Carnatic Workshops & Concert in WI by Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar

[Vanitha Suresh]

The extensive Carnatic Music workshops held by Mrs. Nirmala Rajasekar in Madison, WI during the week of June 18- 21, along with the concert on June 22 were a creatively alluring experience, specifically tailored to the attendees of each night. Mrs. Rajasekar explored the concept of manodharma, or improvisation within preset rules, a cornerstone of Carnatic music, as well as one of the more difficult concepts to grasp. Improvisation is by no means a concept that is for beginners, but Mrs. Rajasekar made sure that people of all ages and all levels understand what is going on, constantly asking the audience questions to keep us all on track. Whether it is someone who has been learning Carnatic music for all their lives, or one who has never even heard of it before, we all enjoyed the workshops all the same.
After explaining manodharma, Mrs. Rajasekar went onto her main event, a modern-day rendering of the timeless Panchatantra tale, The Monkey and the Crocodile. Making it relatable to the younger generation, while still keeping true to the source material, Mrs. Rajasekar cleverly imbued Carnatic ragas, or scales into the story, teaching us over 15 raagas, as well as the emotions that they represent. Overall, this was my favorite part of the workshops, because Mrs. Rajasekar made even the older of us feel young again with clever role-playing techniques and fun dialogue.
Finally, the concert that was held on June 22. It was a titillating experience to say the least. The trio of Mrs. Rajasekar, Mr. Srini Venkatesan, and Mrs. Vijaya Desikan provided delightful thrills, playing a wide array of Carnatic songs, as well as a wonderful example of the manodharma that was demonstrated in the afore-mentioned workshops.

This engagement was supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest which is generously supported by the National Endowment of Arts with additional contributions from the Wisconsin Arts Board and individual sponsors from the South - Indian community of Madison WI.

- Harini Desikan (Senior in Memorial High School, Madison WI)

[rshankar]

Harini - thank you for that report - Wonderful to see your generation pick up the baton so well - Although I have to say that when I read about the 'older of us feel young again' - I assumed that you were one of the truly older generation - but at the end I realized that as a rising senior in HS, you could not be older than 17 or 18 at the most!