IN SILICON VALLEY

We were in California last week for a concert for "Lotus" in Sunnyvale on June 21st, and a five-day workshop on Dikshitar kritis in Fremont from June 23rd through 27th. The response, warmth of the people and the enthusiasm was quite overwhelming. It was a pleasure to play with Sri Sriram Brahmanandam, a member of the illustrious Lalgudi family, and a senior mridangam artist in the Bay Area, . It was nice to interact with learned rasikas and some veena players of the area after the concert.

HINDUSTANI RAGAS ON THE CARNATIC VEENA

Quite sometime back we recorded on the veena short alapanas of 18 Hindustani Ragas for a company called Sofia Softwares Limited. They wanted us to make it as brief as we could, and "as leisurely and slow paced as possible." Whether they had in mind some music to go with sipping chamomile tea while reflecting the events of the day, we are not sure. But we thought we could upload it on our podcast (the pink box above) for web listeners. The entire recording has been uploaded in the three parts, titled Hindustani Ragas - 1, 2 and 3. The list of ragas is given below:

1. Darbari Kanada

2. Puriya Dhanasri

3. Kalavati

4. Malkauns

5. Bhatiyar

6. Bhimpalas

7. Bairagi Bhairav

8. Behag

9. Shivaranjani

10.Desh

11.Bhairav

12.Abhogi Kanada

13.Suddha Sarang

14.Durga

15.Gavathi

16.Madhuvanti

17.Bagesri

18.Bhairavi

RAMA NAVAMI CONCERT

On April 13, 2008, Chitrai Thirunal and First Day of the Sarvadhari Tamil New Year, we played a concert for the Rama Navami Series organized by Alwarpet Anjaneya Temple, Chennai. The Chandanam Alankaram for Lord Anjaneya on that day was quite a delight, and the stage was so set that we could see the Lord as we played. We were also happy to play with our childhood friend Calcutta Sundar on the mridangam after a very long time.

MAHASHIVARATHRI AKHANDAM

Naadabrahmam Music Journal conducted Mahashivarathri Akhandam at Sri Karpaga Vinayakar Temple in RA Puram, Chennai. Performing in the this temple is always special for us because when we migrated to Chennai from Kolkata, our first place of stay was the house adjacent to this Temple. It is a quaint, beautiful, well maintained temple in a quiet residential locality.

Naadabrahmam must be congratulated for putting together this Special Akhandam from 6 PM to 6 AM through the Mahashivarathri night of March 6th. Their monthly magazine called Naadabrahmam is very informative, carrying useful articles pertaining to Carnatic Music with both literary and philosophical import. Their official website is http://www.naadhabrahmam.com/.

OUR GURU'S 80TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

Our concert on December 16, 2007 for the Margazhi fest of the Chennai Sabha Naada Inbam was of special importance since it happened to be the 80th Birth Anniversary of our Guru Late A. Anantharama Iyer. We reproduce below in part, the speech that we delivered before we concluded the concert.

"Today happens to be the 80th Birth anniversary of our Guru Vainika Vidwan Late Anantharama Iyer. Our Guru belonged to the unbroken lineage of the sishya parampara of Nadajyoti Muthuswamy Dikshitar. Our guru's father, Brahmasri Ananthakrishna Iyer who learnt directly from Ambi Dikshitar, the great grand nephew of Muthuswamy Dikshitar, founded the school Sri Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya in Calcutta to which we belong. Though it goes without saying that our Guru had a great repertoire of Dikshitar krithis, he was extremely catholic. I remember he used to say, if you want to play Sahana elaborately, Giripai would be the most appropriate krithi. He also believed that if the duration of a concert was more than 2 hours, be it vocal or instrumental, one should include a pallavi. in fact when we moved to Chennai, he was quick to suggest that we should go to the great Vidvan Chingleput Ranganathan sir to learn about the scientific approach to pallavis. We are extremely thankful to Ranganathan sir for having taken us in his fold.

If we are able to move our fingers on the veena fretboard today, it is only due to the painstaking efforts of our beloved Gurus Anantharama Iyer and his sister Smt Champakavalli, both of whom are not with us today. Our heartfelt gratitude to Sangeetha Kalanidhi Shri Vellore Ramabhadran sir for having agreed to accompany us today. We are a complete mismatch to him both in terms of vidwath and stature, yet it is indeed very gracious of him to accept to play for us. Last but not the least, we would like to thank Smt Jaya of Naada Inbam for having given us this opportunity, and all the rasikas for having come all the way to listen to us."

Given below is the link to the review of the concert that appeared in The Hindu:
Click Here

Smt Kalpakam Swaminathan's Concert In Our House

VEENAVAADHINI Chamber Concerts

On November 3, 2007 we hosted a veena concert by senior Vidushi Smt Kalpakam Swaminathan. It was a special occasion for us as Kalpakam Mami is a disciple of our Parama Guru Brahmasri A Ananthakrishna Iyer. The focus of the concert was on Dikshitar Krithis.

We thank the internet forum rasikas.org for organizing and coordinating the event and having us as hosts for the same. For all rasikas who happened to be present, it was definitely a concert that they would cherish in their minds and hearts for a long time to come.

Mami's accompanists for the evening were Shri L Ramakrishnan for Veena Support and Shri Tanjavur Kumar on the Mridangam.

Given below is the link to the concert on the rasikas.org forum:
Click Here

VEENA NAVARATHRI FESTIVAL

Words are not enough to describe the enthusiasm with which septuagenarian Shri Raghurama Ayyar organizes these veena-centric events one after the other. The first ‘Veena Navaratri’ festival was held in Chennai, from September 11-19. The festival was jointly organised by the Veena Foundation, New Delhi, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Narada Gana Sabha, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Kartik Fine Arts and Sri Tyagaraja Vidwat Samajam, Chennai.

We performed on the 16th of September. It was heartening to see the glint of happiness in Shri Raghurama Ayyar's eyes, when he remarked in his speech that he was particularly happy about the crowd attendance. As vainikas it gives us a lot of pleasure to place on record the fact that the invaluable support of rasikas is definitely one of the things that keeps us going.

VEENAVAADHINI Chamber Concerts

Celebrating the festivals of Varalakshmi Vrata and Gokulashtami, we hosted two chamber concerts on 26th August, 2007, with the following themes:

1. Varalakshmi Namosthuthe

Artists:
Kamakshi and Meenakshi - Vocal
Kolkata K. Harish - Violin
Manikantan - Mridangam

2. Om Namo Narayana

Artists:
Bharathi Ramasubban - Vocal
K.P. Nandhini - Violin
B. Srivatsan - Mridangam

The first concert comprised of a comprehensive list of compositions on Goddess Varalakshmi, including Sri Varalakshmi (Sriragam), Varalakshmi Neeye (Salakabhairavi), Kamakshi Varalakshmi (Bilahari), Varalakshmi Namosthuthe (Gowrimanohari), Varalakshmim Bhajare (Sourashtram). All the compositions were rendered to perfection by Kum Meenakshi and Kum Kamakshi. The Gowrimanohari Krithi was preceded by a short alapana by Meenakshi and ended with a round of swarams. Kolkata K. Harish excelled in his raga alapana of Gowrimanohari and gave fitting replies when his turn for kalpanaswaras arrived. Manikantan on the mridangam played his role with enthusiasm.

Kum Bharathi Ramasubban was given the theme of Krishna/Narayana. Starting with a brilliant rendition in two speeds of the Saveri Varnam Sarasuda Ninne, she went on to present a chaste version of Venugana Loluni, a Thyagaraja Krithi in Kedaragowlai. Her main piece of the evening was Balagopala in Bhairavi and Pankaja Lochana in Kalyani was the submain. Her biggest asset is her pliable voice combined with a full throated rendition, with an ability to traverse the higher octave with ease. Her raga alapanas of Kedaragowlai, Kalyani and Bhairavi were characterized with Sampradaya sudhham, and furthermore, bore the stamp of her own originality. It was heartening to see the artist implore her imagination to coax out lightning phrases with a lot of ease, and her singing also had a lot of punches, reminiscent of some of the golden greats of carnatic music. K. P. Nandini on the violin was very professional in her approach. B. Srivatsan on the mridangam presented an enjoyable thani avarthanam.

After the programme, Prasadam, and Manjal Kumkum for all the ladies present was distributed. We would also like to acknowledge here the assistance provided by Sri Krishna Sweets for printing the invitation cards for the programme.

Concert At Krishna Gana Sabha

We met Late Shri Yagnaraman, the then secretary of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, sometime in February 2007 when he had asked us to come in to his office, and he confirmed our concert at the Gokulashtami Series for 10th August, 2007. We consider this as a huge blessing coming from a person who had seen them all and served the cause of carnatic music for a lifetime. Little did we know that this was to be our last meeting with him before his demise earlier this year. It is indeed difficult to believe that the cruel hands of fate has snatched him away from all of us. He was one of the most widely respected music promoters and administrators, having been at the helm of affairs of the prestigious Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in T. Nagar for 5 decades. Shri Prabhu Yagnaraman, his son, has assumed the Office after the demise of Shri Yagnaraman, and we thank Shri Prabhu for all the support extended to us.

Related link:

http://skgs.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/friday-10th-aug-2007-630-pm/

Concert For Manoranjitham, Coimbatore

We were happy to play a concert on June 30, 2007, Guru Purnima Day. As a tribute to our Gurus, we played amongst other things a Ragam Thanam Pallavi in the raga Naattaikurinji, wherein the words of the Pallavi were, "Maata Pita Guru Deivam. Anudinamu Namaskara." The concert was under the auspices of Manoranjitham Sabha of Coimbatore. It was a valuable experience playing in front of very knowledgable rasikas, distinguished veena players in particular who had turned out in large numbers, and it was a full house despite the inclement weather. The review link to this concert is given below:

The Hindu Friday Review Link