The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Ravikiran has balanced `performance and teaching'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Ravikiran has balanced `performance and teaching'

Staff Reporter

Musician's Level 2 of `Perfecting Carnatic Music' released

CHENNAI: Chitravina N. Ravikiran, who was rooted in the classical tradition, was not afraid of innovating and refining when necessary.

The musician had struck a delicate balance between performance and teaching, N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, said on Thursday.

He was speaking at a function to release Level 2 of `Perfecting Carnatic Music.' Published by the International Foundation for Carnatic Music (IFCM), a unit of the Ravikiran Foundation, the book is a sequel to `Perfecting Carnatic Music,' Level 1, published in 1999.

Heartening trend

Referring to a book by Allan Bloom on `The Closing of the American Mind,' he said the interest in classical performances in India was heartening and indicated that classical music was in good shape. Mr. Ram said students in small towns and rural areas should have access to the book.

B.B. Sundaram, who organises the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Festival annually, said Mr. Ravikiran used technology to reach the vast majority of lay people.

"With his students, he has a discerning sense for what is enduring and what is transient, " he said.

Satya Prabhakar, CEO of Sulekha.com, that hosted a string of performances in the United States, released two CDs — `The exquisite Bhairavi,' presented by N. Ravikiran and `Arpanam,' an offering by Savita Narasimhan. Both CDs have been produced by the IFCM.

Mr. Ravikiran introduced Aditya Kanukurthy, an 11-year-old from Austin, Texas, who has been taking lessons through tele-teaching classes and in person from him. Aditya's first performance has been arranged by the IFCM at Raga Sudha Hall in Mylapore on Saturday evening.

Psychological stress

Mr. Ravikiran told mediapersons that teaching music lessons in the conventional way caused psychological stress in students who often found many excuses to stop learning.

The two books introduced melody and rhythm as separate components. They aimed at achieving perfection along with self-enjoyment.

A sense of shruti and rhythm, which had universal appeal, had to be inculcated in the students, he stressed.

The book contains key phrases and information about each raga, brief write-ups on a few prominent composers and an entire chapter on the right approach and attitude to the art and the teacher.

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