RK Padmanabha to be honoured with Chowdiah Award 2026

He has 70 years of singing, 50 years on stage and 60 books, including five novels and four plays on music to his credit, and this is just a broad outline of vocalist RK Padmanabha’s accomplishments. Padmanabha has been selected for the Chowdiah Award 2026, which will be bestowed on him on November 15 during the Chowdiah Utsava and the Academy of Music Chowdiah Awards in the city.

“I treasure this recognition as I admire Chowdiah deeply. It is an honour to receive the Chowdiah Award as I never dreamt I would become a musician of such repute; it is just the grace of the Almighty,” says RK Padmanabha, affectionately referred to as RKP in music circles.

His modest outlook aside, the artiste has also been a teacher, author, sportsman and actor, apart from having a multitude of albums and awards to his credit. Padmanabha says music and Vedic studies were intrinsic to his upbringing at Rudrapatna.

“Rudrapatna, a small village on the banks of the River Cauvery in Arkalgud taluk of Hassan district in Karnataka where I was born, has a reputation for having produced a record number of Carnatic musicians. I was not born into a musical family, but the soil and air of the region instilled melody in me,” he says.

Nostalgia seeps in as the musician recalls childhood memories. Veterans of classical music would visit Rudrapatna during festivals as every celebration included concerts. “I would be in awe of music vidwans and their regal attire.

I remember waiting for hours to steal a glimpse of Violin Chowdiah as a six-year-old, and when he blessed me, it left a lasting impact,” says RKP. He enrolled at Violin Chowdiah’s Ayyanar College of Music in Mysore, to begin his formal training in Carnatic music.

“Chowdiah whom I considered the ‘Chakravarthy of Carnatic music’ was a soloist, master accompanist and a gymnast! He crafted a seven-stringed violin, composed kritis, acted in a movie, and trained hundreds of students. Simplicity was his hallmark and his efforts in bringing the community of South Indian artistes together through concerts was well known.” Ranga-Geete artistes (theatre musicians), often performed on the streets of Rudrapatna, and their influence on RKP is felt in his wide range, attributed to his initial exposure where open-throat singing was encouraged.

“I enacted Karna’s role when I had to sing Kumaravyasa’s poems whilst being trained by Gamaki Vasantha Lakshmi,” says RKP, who still dons the role of musical personalities for theatrical productions, the latest being his portrayal of saint-composer Muthuswamy Dikshitar.

“I recently released a book of 200 Dikshitar compositions with lyrics, notations and meanings in Kannada,” says RKP. Driven by his dreams, RKP arrived in Bengaluru in his late teens and graduated with a B.Sc Honors in 1970.

He represented Karnataka in ball badminton and soon bagged a job at a nationalised bank. Returning to music around 1974, he trained under HV Krishnamurthy at the Vijaya College of Music. “It felt magical and due to my advanced training with HVK, I was able to hold my first concert in 1975.” As a lyricist and music composer, Padmanabha has set the tune to hundreds of Purandaradasa’s sahityas and Vadiraja’s compositions.

He has penned 750 compositions of his own, mostly in Kannada, Sanskrit and Telugu. His researched work Purandara Pitamahare? dissects the contemplative genius of the saint and explains why Raga Mayamalavagowla was introduced by him as the basic scale for foundational lessons in Carnatic music.

After he worked on ‘Vadiraja’s Teertha Prabhanda’ where he documented the lesser-known aspects of the saint-composer’s visits to 10 sacred rivers in India, the artiste is all set to share his perspective of the saints Shankara-Ramanuja-Madhwa with a few compositions on them as well.

RKP built the Vadiraja Kala Bhavana near Hulimavu in Bengaluru to host musical events. He helms the Karnataka Ganakala Parishat’s activities to expose those in rural areas to classical music and promote musicians in the region.

He is also the managing trustee of the Rudrapatna Sangeetotsava Samiti Trust that conducts musical events annually. At 78, Padmanabha says, “I want to see Bengaluru abuzz with classical melodies. One of the reasons I am passionate about spreading awareness is to maintain shaarira samskarana (voice-culture), as I believe it is paramount for musicians to use their voices with precision.” RK Padmanabha will be honoured with the Chowdiah Award 2026 at the Chowdiah Utsava on November 15, at 5.30pm.

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