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C. Ashwath
Singer/Music Director

C. Ashwath Biography

C. Ashwath was an Indian music composer and exponent of Bhavageete ("expressive poetry") and Janapada Geete ("folk songs") in the Kannada language. He was also a singer, and had sung many of his own compositions. He was credited with singing Bhavageete and Janapada Geete songs and making sure that they reached the common man. He died on 29 December 2009 on his 71st birthday. He was suffering from renal and kidney failure.

C. Ashwath is a household name in Karnataka. He is perhaps the only Music Director in Karnataka, to have carved a niche of his own in all three fields that demand music as an element of expression: Theatre, Sugam Sangeetha and Films.

He was born on 29 December 1938. He was graduated in Science from the Bangalore University and later worked in Indian Telephone Industries for 27 years before retiring as an Executive Engineer in 1992. He started his musical career as a disciple of Devagiri Shankararao Joshi in Hindustani Music.

He turned 71 on 29 December 2009. His friends and well-wishers had planned to celebrate his 71th birthday in a special way. A function was to be held at Ravindra Kala Kshetra, Bangalore and Swamiji of Suttur and Virendra Hegde were to facilitate him on the occasion this evening. After this, he was expected to sing his popular songs. But as luck had it, the singer/composer C Ashwath breathed his last on his birthday. His death left Kannada music lovers in a pool of tears.

As both a singer and composer, he was extremely popular in Karnataka and among the Kannadigas all over the world. His concert in Bangalore in 2005 was attended by a crowd of almost 100,000 people. He has also given concerts outside India, like in Melbourne for Melanudi kannada sangha and a few others in the UK.

He has composed music for a few movies too. Some of his notable compositions include the composition of music for Mysooru Mallige – a classic work of noted poet K.S. Narasimhaswamy and his compositions of Kannada saint Santa Shishunala Sharifa's works. He has also composed music for a very popular movie 'Matadaana', along with another popular music director V. Manohar.

A pioneer of Kannada "Sugama Sangeetha" (light music), the versatile singer had over 150 albums to his credit and had trained a number of singers, including Manjula Gururaj, B R Chaya, Ratnamala Prakash, etc.

From 1987, he was into film music with Vaidyanath. The first film he scored music was Kakana Kote. Chinnari Mutha, Santha Shishunala Sharifa, Mysoora Mallige, Kotreshi Kanasu, Nagamandala and 20 other films in Kannada had their music scored by him.

He has sung the "State Farmers Anthem" of Karnataka State. "Negila Yogi". In the light music department  C. Ashwath's contribution had been impeccable. Dr Kuvempu, Da. Ra. Bendre, Narasimhaswamy, DVG, Gopalakrishna Adiga, GS Shivarudrappa, Lakshminarayana Bhatta, HS Venkatesha Murthy, Lakshman Rao BN, etc., poems came from the wonderful voice of C. Ashwath.

The "Kannadave sathya" live concert, which was held in Palace Grounds, Bangalore, Date: 23 April 2005, headed by him, was a great success which had more than 1.5 lakh Kannadigas attending the show.
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