The Early Years

1997 - 2003

Initiation into carnatic music

Right from the tender age of three, Vittal had the ability to recognize over fifty ragams. His venture into playing the harmonium was autodidactic and helped him perform at several bhajan programs. He also developed the art of penning down Swara-Sahityam notation for various compositions when he was barely nine years old. Being initiated into learning the violin by his mother, Vittal took an instant interest in the instrument and managed to sandwich his schooling and violin classes efficiently, fitting in an everyday practice session that lasted for 3-4 hours.

Gurus

Vittal Rangan’s initial training began in Vocal Music when he was five, from his mother Chitra Bilvam who is an alumnus of Tiruvaiyaru Raja’s Music College and an AIR graded artist, Bengaluru. He had his initial lessons on the violin from the late R.R. Keshavamurthy for a brief period. He was keen on learning from Sangita Kalanidhi. Kum. A Kanyakumari as he was enthralled by one of her performances in 2003 comprising 25 violins and was accepted as her disciple immediately. Ever since, he’s had the privilege of accompanying his Guru on stage during her solo performances on several occasions, both in India and abroad.

Making headway into being a performing artiste

2003 - 2007

Vittal Rangan had the capacity to catch on whatever was taught to him, promptly. He was introduced to the Kanyakumari bani, which predominantly has a Sahityam centric approach. He consistently bagged the first place in every music competition that was held at school or in any other space. His first major breakthrough with a formal solo public performance was at ‘Ananya’, Bengaluru in 2007 at the age of thirteen.

Early Performances

2007 - 2010

He partook in ‘Bala Brahmam’ curated by ‘Isai Mazhalai’ Ramjhi for a couple of years and was also an avid participant of the Spirit of Youth series conducted by the Madras Music Academy and the HCL Concert series.

Being a bright violinist residing in Bengaluru, he was sought after by a number of musicians who travelled to Karnataka from Madras, and regularly accompanied artistes like Bharat Sundar, Sriranjani Santhanagopalan, K Gayatri, the late Ranjani Hebbar, Vignesh Ishwar, Ashwath Narayanan etc, to name a few.

A Versatile Perfomer

2010 - Current

He is an excellent violinist on whom the music world has great expectations

- Aruna Sairam

Having performed over 2000 concerts in a career spanning across more than a decade, Vittal Rangan is an ‘A’ graded violinist of the All India Radio and Doordarshan. He cleared all his Chartered Accountancy examinations in the first attempt and has been employed since. He has also been fortunate enough to have accompanied 4 generations of musicians. Among them are great stalwarts and other senior musicians such as Padmabhushan Sri RK Srikantan, Padmabhushan Sri TV Shankaranarayanan, Sri. OS Thyagarajan, Sangeetha Kala Acharya Smt Neela Ramgopal, Sri. S. Shankar, Smt. Aruna Sairam, Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Smt. S Sowmya, Sri. Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Sri. Unnikrishnan, Sri. TM Krishna, Smt Ranjani & Gayathri, Smt Vishaka Hari, Sri. N. Ravikiran, Sri Sashank, Sri. Sikkil Gurucharan, Sri Abhishek Raghuram, Sri. TNS Krishna, Sri. Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna, Sri. Saketharaman etc. Being one of the much-desired violinists both as an accompanist and a solo performer, he was bestowed with a unique opportunity to perform at the iconic Gateway of India for a Jugalbandi concert featuring Smt. Ranjani – Gayatri and Smt. Kaushiki Chakraborty. Having an extra ear for other music genres of music, Vittal Rangan also explores multiple avenues to aesthetically integrate Carnatic music into the same.