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Music Season
Winning combination
LALITHAA KRISHNAN
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They stunned the listeners at Cleveland. And are performing tomorrow at NGS.
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Photo: K. V. Srinivasan.
ABSORBING PATANTHARAM: NRI students with veteran gurus.
If you take a bunch of musically talented kids aged 7-18 years, add a dash of Skype-enabled connectivity and a moving force named V.V.Sundaram, Secretary, the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana Committee, mix well, marinate in traditional patantharas branded with the seal of senior musicians, simmer gently for five months and serve piping hot, what do you get? A winning entree that makes a sensational debut at the inaugural ceremony of the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana. “A
nation-wide talent search drew an overwhelming response and 28 children were selected after the audition,” says V.V.Sundaram. “As a special incentive, I offered them the prestigious opening slot at the Festival, and I must say that the kids lived up to their promise of giving their best.”
Dream realised
What impelled him to initiate this project? “Young people living abroad and learning Carnatic music have never had it so good, what with easy access to vast archives of classical music that include kutcheris of the all-time greats. However, direct exposure to the richness and depth of sampradaya sangitam can be gained only by learning heavyweight compositions from veteran vidwans and vidushis who constitute a direct link with the great banis. Thanks to the senior musicians’ ready assent and cooperation, my dream has become reality during 2007, the thirtieth anniversary of the aradhana,” he explains.
Future plans for the group include an in-depth absorption of Muthuswami Dikshitar’s magnificent Kamalamba Navavarnams taught by senior vidwan R.K.Srikantan. The gurus include Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Chingleput Ranganathan, P.S. Narayanaswami, R. Vedavalli, Rama Ravi, Seetha Rajan, Suguna Varadachari, Padma Sandilyan, Suguna Purushothaman, Jayalakshmi Santhanam, T.R.Subramaniam, S. Sowmya, K.N.Sashikiran, A.S.Murali, R. Thiagarajan (flute), Jayalakshmi Sekar (veena), Srimushnam V. Raja Rao and H.S.Sudheendra (mridangam).
Any doubts about whether the kids would adapt to tradition were quickly aid to rest. “My patanthara of Muthuswami Dikshitar’s ‘Maye’ in Tarangini is uncompromisingly old school, employing the shuddha dhaivatham. But the children had no difficulty in connecting to it as they remembered their elders singing it that way,” says R. Vedavalli. “For easy grasp, I would split a sangati into small segments,” adds P.S.Narayanaswami. With the participants residing in different states of the U.S., the learning process was through Skype. Each musician would lead two of their own disciples in Chennai through the intricacies of the entire composition, line by line, with frequent repetitions and spot correction of mistakes. The participants would follow the lesson in real time, singing along, but with return transmission on mute mode, such that they could hear but not be heard by the guru.
Learning the 15 compositions, one from each guru, was spread over five months. With artiste A.S.Murali, senior disciple of PSN overseeing area-based rehearsals a month ahead and Shashi Kiran chipping in, things moved steadily towards D-day. Suguna Purushottaman, Thiagarajan, Jayalakshmi Sekar and Sudheendra also arrived earlier to fine tune renditions. With all participants meeting for their first joint rehearsal only two days before the programme, the focus was on coordination. A pallavi on the cards also posed a major challenge. From the original group, about 15 members have come to Chennai, to repeat their success story in a performance to be held at the Narada Gana Sabha tomorrow, January 2. They share experiences gained from the performance in an animated exchange.
“The demands of performing standards raise the bar and make your approach more professional,” states Anisha Gururaj (vocal). “It has inculcated the need for regular practice, after which korvais seem easier,” chirps Athrey Nadhan (mridangam).
“Creativity in alapana and swaraprasthata is now within closer reach,” says Pallavi Mynampati (flute). For Veena Kumar (vocal) “Sadhakam is more goal-oriented.” Ananthapadmanabha Rao (vocal) adds: “Daily practice leaves you calm before the concert.”
The team includes Vaibhav Murali, Sandeep Bahradwaj, Mansasa Suresh, Govind Raghavan, Ramya Ramakrishnan and Sharanya Shivkumar. The youngest is Sriranjani Darbha (7). They express their gratitude to their gurus in the U.S. who include Tara Anand, Indu Vasudevan, Bhavani Prakash, Prakash Rao, Jaishankar Balan, Rajeshwari Bhat, Rohan Krishnamurthy and Vinod Sitaraman. Post performance, they will head for Saint Tyagaraja’s Samadhi at Tiruvaiyaru where they will render a few kritis before proceeding to the abodes of Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Shastri in Tiruvarur Here, the musical pilgrimage will conclude with a rendition of Muthuswami Dikshitar’s “Sri Mahaganapathy Ravathumaam” (Gowlai) at the hallowed Kamalalayam.
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