Rising CM Vocal Artists to Listen

[shankar vaidyanathan]

I am compiling a list of rising CM vocal artists to listen to in this Tamil New Year. Please help with recommendations. Please note that the established vidwans already singing in the prime evening slots, for e.g. in the Music Academy, are not on this list so as to shine the light on the next generation. I would welcome suggestions for violin and layam artists who make a perfect concert team with these musicians. Kindly also suggest any corrections.

Artist (Guru)

1. N.J.Nandini (Smt.Parassala Ponnammal)
2. Ashwath Narayanan (Sri.KVN, Smt.Padma)
3. Tharini (Smt.Vedavalli)
3. Kunnakudi Balamurali Krishna; Bharat Sundar; Trichur Brothers; Amritha Murali (Sri.PSN)
4. K.Gayathri (Smt.Suguna Purushothaman)
5. Brindha Manickavasagam (Smt.Suguna Varadachari)
6. Apoorva & Anahita Ravindran (Sri.Ravikiran)
7. Swarna Rethas; Sandeep Narayanan; Prasanna Venkatraman (Sri.Sanjay)
8. K.P.Nandini (Dr.Sowmya)
9. Rithvik Raja; G.Ravikiran; Vignesh Ishwar (Sri.TMK)
10. T.N.S.Krishna (Sri.TNS)
11. Palghat Ramprasad (Sri.T.R.Rajaram)
12. Bhavana Iyer (S/S S.Rajam; V.Subramaniam)
13. Ramakrishnan Murthy (S/S Delhi P.Sunderrajan; RKSK)
14. Saketharaman (Sri.LGJ)

[hnbhagavan]

My suggestion is:
Sumitra Vasudev (Smt Vedavalli): Vocal
Pavan Deep(Sri TVG)
Pattabhirama Pandit (KVN)
Akkarai Sisters - Violin
Padmashankar(LGJ)-violin
Vittal Ramamurthy)-violin
N C Bharadwaj- Mridangam

[kunthalavarali]

Vocalists mentioned under 3 (except Bharat Sundar and Trichur Brothers), 4, 10, 11 and 14 are/ were already in the senior slots in MA. Also Sumitra Vasudev, and Vittal Ramamurthy)-violin find place in senior slots in MA. I am surprised to note that Amrutha Venkatesh has still not found a place in the senior slot. Palghat Ramprasad has not been regular, so is Sriram Gangadharan.

[Rsachi]

I am listening to a lot of talented CM practitioners all below 30 years of age.
I think CM is having a fantastic prospect. Especially there are many very engaging vocalists and many excellent violinists.

A listing is of necessity going to be subjective and limiting. It's a reminder of the difficult task ahead for sabhas. But in all such situations, I feel the CM rasika is the ultimate beneficiary!
=applause smiley=

[Nick H]

Rising... even the seniors can be still be rising! So is the request for junior names?

Out of Smt Vedavalli's school, there are two 'elders' (in status: they are not old ladies ) who I feel deserve much greater exposure and many more concerts than they are given. The both have MA slots, but seem largely ignored by the sabhas: Sumathi Krishnan and Usha Padmanabhan. From the youngsters, I am lobbying for Rathiprya and K Dharini (but she is living in USA ) in particular, but there are many more. At a group event, recently, I saw faces that I cannot even put names to, but the voices were beautiful.

Of course, I am prejudiced , to the extent that I have thought that, if I were rich, I could endow/sponsor a Vedavalli-school season every year. Or even... every month!

This is not to say that that I ignore the others. K Gayathri, like Sumithra Vasudev, is no junior any longer, but a well-established artist. Brinda Manickavasagam also gets regular concerts but deserves more, as does her class-mate Aiswaryia Shankar. I'm sure there are more from the Suguna Schools.

Pryanka C Prakash comes to mind As do ...many others whose names escape me.

There are people who I may have seen just once, but who I thought were brilliant, but it takes more than just once for the name to stick in my head. I remember seeing one very young lady, back in December, and telling her, "You are the best youngster I have seen in ages." Can I remember the name? Sadly... no.

[ganesh_mourthy]

When you say young , dont you also take into account the age? Sriram Gangadharan was in his late 30's at least ten years ago. I think some prefer to not be in the race owing to various other professional commitments. I have not seen Sriram Gangadharan busily around at anytime.

[CRama]

Sunil Gargyan
Bharat Kumar
Aiswarya Sankar

[kvchellappa]

Aiswarya Srinivasan
Aiswarya Srinivas
Aiswarya Vidya Raghunath
Amruta Venkatesh
G Ravikiran
Sandeep Narayanan

[shankar vaidyanathan]

Thanks to all the responses. You have enriched the long list! As @RSachi eloquently put it, CM seems to be in a wonderful place by attracting and retaining all this young talent; an "Abundance of wealth" is an interesting challenge for the discerning Rasika.

I realize that some of the above artists are graduating in to "Senior" status (in Vidvat, may not be in age.) A resource I have been looking at is the previous years' Charsur Arts Foundation concerts promoting young talent.

I would like to add D.B.Ashvin (Sri.Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan & presently under the tutelage of Sri.D.Seshachary-Hyderabad Brothers.)

@Nick: "Rising... even the seniors can be still be rising! So is the request for junior names?" Please pardon the language ambiguity! You are correct, learning is a life long process, the request is for junior names who are providing on stage support to their Gurus. The Guru's duty is to pass on the knowledge "given" to them. In a sense, what we hear from these young artists is the enriched versions/renditions of the Great Masters of the past. It is obvious that these artists would have invested at least 10-15 years in listening, learning, and, mastering their art under the apprenticeship of their Gurus. We can easily tap in to the wisdom if we are able to spare the time. As an e.g., every time I listen to a concert of Chitraveena Sri. N.Ravikiran or Dr. Sowmya, it seems like I am in a advanced level music class. It is like the free MOOC (Massively Open Online Course) offered by the leading academies of higher learning of the world but for CM! The time that we can allocate is the only constraint.