N Ramani (1934-2015)
Born in a family of rich musical tradition, young Ramani grew up in an atmosphere charged with music. His grandfather, and first Guru, Sri Aazhiyur Narayanaswami Iyer was a well-known flute artist who could also play other instruments and sing.
Noting Ramani's natural attraction to music and to the flute, his grandfather started instructions on the flute at the age of 5, the formal initiation age. Many noted musicians of that period would visit their house and invariably muscians would begin, with young Ramani listening with full attention.
The formal introduction to Ramani as a flute artist, the Arangetram, was performed in 1942 when he was just 8 years old, in the holy shrine of Chikkil Singara Velan the famous temple of Lord Subramanya, the favourite Deity of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar of the Carnatic Music Trinity. This was certainly an auspicious moment. On this occasion, the veterans, Vedaranyam Krishnamurthy Iyer on the Violin and Tiruvarur Kunju Iyer on the Mridangam provided the accompaniment. It was a splendid success. Sri Krishnamurthy Iyer and Sri Kunju Iyer and other musicians present, praised Ramani's talents and predicated a great musical career, which proved to be correct.
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It was about this time, in 1945 that Ramani gave his first flute concert over the All India Radio, at Trivandrum station. Then onwards he his regularly performing concerts through AIR, as well as Television. He has been participating in Radio Sangeetha Sammelan and national programmes of A.I.R. since 1968.
In the year 1956, at the age 22, Ramani got married, and in the same year his first flute concert at the Music Academy, Madras was given. Since then, his concerts at the Music Academy became a regular feature. He is also on the expert committee of the Music Academy, Madras.
A very special feature of Dr. Ramani's brilliant career was the spread of his fame all over the world. He has undertaken over 30 international concert tours and has participated in every major music festival in the world.
Dr. Ramani is also the first Carnatic music artist to have participated in the Olympics (at Munich, Germany in 1972), sponsored by the Government of India. This list of concert tours is long enough to be attached separately to this article. 


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Dr. Ramani is identified easily from his flute performances by his own characteristic, strong, pleasing, soft tonal quality, subtle variations and the melodious quality of the music he produces. These are, apart from his natural inherent talents and skills due to several other factors. The flute playing techniques such as the blowing, fingering, which he inherited from his grand father and his guru, Mali was further developed by Ramani's own researches.
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Dr. Ramani suffered from throat cancer during the last years of his life and did not appear much in public. He died on 9 October 2015 in Chennai, less than a week short of his 81st birthday. He is survived by four children.
Biography adapted with gratitude from Aadishabdam: Flute Ramani, a blog by Harul Dass