V R Athavale

Pandit V. R. Athavale was trained in music initially under Pandit Vinayakrao Patwardhan and later, he got tutelage for Agra Gharana under Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan. He worked for AIR for long years and was also trustee of Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalay, Miraj. He was known as a Guru, who trained many such as Sudhir Pote, Nisha Parasnis, Sandhya Kathavate, Bireshvar Gautam, etc. He also composed many Bandishes with pen-name "Naad Piya". He was author of books such as - 'Vishnu Digambar Paluskar' (biography of Pt. Paluskar), 'Naad Chintan' (collection of essays), 'Raag Vaibhav' (book of notations of traditional Bandishes from repertoire of Agra, Jaipur and Gwalior Gharana) and 'Naad Piya' (book containing notation of his own Bandishes) He passed away in 2011 at age of 92, in Mumbai.