Historic Trigulbandhi of Carnatic-Hindustani-Odissi dance

[sudora]

Historic Trigulbandhi of Carnatic-Hindustani-Odissi dance
featuring
Sangeet Samrat Chitravina N Ravikiran
Pt Tarun Bhattacharya
Guru Sanchita Bhattacharya

Where: Lakkireddy Auditorium,
Siva Vishnu Temple,
Livermore CA (SF Bay area)
When: Feb 23, 2014

Sangam-2014, one-of-a-kind concert that has brought together pioneering and revolutionary artists under one roof – for a noble cause.
While we all know and have experienced Jugalbandhi, Trigulbandhi brought together Classical Carnatic and Hindustani music in sangam with Classical Odissi dance, in a glamorous blend of tradition and innovation. The artists of the evening, maestros in their respective fields treated the audience to a wonderful, soulful music and dance with their impromptu performance.

The first segment was individual solos with Sri.Ravikiran on Chitraveena and Sri.Ramesh Srinivasan on the Mridangam portraying the carnatic style while Pt. Tarun Bhattacharya on Santoor and Sri.Arup Chattopadhyay on the Tabla portrayed the Hindustani style.
The second segment was the jugalbandhi between musicians , and the raga chosen were Kalyani(carnatic) and Yaman (Hindustani).

Sri.RaviKiran known for his virtuosity on the Chitraveena brought out the melody of the ragas
beautifully, as well as expressing subtleties at various tempos that it continued to resonate in our ears.
The pieces selected were such that it resonated well with the Santoor instrument.
While it’s a daunting task to tune 100 strings on the Santoor, Pt.Tarun showed off the instrument beautifully in the improvisational pieces and kept challenged by Sri.RaviKiran on the Chitraveena.
No music is complete without rhythm. The percussionists augmented the concert with their subtle accompanying style and the percussion only interchange segment was an enjoyment to a lay audience as well as the rhythm cognoscenti.

The third segment introduced the Odissi dancer Guru Sanchita with the Carnatic musicians where she danced gracefully to the meaning of the lyrics of the song Brindavana Nilaye, (an OVK composition in raga Reeti Gowlai set to Adi thalam).
The fourth segment was the real Trigulbandhi with carnatic and Hindustani musicians and the dancer, where Guru Sanchita danced to the song Srinivasa, (a Papanasam Sivan composition, in the raga Hamsanandhi set to Adi thaalam) with great Bhavam and fine intricate movements of the odissi style that kept up with the rhythm. Some of her portrayal of the characters that the song depicted was outstanding.
All in all, it was a well spent one-and-half-hours, concert that kept the audience spellbound and worthy of the cause for which it is dedicated.

Note: Sangam-2014 is a fundraiser by Sankara Eye Foundation that has performed about 1,000,000 Eye surgeries in India, and is working to realize the goal of 20/20 for the people of India by year 2020.

[sefusa_admin]

Thank you for the review. This concert is part of a series of concerts across the USA- there are 10 more concerts- in Detroit (March 8), Chicago (March 9), Atlanta, Maryland, Memphis, Delaware, Flushing/NY, New Jersey, Allen/Dallas, Austin- check out our website http://www.giftofvision.org for details. Do let us know about the other concerts as well. thanks.
Sridhar/Sankara Eye Foundation, USA

[VRV]

Your website link does not exist. Please check if spelling is correct.

Vinod

[sefusa_admin]

Sorry about that- it has been fixed. the website is http://www.giftofvision.org

[Rsachi]

Rather than calling it Trigulbandhi you should have called it Triveni.

[punnagavarali]

It was definitely a concert to remember!

Sri Ravikiran as well as Pundit Bhattacharya Ji started off with an alap in kalyani/yaman followed by extensive improvisation around a chorus line. This was followed by Sri Ravikiran's rendition of Brindavananilaye in Reeti Gowla, set to Adi Talam, on the Chitravina, a masterpiece of Sri Oothukadu Venkata Kavi, to which Smt. Guru Sanchita gave a splendid improvisational Odissi performance. The final piece of the trigulbandi concert was Srinivasa Tiruvenkata in Hamsanandi/Sohini set to Adi talam, a composition of Tamil Composer Sri Papanasam Sivan. This last piece rendered in the concert featured all three musicians: Sri Ravikiran, Guru Sanchita Ji, as well as Pandit Bhattacharya Ji.

It was a groundbreaking concert and an innovative and original concept. Furthermore, it was the first time that the compositions of Sri Oothukadu Venkata Kavi and Papanasam Sivan have been handled in the Odissi style of dance. Such collaborations should definitely be encouraged by the music community in the future!

[Rsachi]

Sorry if this question is out of place here, but is there any connection between Sankara Eye Foundation and Sankara Netralaya of Dr Badrinath, Chennai?

[mahavishnu]

Sorry if this question is out of place here, but is there any connection between Sankara Eye Foundation and Sankara Netralaya of Dr Badrinath, Chennai?

RSachi, no this is a different organization. More about them here: http://www.giftofvision.org/
They have a fundraising arm in the US (based out of CA, I believe) and they are organizing this concert series and a number of other concerts for this cause.

I learned through a different social media site that Sri Ravikiran and party managed to raise $2 million from their Chicago concert alone for a hospital in Calcutta. Great work!

[Rsachi]

Wonderful!

[Murali Krishnamurthy]

Yes. This Sangam-2014 concert is being organized by Sankara Eye Foundation, USA (www.giftofvision.org). We support Sankara Eye Care Institutions (SECI) headquartered in Coimbatore and founded by Dr. R.V. Ramani. SECI runs eight Sankara Eye Hospitals in Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore and Krishnan Koil), Karnataka (Bangalore and Shimoga), Andhra Pradesh (Guntur), Gujarat (Anand), Punjab (Ludhiana) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) and are opening their ninth Hospital in Kanpur, UP this June 2014. They have performed more than 1.1 million free eye surgeries so far and their Goal is to build 20 hospitals by the year 2020 - Vision 20/20 by 2020.

This fantastic Sangam-2014 Trigalbandi concert tour by the eminent artists Chitravina Ravikiran, Pt. Tarun Bhattacharya and Guru Sanchita Bhattacharya is to raise awareness of our cause all over the USA. The event has happened in five Cities already - San Jose, Tustin, Sacramento, Detroit and Chicago and the next stop is Memphis. More information at www.giftofvision.org

[ambal]

Dear Murali/Ramesh/Prabhu:
Sangam Livermore was truly mind blowing. I just couldn't comprehend how the 5 artists on stage pulled off such an exquisite program extemporaneously. Kudos to you and your entire team. Good wishes for the rest of the tour.
Regards,
Ambal

[Rsachi]

Good to know. Thanks.
Yes, Sangam is the same as Triveni sangam.

[arasi]

Just saw this.
Impressive work and such rich contribution by the artistes. Ravikiran amazes me no end.