Artist Information R.K. Srikantan is one of the seniormost artists who has won the hearts of music lovers for the past several decades via All India Radio, Bangalore and Mysore. Srikantan hails from a distinguished family of musicians. Through sheer dedication Vidwan Srikantan has achieved excellence in the field of music and has served the field of music with distinction. He was born in 1920 in Rudrapattanam in Karnataka, and grewup in to a family of dedicated musicians, vainikas, and scholars in Sanskrit and Kannada. He is the brother of the legendary violinist R.K. Venkatarama Sastry, from the Chowdiah's school.   Vidwan R.K. Srikantan got his training in vocal music from his brother R.K. Venkatarama Sastry (desciple of Legendary Violinist T. Chowdiah) and started performing on several All India Radio Stations at the age of 15. Since then he has been performing all over India. Through dedication and close interaction with stalwarts in the field of music, and constant listening to the music of great masters of the past, he develped his own style, rich with tradition, and clasicsm.   R.K. Srikantan started his career in music with All India Radio, Mysore, followed by nearly 30 years at All India Radio Bangalore. He reiterd from All India Radio Bangalore as a music producer. Vidwan Srikantan's contribution as the producer includes popularising the work of great poets and sanskrit scholars such as: Haridasa's compositions Swamy Narayana Theertha's Krishna Leela Tharangini Compositions of poets and scholars such as Masthi Venkatesha Iyengar, D.V. Gundappa, Poet Laurette Kuvempu, D.R. Bendre, and Prof. Parameshwara Bhat, Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer's 72 Mela Raga Malika and so on.   At the invitation of Pittsburg Hindu Temple R.K Srikantan has performed at various music sabhas in the US since 1985. He also served as the Visiting Professor of Music at York University in Toronto, Canada.   A number of titles have been conferred on Vidwan R.K. Srikantan. He received the title of Karnataka Kalathilaka in 1976 from Karnataka Sangeetha Nrithya Academy, Fellow of Sangeetha Natak Academy, New Delhi in 1980, Sangeetha Kalarathna from Bangalore Gayana Samaja in 1981, Sangeetha Kalanidhi from Madras Music Academy, Sapthagiri Sangeetha Vidwanmani from Tirupathi in 1994, and so on.   Vidwan R.K. Srikantan has trained a number of very good students, such as R.S. Ramakanth, Rathnamala Prakash, M.S. Shashank, M.S. Sheela, to name a few. Many of these are popular artists today, and are performing all over the world.