kadavu. He headed the Indian music programme in the World Music Department at the California Institute of the Arts. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1999–2000 and the Padma Shri in 2019. He died in Mysuru on 11 June 2024, aged ninety-one.

His playing was noted for the unhurried unfolding of a raga, the tonal weight of his strokes and a combination of technical command with emotional range.