Tradition - An Evolving Continuum in Philadelphia

[Kiranavali]

Dear music lovers,

As part of a major grant I received from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, I am delighted to present a 2-part performance titled Tradition - An Evolving Continuum. In the first part, I will present a conventional Carnatic music concert drawing upon various traditions that have shaped our music to what it is today. In the second part, I will present a new vocal-instrumental ensemble comprising top-class Carnatic professionals from the United States. The ensemble will feature new Carnatic pieces composed by me, and performed on vocals and instruments of Indian and western origin. The artists and instruments are Vinod Seetharaman (Mridangam & Collaboration), V V S Murari (Violin), Nirmala Rajasekar (Vina), Prasant Radhakrishnan (Saxophone), N Muralikrishnan (Keyboard), Ravi Balasubramanian (Ghatam) and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (Konnakkol and Kanjira).

Please visit http://www.carnatictradition.com to see some interesting blogs and video interviews of the participating artists talking about their respective instruments.

The event details are:

Date: Nov 7, 2015
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: The Painted Bride Art Center (http://www.paintedbride.org)
Presenter: Sruti, The India Music Dance Society (http://www.sruti.org)
Tickets: https://paintedbride.org/events/tradition/
Website: http://www.carnatictradition.com

Seeking your best wishes and support in this new venture!

Regards,
Kiranavali

[harimau]

My best wishes for a grand success for the event and my blessings to Kiranavali, Vinod Seetharaman, V V S Murari, Nirmala Rajasekar, Prasant Radhakrishnan, N Muralikrishnan, Ravi Balasubramanian and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan.

[Rsachi]

Best wishes. For us to understand the concept, kindly share afterwards two excerpts (from the two parts), ideally of a similar emotive and musical content, so we can better appreciate the inflection as well as connectivity points.
Thanks

[Ponbhairavi]

My best wishes. when talking about tradition and evolving continuum in carnatic music , I think you may explore inter alia when and how the violin ascended the CM concert platform

[Nick H]

Congratulations, and best wishes for the success of of your event.

I also wish that it may be the first of many, and have a suggestion that will help you and us:

Venue: The Painted Bride Art Center (http://www.paintedbride.org)

...yes, but where?

Rasikas.org is very much an international site/group, with contributors from many countries, and readers probably in many more. I think that the majority of our active members are in USA and India: big countries, a long way away from each other. It is a great help, when we see event announcements, to know where they are happening.

Further, for those that are actually close enough to your event to be able to attend, I would suggest that, even though, yes, they can find out the full details from the venue's own site, giving the actual address in an announcement is useful. I generally copy/paste information into my calendar: it is nice to do that from one spot. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

So, my (just my personal ideas) suggestion to you and others is to include at least the city name (country is often obvious from that) in the thread title, and the full local details in the announcement post.

...It's meant to help, not criticize! I wish I could come and share your event with you!

[sureshvv]

Any chance of doing something similar in Chennai?

[Kiranavali]

Best wishes. For us to understand the concept, kindly share afterwards two excerpts (from the two parts), ideally of a similar emotive and musical content, so we can better appreciate the inflection as well as connectivity points.
Thanks

Will do!

[Kiranavali]

My best wishes. when talking about tradition and evolving continuum in carnatic music , I think you may explore inter alia when and how the violin ascended the CM concert platform

Thank you for your wishes!

Do check out the website http://www.carnatictradition.com. There are blog articles and videos on each of the instrument's evolution by the participating artists.

[Kiranavali]

Congratulations, and best wishes for the success of of your event.

I also wish that it may be the first of many, and have a suggestion that will help you and us:

Venue: The Painted Bride Art Center (http://www.paintedbride.org)

...yes, but where?

Sorry, my mistake! The event is going to happen in Philadelphia.

[Kiranavali]

Any chance of doing something similar in Chennai?

Am sure we will be able to sometime in the near future.

[arasi]

Mods,
Kindly add 'An Event in Philadelphia' to the title and also bring the other thread on the same event from the Concert Reviews section. Thanks!

[Nick H]

Do check out the website http://www.carnatictradition.com. There are blog articles and videos on each of the instrument's evolution by the participating artists.

What a wonderful blog!

I was generally "browsing" interesting notes about the various instruments when your own article on the chitraveena stopped me in my tracks and my browsing turned to serious reading. Thank you so much for the historical background, the family history, the practical aspects of the stringing (of which I discovered I had no idea at all!) and all else.It is a masterly summation, and all the more so because it is also easy to read.

This kind of simple, practical presentation and explanation of the instruments is, in itself, an evolution of tradition: part of your plan no doubt, and a good one too.

Now, I remember another article that you had written, about what it is what like growing up in your family, and how your father made music a vital ingredient of every part of life, rather than something 'other' to be done in the class room. Maybe it was in the article, maybe I imagined it, but I took away from that article a mental picture of children brushing their teeth --- to a suitable raga! It was a great insight into how you and family became what you are today, with your father's guiding hand. I'd like to read it again: could you give the link? Perhaps you might even consider adding it to your current project site.

(edit: I found the page. Perhaps it was eating butter, rather than brushing teeth: it is strange what the brain does with memories!)

[Kiranavali]

Thank you, Nick! The articles by the other instrumentalists also throw a lot of light on how those instruments have evolved in various ways. An eternally fascinating subject!

Here are links to some recent interviews where some very relevant questions on this subject were asked:

http://www.sabhash.com/music/face-to-fa ... tinuum.htm

http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/news/music/ ... ic-project

[Kiranavali]

I realized that I missed acknowledging the wishes of a few on this thread - thank you all very much!

Also wanted to add that my interview in The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage's Grantee Spotlight series has come today. Here is the link: http://www.pcah.us/posts/295_grantee_sp ... idyasankar

[rajeshnat]

Writeup in today's hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday ... 846105.ece

The whole team with so many ideas like continuum all within 2 one hour slots, possibly there will be discontinuum speech too to explain continuum . Hope the constrained time limit offers continuum .

I have not heard many artists inclusive of kiranavali but there are certainly lot of NRI's who still have great music. Few months back i had a chance to hear this vainika Nirmala Rajasekar recording - she was really good.

Best wishes to the team.

[Suneha]

Program: Tradition - An Evolving Continuum
Artists:
Vocal and Chitravina - Smt.Kiranavali Vidyashankar
Violin - VVS Murari
Veena - Nirmala Rajashekar
Keyboard - N. Muralikrishnan
Saxophone - Prashant Radhakrishnan
Mridangam - Vinod Seetharaman
Ghatam - Ravi Balasubramaniam
Kanjira and Konnakol - Akshay Anantapadmanabhan


It’s been a long time since I have followed this forum. After a long gap, I am posting a review of a concert that I recently attended.

After being away from live concerts in US for a long time, I had this wonderful opportunity to listen to this unique musical presentation. It was indeed a very different musical experience for me.

Smt. Kiranavali’s vocal concert was presented well followed by an enchanting musical ensemble. I was just amazed by how cohesive the newly formed vocal-instrumental ensemble was. All the artists displayed perfect coordination and presented the concert effortlessly. The brochure for this concert was very informative and had all the minute details pertaining to each and every song. This made the listeners enjoy the concert without any interruptions/explanations by the artists or organizers. The audience, which was a mix of Indians and westerners ,was thoroughly engaged through out the program.

Smt. Kiranavali donned many roles in this concert. She gave the voice, played the Chitravina, composed and directed the whole program. Her multi-faceted talent was clearly evident here.

Her concept of tradition as an evolving continuum was conveyed through some of the lyrics and the choices of the songs that were apt for the theme.
Here are more details of the program:

Part 1 - Tradition

Smt. Kiranavali presented an array of compositions which consisted of a tevaram, devaranama, javali, tillana, tiruppugazh, and an RTP apart from a few kritis. Although a couple of songs were new to me, I totally enjoyed their rendition. In this concert, the songs in Poorvikalyani, Huseni and the Poornachandrika tillana were my favorites. The kavadi chindu she sang was a rare one on Lord Krishna instead of on Lord Muruga.

The sahityam chosen for the RTP was ‘Sangeeta sanmaarga sampradaaya satya dharma vikasaame’ set to the raga Shankarabharanam. It perfectly suited the main theme of the program.

Song list:

1. Todudaiyya seviyan - Nattapaadai - Rupaka - Tirugnanasambandar
2. Brochevarevare - Sriranjani - Adi - Tyagaraja (Kalpanaswaras)
3. Anandanatamaduvaar - Poorvikalyani - Rupaka - Neelakantan Sivan (Alapana and kalpanaswarams)
4. Srikalahasthisha - Huseni - Khanda Chapu - Muthuswami Dikshitar
5. Kodu bega Divyamathi - Vasantha - Adi - Purandaradasa
6. Ragam Tanam Pallavi - Shankarabharanam (Neraval in Bhairavi, Kalyani, Kambhoji & Todi, and kalpanaswaras covered many gatis and ragas like Dhanyasi, Hamsadhwani, Kanada, Nattai, Gowla, Arabhi, Varali & Sri)
7. Nyayamu Gadura - Reetigowla - Mishra Chapu
8. Tillana - Poornachandrika - Adi - Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar
9. Neelavanam (Kavadi Chindu) - Mishra Chapu - Oothukadu Venkata Kavi
10. Neetattuvamahi - Valachi - Sankeerna Chapu - Arunagirinathar

Part 2 - Evolution

In this concert, four pieces composed by Smt.Kiranavali were rendered by the ensemble. All through the concert, each artist had ample opportunity to display their vidwath and expertise. There was an excellent understanding and a great team spirit. The performances by each artist was laudable and enjoyable. As an audience, we were able to enjoy the beauty of each instrument/voice distinctly.

1. Jaganmohini - Adi
2. Hindolam - Rupaka
3. Saveri - Mishra Chapu
4. Behag - Khanda Chapu

Starting with a scintillating Jaganmohini, the next raga was a lively Hindolam. This in particular was my favorite as it transitioned into different ragas using sruti bhedam. The instruments underscored Hindolam, while Smt.Kiranavali vocally alternated seamlessly between Mohanam, Madhyamavati, Shuddhasaveri and Shuddhadhanyasi.

Then the sophisticated raga Saveri was rendered in which Smt.Kiranavali primarily played the Chitravina and the other instrumentalists joined at different phases to create a crescendo effect, which waned in the same order using the concept of sangathis in reverse order. This piece also showcased free flowing raga alapana, neraval and kalpanaswaras for a short geetham of Shyama Shastri, and a very interesting tani avarthanam.

The final composition was a bold and brisk Behag befitting the finale. The most interesting part of this composition was the use of Konnakol.

The performance of the entire ensemble was a melodic and rhythmic treat to the ears. The fact that Carnatic music is an age old tradition and that it is still evolving over the years was conveyed through the compilation and presentation of this concert. After the finale the entire team got a well deserved standing ovation. Kudos to each and every artist!

[Kiranavali]

Rajeshnat, we actually did cut out speeches except for artist intros and a vote of thanks at the very end. A handout with all the program details were given out to the audience to maximize time for the music.

The team of musicians I had was indeed an excellent bundle of talent, energy and experience, and the program was received very enthusiastically by the audience. We hope to make the audio/video available soon.

[varsha]

I have not heard many artists inclusive of kiranavali

not anymore !!!!
http://www.mediafire.com/watch/2rdjl2kp9xnecji/1.flv

[Aditto]

Wonderful Video

[Suneha]

Very nice video!