Mr.Guru Raghavendra is a Head, Senior Faculty-Mridangam in SAMAS ACADEMY. He is a senior most Legend young Mridangist in the present Carnatic World. He Started playing Mridangam from a tender age. He took his initial Mridangam lessons from his grandfather Palayamkottai Venkataramana Rao and continued under the tutelage of (late) Kalaimamani Thinniyam Y. Krishnan, a Retired Staff Artiste, AIR, Pondicherry. He has accompanied eminent musicians Clarionet Maestro Shri AKC Natarajan, Padmabhushan Prof. T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Padmashri Dr. N. Ramani, Padma Bhushan Dr. L. Subramaniam, Padmabhushan Sri T.N. Seshagopalan, Sangeetha Kalanidhi Shri T.V. Sankaranarayanan, and with many Carnatic Legends.

Among his concerts abroad are the performances with students of Kunnakkudy School of Music in Sri Lanka in May 2010, in Nigeria on 11th Aug 2012 for the concert of Sri S. Umamaheswaran, A Jugalbandhi concert tour to Switzerland and Italy along with Pandit Udai Mazumdar Tabla and Sri Arvind Bargav Mandolin in May-June 2014, Carnatic Concert tour to Sweden & Norway during September 2015 for Ms. Shantala Subramaniam – Flute with Sri Vishal Sapuram – Chitravina, Concert tour to Germany in May 2016 with Ms. Shantala Subramaniam, Ms. Vasudha Ravi & Ms. Vasudha Kesav. In this tour, he had the privilege of playing with Big Band of Bayerish Orchestra, Germany for few concerts.

He teaches all the students by creating interest in Laya Gnana and make the poor performance student in to the realm of the other group through his unique teaching methods in Mridangam. He used to quote the other school’s pattern to his students to understand and develop their own style by following his master’s traditional way of playing Mridangam.

He provided accompaniment to Raj TV’s Carnatic Music Reality Show TanishQ Swarna Sangeetham for all the 3 Seasons so far. Had the privilege of performing with following guest artistes of the above show- Legendary Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, Bombay Sisters, Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Chitravina Sri N. Ravikiran, Sri P. Unnikrishnan, Sri Ashok Ramani, Sri Sashank, Sri O.S. Arun, Smt. Ranjani & Smt. Gayatri, Priya Sisters, Smt. Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi, Sri Pushpavanam Kuppusamy among others. He is a “A” Grade Artiste (AIR, Chennai).

He received Awards ‘Vidhya Visarat’ by Shri Madwa Sanga, Cuddalore in 1997 and ‘Laya Gnyana Sudar’ during Sri Pudukottai Dakshinamurthi Pillai Jayanthi Celebrations in 2014 Blessed with Asthana Vidwan of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. He is a Boon for SAMAS ACADEMY, Chennai through his presence for the best teaching in Mridangam.