C. Ashwath (Kannada: C.ಅಶ್ವಥ) (29 December 1938 – 29 December 2009) - C. Aswath 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 70th birthday. He was suffering from renal and liver failures C. Aswath 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 Film. He was born on December 29, 1939. He graduated in Science from 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. 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. From 1987 he was in to film music with Vaidyanath. The first film he scored music was Kakana Kote. Chinnari Mutha, Santha Shishunala Sharief, Mysoora Mallige, Kotreshi Kanasu, Nagamandala and 20 other films in Kannada he scored music. He has sung the "State Farmers Anthem" of Karnataka State. "Negila Yogi". In the light music C. Ashwath contribution was impeccable. Dr Kuvempu, Da.Ra.Bendre, Narasimhaswamy, DVG, Gopalakrishna Adiga, GS Shivarudrappa, Lakshminarayana Bhatta, HS Venkatesha Murthy, Lakshman Rao BN poems came from the wonderful voice of C. Ashwath The "Kannadave sathya" live concert, which was held in Palace Gorunds, Bangaluru Date: 23 April 2005, Headed by Him, was the great success which gathered more than 150,000 Kannadigas for the show. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.