Naadotsavam - 2015

[sowmyamurthy89]

Naadotsavam – 2015
Review
Date of the Events: May 2 & May 3rd
Venue: Sri Venkateswara Temple, Edina, MN

“Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand” – Stevie Wonder
There could not have been a better quote to describe the weekend of Naadotsavam 2015 at the S V Temple, Edina, Minnesota. Beautiful weather, amazing audience and all that was needed was a musical journey that appealed to all your senses and more. And appeal it did! Naadotsavam was a two-day festival comprising of Carnatic and devotional concerts by eminent artistes from India as well as local talent and Carnatic and devotional vocal and instrumental competitions to encourage young and budding talent. This is an effort conceptualized by Sri Shashikiran along with the management committee at the S V Temple and is the sixth consecutive year that the festival was conducted in Minneapolis.
The Carnatic and Bhakti star competitions had a huge variety of categories including Varnam, Krithi, Manodharma Sangeetham, Divine classics as well as exclusive mind-challenging categories such as multimedia presentations on topics related to Carnatic music, Raga identification and Carnatic tiny tots (a Carnatic fancy dress competitions for toddlers). This year the festival saw a remarkable response with participants from various states including Wisconsin, Ohio along with the participation of students in Minnesota. The competitions gathered an incredible response from music students of various age groups and also proved to be a motivating experience for all of them.

The concert section of the music festival started off with a very unique concert - “Maithree – the Music of Friendship” which brought together two wonderful aspects of life – music and friends. The featured artistes of Maithree were Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar on the Veena, Michelle Kinney on the Cello accompanied by Pat O’Keefe on the Saxophone and Sri. Thanjavur Murugabhoopathi on the Mridangam and also featuring the Veena and vocal ensembles of the Naadha rasa Center for Music, Plymouth, MN. Maithree, is a brainchild of Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar, who is known for her creative and ingenious collaborative work with artistes from different genres of music. The concert opened with a Swarajathi, tuned to mellifluous Cenjuruti, which was drenched in Shringara rasa. Further into the concert, the audience witnessed the brilliance of Pat O’Keefe on Saxophone and Michelle Kinney on Cello and their flawless rendition of popular Carnatic ragams. That combined with Smt Nirmala Rajasekar's superlative playing wowed the audience. Lots of heads grooved and nodded to a composition they rendered named ‘Ted's dream’ with an opening and closing in the Raga Kalyani. As gentle as the first drops of ‘Summer Rain’, the performance in Behaag embraced the audience. It was followed by "Morning Dew" that brought an avalanche of myriad emotions, that one travelled in the space of this melody. While summer Rain was written by Smt. Nirmala, ‘Morning Dew’ was a commisioned work for the new music group Zeitgeist by her talented daughter Shruthi originally written for veena, clarinet, piano, vibraphone and marimba this version was created for the cello . Mridangam maestro Sri Murugaboopathi adapted to and excelled at playing with this unique ensemble so different from a regular concert. After ‘Pentatonic’ (in Suddha saveri in Kanda Chapu) ‘Sublime Journey’( a three raga composition in Valaji, Vasantha and Shivaranjani) and Mary O'Neil by the famous 16th century Irish composer Turlough O Carolan, the concert concluded with the title song - Maithreem Bhajata, a benediction composed in Sanskrit by Sant Jagadguru Shri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati and set to music by Shri. Vasant Desai. The composition was performed as a unique vocal and instrumental arrangement for the first time. The emphasis on the song meaning allowed the audience to appreciate the rendition more. The experience was much like sampling a fusion dish and not knowing which flavors of it came from where, but enjoying it wholesomely. It is never easy to present two genres with a strong tonal feel and a stronger history to churn out an enticing sound. But when a successful musical collaboration transpires, all you have is an experience to reminisce about for a long time. Kudos to Smt Nirmala Rajasekar and team for bringing together a confluence of two wonderful forms of music and thus creating a one of a kind concert for Nadotsavam 2015.

Following Maithree, second in the concert series was a Carnatic classical vocal concert by Shertalai Ranganatha Sharma accompanied by Thiruvizha Viju S Anand on the Violin, R Shankaranarayanan on the Mridangam and Sriram Natarajan on the Khanjira. The concert started off with the Bahudari Varnam of Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman rendered effortlessly. His main piece “O Ranga sai” in Kamboji was breathtaking and with emphasized sangathis and phrases it was a piece that appealed to all. Some other notable pieces rendered were “Shri Venkata Girishamalokaye” in Ragam Surutti and “Sharanam Vijaya Saraswathi” in Ragam Vijaya Saraswati. . The bhajan “Hari gun gaavat” in Raagam Deepali was very mellifluous and melodious that it touched the hearts of each and everyone in the audience. This was the first time the troupe performed in Minneapolis. With a very impressively powerful voice and a phenomenal range, Ranganatha Sharma left everyone enticed and the accompanying artistes surely played a huge role to garner a huge applause.

The concert series of day 2 started of with “Shree Ranga Mahattvam” rendered by the North American Melharmonic Voice Ensemble put together by Arohana School of Music and Acharyanet.com. The group rendered compositions in praise of Lord Ranganatha and displayed extraordinary co-ordination with crystal clear gamakams and accurate emphasis on the sahityam.

A fitting end to the festival was a grand finale concert by the Carnatica brothers – Sri Shashikiran and Sri Ganesh accompanied by Sri. Trivandrum Sampath on the violin, Sri. Thanjavur Murugabhoopathi on the Mridangam and Sri. Balaji Chandran on the ghatam. The eternal “Ka va va ” in Ragam Varali was one of the brothers most enjoyable pieces. Their choice of raagam for the RTP was the very atypical Sumaneesaranjani and they traversed through a series of Ranjanis - Sivaranjani, Janaranjani, Manoranjani and various other popular and rare raagams - most of which were propelled by audience’s choice. As always, Ganesh’s expertise in switching between various raagams was effortless and very soothing. The last segment of the concert included a Bhajan in Revathi and a composition in praise of Sri Raghavendra Swami composed by Sri. Ganesh in the Raagam Hamsanandi. They concluded the concert with an Annamacharya composition “Adivo alladivo” that describes the abode of Sri Venkateswara, which was an apt dedication to S V Temple and everyone who made this event a huge success.

To sum up, Naadotsavam 2015 was a huge success. Events like these make Carnatic music very accessible and enjoyable to people who live far away from their homeland. Also concerts such as ‘Maithree’ introduces the art form in a very novel way to those who may have never experienced it. Additionally, competitions and concerts like these create so much motivation among students of music and we can all positively say that Carnatic music in Minnesota is thriving and blooming very well indeed -very much like the spring we see around us here.

[rshankar]

Very nice report! Thank you for sharing. Any youtube clips that we can listen and enjoy as well?

[sowmyamurthy89]

Thank you very much.
I can surely give you a link to the TV coverage that has been covered in TV5 USA news.
Here is a link to that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdEhGbCkJJI

Regards,
Sowmya