Profile
Dr. Shertallay K.N. Renganatha Sharma is a renowned Carnatic music singer with a doctorate in music. Blessed with a reverberating and resonant voice, brilliance shows in every one of his concerts. The academician in him brings out the nuances in the ragas in a manner that binds his audience in a trance. Hailing from a family of musicians, his repertoire is rich, and his dedication and hard work has placed him in the top ranks of Carnatic musicians in India. He is a rare musician who excels both as a teacher and a performer. Dr. Sharma is an ‘A-Top’ Grade vocal artist of All India Radio and Doordarshan.
Dr. Renganatha Sharma is married to Smt. Mohana Sharma, who is also a professional Carnatic musician and they have two children Shravan Narayan and Swathi Renganath who are active in the music fraternity as well. He is currently serving in the executive committee of GCMA - Global Carnatic Musicians Association. He along with his wife Mohana Sharma run an exclusive music academy “Amritavarshni” teaching students across the globe. He is grooming many advanced level students and is working to ensure the guru-shishya (teacher-student) tradition thrives on.
Dr. Renganatha Sharma is the son of Smt. Lakshmi Ammal and Sangeetha Vidwan and Acharya Sri Cherthala K. Narayana Iyer. He was well trained in the Guru kula system of his father and his music is steeped in the Semmangudi tradition. His father had studied music at Sri Swathi Thirunal Music College, Thiruvananthapuram, under doyens like Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, C.S. Krishna Iyer, Kumara swamy Iyer and so on. He began learning from him at the age of five and this training continued for about 15 years. His debut concert was at the age of 13 at Sri Dhanvanthari temple, Cherthala. Dr. Sharma grew up as a part of a musical family with his siblings trained in Carnatic music.
Dr. Renganatha Sharma secured his Graduation and Post-Graduation in Music from Calicut University with First Rank and pursued his M.Phil Degree at Madras University in 1990 under the guidance of the renowned musician and musicologist N. Ramanathan. He completed his Doctoral Degree at Madurai Kamaraj University focused on "Analytical Study on Various laya aspects in Carnatic music". Dr. Sharma began his teaching career in year 1993 at 'Sri Sathguru Sangeetha Vidhyalayam', a premier research centre for music in Madurai, Tamil Nadu where he served as Associate Professor in music, and later Principal. Renganatha Sharma took volunteer retirement in the year 2017 after serving the institution for 24 years. During his teaching career, he has served as guide for many aspirants for Ph. D in music.
Some of the awards he has received are Best Raga Alapana - Margazhi Fest 2008 from Madras Music Academy Chennai, Best Outstanding Vocalist -Margazhi Fest 2010 from Madras Music Academy-Chennai, "Kalasri" Classical Music Award from Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academi in the year 2010, Distinguished Music 'GURU' Award from Kartik fine arts in the year 2015, Meritorious award from Maharajapuram Santhanam Trust. He also received Sangeetha 'Sreshta award' from Kerala Brahmana Sabha in the year 2017 and 'Thulasivana Puraskaram' from Thulasivana Parishath, Thiruvanandapuram in the year 2019.
Dr Sharma is blessed with the title 'Asthana vidwan' of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, and Mysore Datha Peetam.