Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao

Born Vijaya Raghava Rao in Madras on 3 November 1925, he played the bamboo flute from childhood and at first divided his attention between dance and Carnatic music, turning to Hindustani music in the mid-1940s through his long association with Ravi Shankar.

Alongside the concert platform he built a second career in film and broadcasting. Working for the state documentary agency Films Division, he scored short films for directors such as S. N. S. Sastry, Sukhdev and Pramod Pati, shaping soundtracks out of musical and non-musical sound alike, and in 1969 composed for Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shome, a film associated with the beginnings of Indian New Cinema.

The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 1970. In 1982 the Sangeet Natak Akademi honoured him in its creative and experimental music category, the Akademi's highest recognition for a performing artist.

He also wrote on music, composed for orchestral and ballet ensembles, and published poetry and fiction. Among his students were G. S. Sachdev, Ronu Majumdar and Deepak Ram. He later lived in the United States as a permanent resident, and he died on 30 November 2011.

A concert flautist whose work ran alongside composition for film and ballet, choreography and musicological writing.