INTRODUCING Ralf Amado is most easy during Christmas. For, his keyboard plays relentlessly during the season. Whether it’s for Christmas choirs, church gatherings, cassettes or musical programmes in channels, there is no missing this keyboard player in the background. Tharangini, the recording studio of Yesudas, was where his talents sprouted. In the productive years of Tharangini, Rana (as Ralf is known among the music fraternity), has played keyboard for all their audio cassettes.

“I have worked with almost all leading composers of those times, including Devarajan master, Dakshinamoorthy Swamy and new-comers like Mohan Sitara. But now that Christmas cassettes are almost extinct, I am more into composing music for choirs and other Christmas programmes now,” he says. Rana began learning keyboard at the age of eight. “Those days it was Latin mass in the churches and my father used to play keyboard. It worked with pedals.

Since I was short, I used to sit on his lap and play the keys while he managed the pedals,” Rana remembers. One of his cherished moments as a keyboard player was during the visit of Pope John Paul II to the city in 1986. “There was a holy mass under the auspices of the Pope at Sanghumughom beach and I played keyboard for the choir and prayers. It was a wonderful experience,” he says.

Similarly, the visit of Rajiv Gandhi to the city to inaugurate the National Games had turned a memorable occasion for Rana. “There was this Bharateeyam, which was played by 5,000 odd school students and I played the keyboard live for the show,” he recalls. Rana has remained a loyal artist with the All India Radio for the last two decades. In between, he even tried his hands in film music. He created music and background score for three movies, including Sandhyaragam and Chanakyasoothram .