The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Sivaraman, a legend”

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Tuesday, Dec 09, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Sivaraman, a legend”

Staff Reporter

PHOTO: V. GANESAN

N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu, launching `Mridanga Cintamanih,' a set of seven DVDs featuring mridangam maestro Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, in Chennai on Monday. KeralaMinister for Education and Culture M.A. Baby(fourth from left) received the first copy.

CHENNAI: As his fingers trace the intricate patterns on the mridangam, the audience watch and listen in disbelief at how despite the speed, each syllable is traced with crystal clarity.

Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman “is a legend serving the cause of the art for over six decades,” said N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu. He is not just the Maradona of Carnatic music, but a combination of Maradona and Pele, he said, explaining that though Mr. Sivaraman is a genius like the maverick footballer, he is also disciplined and structured like Pele.

He was speaking at the launch of ‘Mridanga Cintamanih,’ a set of seven DVDs featuring Mr. Sivaraman and his art, presented by Swathi Soft Solutions here on Monday. Commending the effort at creating the instructional DVDs, Mr. Murali said that as the Gurukula practice does not exist any longer, technology helps in preserving our glorious treasure.

Kerala Minister for Education and Culture M.A. Baby said that when great mridangam players are enumerated in the field of Carnatic musicians, the first name would be Palghat Mani Iyer’s and the second would be Mr. Sivaraman’s.

Carnatic vocalist Madurai G.S. Mani and Bharatanatyam exponent Padma Subrahmanyam were present.

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