Ranjani and Gayatri concert on 2 Oct

This was a well-planned and crisp concert that was enjoyed by many. Smt.Ranjani sang some inspiring alapanais. The duo's various sangathis and ease with Hindustani ragams was wonderful.

Ragam Jaganmohini

I have been listening to "Sivakama Sundari" sung by Bombay Sisters (Sri. Gopalakrishna Bharathi composition) and "Sri Vidya Rajagopalam" sung by Smt. R.Vedavalli (Dikshitar composition).
Malladi Brothers concert last Saturday (www.simala.us) woke me from my sleepy attitude towards music.
I was happy to identify ragams Khamas, Kathanakuthuhalam etc during Divya Asuri's houseconcert (Sri Arun Ramamurthy on the violin and Sri Sudhakar on the mridangam). Kalyani renditions by the vocalist and violinist reminded me of Shankarabharanam - I have to understand these ragams better. During one song, she showed that she was in control of the concert. However, I had to leave during the Mohanam song.

Ragam confusion

While listening to an alapanai, I started wondering why I kept thinking of Kharaharapriya while the artiste is supposedly singing Bhairavi. I am still getting an idea of the relationship....

Mandolin concert and Sri Vijay Siva vocal concert

This is the review of concerts I atteneded back in April 2010 (Sri U. Shrinivas' and Sri.U. Rajesh's mandolin concert). The Mandolin sounds like the veena and a North Indian instrument. The accompanists were good and played sincerely. The audience made the artistes play the mangalam to end the concert.
Sri. Vijay Siva's vocal concert was pretty good. He looked composed throughout and gave a variegated treat for the rasikas. Starting with the Thodi varnam, he moved on to Poorvikalyani, Bhairavi, Ataana. The RTP was in Nattakurinji (I could find that it was Harikambhoji-janya but could not get the exact ragam). He sang a song about Sharadamba in Sanskrit. He ended with the Kamalamba navavarnam in Sri ragam. Sri.J.Vaidyanathan on the mridangam gave good support. Sri. RK Shreeramkumar on the violin was excellent.

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/04/09/stories/2010040951070200.htm

Violin Duet and Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna concerts

SIMA organised the above concerts. The violin duet was good. I was glad to hear Panthuvarali ragam. I really liked the rendition of Dikshithar's Sri Subrahmanyaya Namaste.
Partly due to tiredness, I could not enjoy Sri. K. Balamuralikrishna's concert. I had to leave when the artiste was singing Pankaja lochana in Kalyani. The violinist was a senior artiste with wide-ranging experience.

Recital

Some people keep pestering you. They cannot keep the distance. With guidance, you can learn to turn it into an advantage - one of the reasons why we need a Guru. While I am thinking of the DakshiNamurthy stotram that my dad wants me to memorize, the annual recital of Sampradaya School of Music came and went. It was not like a wedding - no shoes were lost afaik. The perfectionist teacher put each of the disciples to task - was one spared, perhaps? Food was good but youngsters could benefit by starting right. Samosa for snack? Naa naa. We are brown all right. The quiz was long. Btw, why the Sahana obsession? All said and done, good.

How come....

not much information online about Teacher?

Naatai and Gaulai

Naatai is a janya of the 36th melakarta Chalanaatai. Teacher says that this ragam can be heard in a lot of dance programs. I find it interesting that this ragam depicts 'Veera' rasam. I have been listening to 'Kaithala niraikani' sung by Smt.M.S.Subbulakshmi, 'Jaya jaya' sung by Sri.K.V.Narayanaswamy and
'Sarasiruhasanapriye' sung by Bombay Jayashree.
Gaulai is a janya of the 15th melakarta Mayamalavagowlai. I have been listening to the renditions of 'Sree Maha Ganapathiravathumam' by Sri Maharajapuram Santhanam,
'Thyagaraja paalaya' by Sri Balamuralikrishna and 'Saraswathya Bhagavathya' by Sri BV Raman and Sri BV Lakshmanan. Some songs remind me a lot of its kartha ragam.

Group practice

Been getting highly benefitted from group-practice with friends these days. Thanks to all for the help.

Daasara Day

Got a chance to listen to a few songs during the Purandaradasa Day celebrations on saturday. All performers presented their pieces well. The more I listened to Sindhu Bhairavi ragam, the more I started liking it. These performances were notable:
Anish, Arjun and Rumeya singing Sindhu Bhairavi - these little singers were inspiring with their enthusiastic singing and good ending.
Ramakrishnan Murthy singing Krishna nee begane baaro in Yaman kalyan - laavagam.
Sahana singing Ahir Bhairavi - layippu.
The song that kept ringing until sunday was Jagadodharana in Kaapi sung by Visalini Sundaram. Excellent rendition.

Ragam Khamas

Khamas is a janya of the 28th melakartha ragam Harikambhoji. This is a ragam to depict bhakthi and can be sung at all times. I listened to some songs in Khamas - Brochevarevarura sung by Smt. Nithyashree, Rama jogi sung by Sri Semmangudi and Seethapathi sung by Smt. Sudha Raghunathan. Somehow I could not associate Rama jogi with Khamas though I am still trying. Also, I have listened to TMKrishna's rendition of Seethapathi and I must confess that I find this particular song better suited for a male voice. Khamas is a very beautiful ragam!

Useful website about ragams

http://people.rit.edu/pnveme/ragaindex.html

House-concert on Feb 27, 2010

Mayuri Vasan's concert accompanied by Anu Murthy and Karthik Vasan at Chinmaya Rameshwaram center on Feb 27 at 3:30pm.

http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/personal/music/basics/ramesh/gentle-intro-ramesh-mahadevan-I.htm

http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/personal/music/basics/ramesh/gentle-intro-ramesh-mahadevan-II.htm

http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/personal/music/basics/ramesh/gentle-intro-ramesh-mahadevan-III.htm

http://www.ecse.rpi.edu/Homepages/shivkuma/personal/music/basics/ramesh/gentle-intro-ramesh-mahadevan-IV.htm

Decisions Decisions

On March 28, Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna sings in Los Angeles(http://www.simala.us). Gayathri Venkataraghavan and Trichur Ramachandran will sing in San Diego (http://www.indianfinearts.org/).

Cleveland Aradhana 2010 schedule

http://www.aradhana.org/schedule.html

Concert and Aradhana

Last Friday, I was able to attend Aditya Prakash's concert at UCLA(organized by Spic-Macay). His accompanists were Shiva Ramamurthy on the violin and Nirmal Narayan on the mridangam. We reached half an hour late. Aditya sang well. Good alapanas and smooth change of speed in swaram singing. His Dwijavanthi alapana reminded me a little of Sahana ragam. Upon discussing with Teacher, I learnt that these ragams have similarities, being janyas of the same karta (Harikambhoji). The violinist was good. All three artistes showed a good command over music.
On Saturday, Sri Thyagaraja Aradhana and Other Composers' Day was celebrated at Malibu Temple. Some of my favourite songs like Gaanamurte and Nambikkettavar evarayya were sung. I was able to identify Nattakuranji ragam. I liked the rendition of Bhagyada Lakshmi baaramma. I listened to Manirangu ragam for the first time. The Ashtalakshmi song was long but a good display of teamwork. The singer of 'Maa Ramanan' could have sung the lines about 'thanjam endru.... anjel..' with more bhavam.

This week's saadhakam

I shifted focus to Hamsadhwani ragam this week. I read and learnt that this janya of ShankarabharaNam was created by Sri Ramaswami Dikshithar, the father of Sri Muthuswami Dikshithar and that it has an auspicious effect. Apparently the best time to sing this ragam is 7-9 pm.
I attempted to sing the varisais in Hamsadhwani. I was able to sing them in 3 speeds. I should get it checked with teacher sometime soon. I am happy with this step. This sure is fun!
I have also been practising Hamsadhwani kalpanaswarams. I have been working on these steps:
1) Write down swarams from various resources - my own imagination; the varNam, jathiswaram and krithi I know; the tape of Sri Semmangudi's and tips and ideas from teacher.
2) Practise the listed swarams - problem is - by the time I reach the long swarams, I lose interest or breath. Need to make practice more interesting.
I foresee repeating these two steps for at least the whole of January to feel confident.
The singer I listened to the most this week - Nithyashree Mahadevan.
In addition, I was able to practise Valachi vachi and Jagaddaananda for class. Good week:)!

The beauty of Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyam's music

It was five years ago when Suresh anna told me about Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyam. He pointed out that this singer of Carnatic music was qualified as a Chartered Accountant and had been a Ranji Trophy cricket player. In 2007, my teacher said that her son was an upcoming concert musician and a disciple of Sri Sanjay. I got my first chance to attend his concert in 2008 in Los Angeles. He bowled me over with his lilting voice and heartfelt, detailed renditions. I felt that his was a vibrant and power-packed concert. I purchased two of his CDs and listened to them over and over again. I learnt to like Malayamarutham and Madhyamavathy listening to his alapanas. He really enjoys his singing on stage. He also has a good sense of humour and an unassuming personality. But he takes music very seriously and has an infectious passion for it. I was lucky to get his autograph during his concert in 2009. The songlist for the concert is at http://simala.net/pastevents/2009Events/october24/sanjay-subramanyam-october24.html .Here is my short review of his 2009 SIMA concert:

After a powerpacked concert last year, Sanjay gave us more bhavam and detailed singing this time. He started with an Ata thala varnam Neevanti deivamu (Neelambari) followed by 'Vande sada Padmanabham'. He sang beautiful swarams. The next krithi in Reethigowla was good. 'Saravana bhava guhane' in Madhyamavathi was excellent. The RTP started in my favourite ragam Abheri. For the pallavi, he used a ragamaalika. The line was 'Vellai thamarai poovil iruppaal.' I particularly liked the way he interspersed the words with swarams like ' Vellai Thamarai Poovil Iruppaal.' It sounded very good. It must be difficult because I have not heard a lot of this type of swaram-singing. The young violinist got a couple of 'sabash'es from Sanjay for his keen following of the singer's swarams. He then switched to Tamil and sang in Kalyani, Sahana, Mohanam etc. He switched from Bhakti rasam and sang 'Oho kaalame' about time. Another good one was 'Thunbam nergayil' in Desh. Subrahmanya Bharathi's 'Ninnaye Rathi endru' sounded pleasantly different from the film-version I am used to hearing. We could glimpse Sanjay's sense of humour when he sang 'nee nillaadu ooduvai' (about time) just when a playful boy was rushing onto a first row seat; he also pointed to Mr.Narayan while singing 'Narayananai thudi maname.' On the whole, a very enjoyable concert.

Voice culture tips

http://www.carnaticindia.com/tips.html

Tips for Kalpana swarams

http://nivedita-n.livejournal.com/23745.html
http://www.narada.org/kvn/intview2.html

Music season reviews

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2010/01/08/chenindx.htm has lots of reviews and articles. Enjoy!

As the December season 2009 draws to a close in Chennai, I am busy reading reviews by newspapers and detailed accounts by bloggers. Many thanks to all for giving me vicarious pleasure about the season. Los Angeles is waking up to music with at least two house-concerts in January:

1) Vidhwan S.Shankar on Jan10.
2) Sri Aditya Prakash on Jan17.

Then, there is the Thyagaraja Aradhana at Malibu temple on Jan23.

Let us look forward to great music in 2010. Happy New Year!!

Invocation

Gajananam bhootha gaNaadi sevitham
Kabitha jamboo palaasara pakshitham
Uma sutham soka vinasa kaaraNam
Namaami Vigneshwara paada pankajam.

Saraswathi namasthubyam varade kaamaroopiNi
Vidhyarambam karishyaami siddhirbavathume sadaa.