Tanjore Viswanathan (13 August 1927 – 10 September 2002) was a Carnatic musician specializing in the Carnatic flute and voice. Early life and background Viswa, as T. (Tanjore/Thanjavur) Viswanathan is often called, was born in Madras, India. He was the grandson of the legendary Veena Dhanammal, considered one of the greatest players of Veena, the South Indian lute. His mother Jayammal (1890-1967) was a singer, and often provided vocal support at her daughter's dance performances. Viswa's elder sister was T. (Tanjore/Thanjavur) Balasaraswati, the greatest exponent of Bharatanatyam (South Indian classical dance) in the second half of the 20th century. His elder brother was the mridangam player T. Ranganathan (1925–1987). Though hailing from a highly esteemed musical family, at age eight Viswa sought the tutorship of Tiruppamparam Swaminatha Pillai, one of the innovators of the bamboo flute as an art musical instrument. At the time, Pillai lived in Tanjoor, about 200 miles from Madras, so Viswa left his parents' home to live and study with his teacher. He would practice for four hours a day, both before and after school. After a year, Pillai relocated to Madras, so Viswa returned to his family home but continued to study with Master Pillai for another 20 years. Career Viswa combined the best musical traditions of his family and that of Swaminathan Pillai to play the flute in a uniquely vocal style, doing full justice to the lyric and lilt. In fact Viswa would very often put the flute down in the middle of his concerts and start singing, though he was not a trained voice artist. Viswa was a complete musician. He performed for dance as much as he performed pure music. His repertoire was wide and we may well have heard the last of many of the songs that he used to perform, in particular the songs of Muthuthandavar which were set to music by Swaminathan Pillai, and a host of Padams, Javalis and Tillanas that were the property of the Dhanammal family. He trained a number of students in India and abroad to sing, but just one student, T.R. Moorthy, on the flute. Viswa was largely responsible for putting Jon Higgins on the carnatic stage, who became so popular as to be known as Higgins Bhagavathar among the rasikas of South Indian music. To teach foreign students, Viswa employed complex notations to represent the ornamentation/oscillation that is characteristic to South Indian