Global Fridays feat "Divine Sounds of the Bamboo" -- Shantala Subramanyam in Detroit

[sriramganapathy]

Great Lakes Aradhana Committee (GLAC) is partnering with the Arab Museum in bringing you 'Global Fridays' in Dearborn, MI. This is the next step in the annals of GLAC in bringing Indian music to the mainstream diaspora. GLAC will be advertised and aired on NPR Detroit several times a day from mid April.

Transcript of the NPR Ad:
WDET is supported by Global Fridays at the Arab American national museum, presenting the "Divine sounds of the Bamboo Flute", Friday evening, May 1st. This Indian classical concert features the Bamboo Flute, Violin and Mridangam - playing the Carnatic style of music from South India. Info at arabamericanmuseum.org and glacmichigan.com

Global Fridays feat "Divine Sounds of the Bamboo"
Friday, May 1 - Workshop @ 5:30pm, Concert @ 7:30pm

Shantala Subramanyam with Avaneeswaram Vinu and Palghat Mahesh

Arab American National Museum Annex
13624 Michigan Ave, Dearborn, Michigan 48126

Direct link to purchase tickets -- http://arabamericanmuseum.org/2015_shantala

GLAC website -- http://glacmichigan.com/

[Rsachi]

Great initiative! I think the haunting strains of the bamboo flute, the different sounds of the Carnatic violin, and the stupendous sounds of a mridangam, if aired with fidelity will attract everyone.
The artiste may like to choose songs and ragas with a more international flavour. I have heard ragas like Mohana, Bilahari, Keeravani, Vakulabharanam, Kapi, etc. go well.
Please share your experiences through the event with us.
My best wishes.

[sriramganapathy]

Thank you for your kind words and for the recommendations. I will keep the group posted on the feedback from this maiden attempt.

[sriramganapathy]

Feedback on the concert...

From an ardent Rasika
The flute concert by Kumari Shantala Subramanyam & Team yesterday at the Arab American National Museum, Dearborn has to be one of the best concerts I have attended both in US and India for two reasons:
1. The uniqueness-- the first ever carnatic concert in the Metro Detroit area to a predominantly non-Indian audience, who thoroughly enjoyed the mellifluous music from the bamboo flute wonderfully complemented on the violin and mridhangam.
The GLAC Team deserves a huge kudos for reaching out to other communities in sharing our divine music and in the process expanding open mindedness and tolerance to other cultures in this global village!
2. Display of genuine passion-- the artist, not only took the time to explain the basics & key differences between Indian classical music and the western classical music during the workshop, but also demonstrated a sense of balance in the way she picked the compositions and the raagas to relate to the different audience to make it more enjoyable for them as well as the to traditional music lovers. That shows a lot of maturity.
Positive parting comments from some of the Arab American listeners as they were leaving the event hall were very heartening and that made it all the more worthwhile and clearly showed that music knows no language.
We have a lot to thank Kumari Shantala Subramanyam for her outstanding concert especially for the numbers in Nalinakanthi, Ramapriya and Keeravani. Look forward to her three hour concert next time!
Great job, GLAC for pulling off such an outstanding unique concert.
Cheers!
Ramki

[sriramganapathy]

Shantala Subramanyam's concert yesterday at Dearborn Arab museum is indeed a new chapter for GLAC. We have been wanting Shantala to perform for the last 3 years and perhaps it is destiny that it was to happen under this platform.

We could not have chosen a better ambassador than her to take our music to a wider audience. The poise, maturity and the informal way she handled the demonstration session set the stage very nicely for an expectant audience which had filled the entire auditorium before the Concert began.

The depth of the questions and the keen interest with which the audience interacted with her surprised me pleasantly. The demonstration of 'viri bhoni' varnam with nine different ways of ornamentation ( 'gamakam'), the improvisations around melody through a raga alapana of Shankarabaranam were some of my picks. The concert itself was off to a great start with 'Nattai kurinji' varnam which is well suited to play on an instrument. The laya variations enthralled the audience and from my vantage point, I could really observe the sense of awe on the face of a predominantly western audience. After a brief alapana of Nalinakathi, Shantala took up 'Manavyalakinchara' with some very brisk swara patterns in the end, eliciting another round of applause.

The sub-main in Ramapriya started with a very unhurried sketch of the raga. Coming from the Parur school, the violinist's ( Avaneeswaram Vinu) response brought out some excellent phrases which was very soothing to the ears. In fact this piece reminded me of the legend, Mandolin Shrinivas playing the same raga for us just two years ago for GLAC. With time constraints, the RTP had to be cut short especially the pallavi portion but that didn't take away a mesmerizing thani by Palakkad Mahesh Kumar . It was indeed another novel idea for the mrdangist to do the ' Konnakol' before playing the thani which in fact was a fitting grand finale to the concert for a deeply appreciative audience who had great knowledge of the rhythm.

My hearty congratulations to the entire team for a well-executed concert.
- Sankar Krishnan

[sriramganapathy]

Some pictures of the concert..

https://plus.google.com/photos/11017839 ... banner=pwa
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... nref=story

[sriramganapathy]

From an Arab museum member :

"I had to leave Palestine when I was 6 and I haven't heard such a beautiful concert in the last 60yrs I have been in the USA. The concert reminded me of my days back home and was the best time I've had."

[vasanthakokilam]

Congratulations to all who were part of conducting such a successful event, especially the artists Shantala Subramanyam, Avaneeswaram Vinu and Palghat Mahesh