Veena Arangetram of Priya Chelliah

[PRnath]

An outstanding debut performance on the Veena by Priya Chelliah - a disciple of Smt. Vasundhara Kikkeri
Review by a Dallas Rasika
Back from a veena arangetram of Priya Chelliah, student of Vasundhara Kikkeri. The child is 14 years old and the only one in her extended family to learn or know anything about carnatic music. Definitely, she has talent and dedication, as was evident today. I particularly liked her rendition of Nadalololudai with kalpanaswarams, Marugelara and her Kalyani tanam(she handled that one really like a pro I was impressed). Her rendition of the Purandara dasa devaranama in Revati raga was also very soulful. Other pieces included a prayer bhajan at the start, Mandari Varnam, Sri Mahaganapatiravatumam (Gowlai), Garuda gamana( Nagasvaravali) and Raghuvamsa Sudha. Her Kalyani main piece was Etaavunara. Also on the list, were Dhanashri tillana and Bhagyada Lakshmi. Priya was very fortunate indeed to have stalwart accompanists from the DFW area. Narasimha Kikkeri supported her very well on the violin and it goes without saying that all his alapanas and kalpana swarams were marvelous. Poovalur Srinivasan and Srinivas Ponnapan, provided percussion support on the mridangam and khanjira respectively. They had everybody itching to dance during their scintillating tani. Arangetrams are a beginning and I do hope this child perseveres with the life long journey that music is.

[Rsachi]

"They had everybody itching to dance during their scintillating tani."

That's a new one for me! Wow!

[PUNARVASU]

It is very nice to see a youngster taking to veena and coming up to this level. Congratulations to her for her efforts, to her guru and to her parents. Best wishes to her for her future as a veena player.

[thanjavooran]

Shri PRnath,
Thanx for the review. excellent song selection. Good luck to Priya Chelliah.
Blessings for bright future.
Thanjavooran
03 09 2013

[Rsachi]

Folks
I also wish the young veena player all success.

There is a context to my comment before.


In 1976, I was representing Govt. of India and the small scale Indian electronics industry in a trade fair Saba Saba in Dar es Salaam. President Julius Nyerere came and discussed personally with me how India was encouraging small scale electronics industries.

when we were setting up the show pavilion in a large wooded area, I had my electronic audio systems being set up and I was playing the LP shown above on the HMV audio system. When Raghu's deep mridangam beats came, all the African workers (natural musical and dancing talents) all converged at the pavilion from all over the fair area and started dancing to the Tani beats!!!!! I then wondered if Indians, familiar with Indian percussion, would repsond similarly to a tani.

The women were laughing away looking at a large Yamini Krishnamurthy dance poster in the pavilion and falling over each other trying to stand in Nataraja pose she had depicted.

Wherever we go, our culture always travels with us. From Dallas to Dar es Salaam.

Once again best wishes to the teacher and the student in this arangetram.

Sachi R

[PUNARVASU]

Rsachi, an interesting anecdote. Yes our culture and fine arts are our treasures.

[KVasundhara]

Dear Rsachi ji, Punarvasu ji and tanjavooran ji
Thank you so much for your blessings. It means a lot to me.
Vasundhara