Abhishek Raghuram

Abhishek Raghuram

Abhishek was born into a family of notable musicians and is the grandson of mridangam player Palghat R. Raghu and is related to the Lalgudi family name on his mother’s side.

Abhishek started learning mridangam from his grandfather and then moved on to vocal training under P. S. Narayanaswamy. In 1999, he gave his first international concert tour in the United States with his grandfather, Palghat Raghu. He has performed with musicians such as T. K. Murthy, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, Karaikudi Mani, Trichy Sankaran, G. Harishankar, Thiruvarur Bakthavathsalam, Ganesh and Kumaresh, the Mysore brothers, Jayateerth Mevundi and Sanjeev Abhyankar.

In the year 2014, Abhishek directed the Children's Carnatic choir organized by the Bhoomija trust as a fund-raiser for Drishti Eye Care, Bangalore and was presented by Zakir Hussain in the "Barsi" festival dedicated to his father Alla Rakha.

Abhishek was involved in the making of the album Kaadalan Bharathi, composed of songs of Subramanya Bharati's, and also gave a mridangam recital along with Anantha R Krishnan for the 70th birthday celebrations of Karaikudi Mani.

Abhishek is an "A" grade artiste of All India Radio since 2012.

• Best concert in the SPIRIT OF YOUTH concert series conducted by Music Academy in 1997.
• MOST INSPIRING YOUTH ARTISTE Best Junior vocalist – The Music Academy, Madras in Dec 1999
• "ASTHANA VIDWAN" title from the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam in October 2006
• "Yagnaraman Youth Excellence Award" by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai in July 2009
• "Shanmukha Sangeetha Shironmani Award" by Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, Mumbai in December 2009
• Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2013
• "Yogam Nagaswami Award" for Best Senior Vocalist – The Music Academy, Madras during the December Season 2013-14