Gurukulam of Sri R.Suryaprakash (India)
24th May 2015
Chicago Thyagraja Utsavam
Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago
Vocal:
Disciples of R. Suryaprakash
Sutikshna Veeravalli (Chicago)
Sudarshan Mohan (Raleigh)
Hrishikesh Balaji (Washington DC)
Ajitha Balasubramanian (Richmond)
Another senior disciple of Suryaprakash, Arunima Bhattacharya(Minneapolis), was in the audience supporting and encouraging her co-disciples. She was on stage for the Suryaprakash concert that followed.
Violin: Kamalakiran Vinjamuri
Mridangam: Vinod Seetharaman
Ragam Thanam Pallavi - "Thyagaraja Gurumashraye Vasanthavachinam Ragamrithavarsham", Vasantha & Amrithavarshini, Kanda Jathi Triputa,
Arudhi at 'Ye of gurumashraye' with eduppu on the third beat of the tala.
(click on the picture to see a bigger version. Photo Courtesy of CTU, Chicago. I could not hot link it to their web site because the size was too big for the forum software)
Chicago Thyagaraja Utsavasam added a new segment this year. They Invited four disciples of R. Suryaprakash to perform together and billed it as 'Guru Samarpanam from the Gurukulam of R.Suryaprakash' with the objective of drawing attention to Gurukulam of yore and its current avatar in modern times. Suryaprakash introduced his disciples to the audience and outlined what they are going to sing. Suryaprakash explained that the 'Guru' reference in 'Guru Samarpanam' is to Sri. Tyagaraja.
It was an RTP concert. And it was no ordinary RTP. Necessity is the mother of invention. Given that It was a concert by multiple disciples of both genders, how do you manage the different sruthis of male and female singers in the group? One choice is to make one gender sing in a sub-optimal sruthi by adjusting to the sruthi of the opposite gender. But that does not provide for the full range of registers to both genders. So what did they do? They sang in two different Sruthis. 'What?' you may recoil, but don't worry it was all good, they sang in two different ragas that are connected together through Grahabedam.
The two ragas they chose were Vasantha and Amrithavarshini. The two male singers Sudharshan and Hrishkesh sang Vasantha ( in D sruthi / 2 kattai ) and two female singers ( Sutikshna and Ajitha ) sang Amrithavarshini in the G sruthi / 5 kattai. I will write about my understanding of the some technical details around the choice of the two ragas that are compatible with the two sruthis a little later( though the technical minded members would have already figured it all out). But this setup and architecture afforded all the singers to sing in their comfortable sruthi rather than adjusting to an artificial one. Quite a clever and interesting technique and I am sure it took a lot of planning, coordination and practice. The final verdict: They delivered and delivered excellently. They were ably supported and encouraged by the violinist Kamalakiran Vinjamuri ( whom we have encountered in our forum discussions before as quite a talented young Violinist, disciple of Ms. Kanyakumari ) and the senior Vidwan Vinod Seetharaman on the mridangam. As opposed to the typical Grahabedam maneuver where it is temporary and short, the nature of this arrangement where each raga was elaborated for an extended period of time, they switched to different instruments one tuned to D and the other tuned to G. I can see there was some planning that went in there to minimize the number of such switches.
All this setup only provides the framework and it was up to the performers to put this all together and make a wholesome offering.That they did. All four are top notch students and they performed very well. They are from different cities and their final exams were just over a week or so back. So they had to get all this coordinated and practiced remotely and take care of the final dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's in the few days they were here together. That in itself is quite commendable.
Sudarshan and Hrishikesh sang Vasantha first with ragam, tanam and pallavi, then Sutikshna and Ajitha sang Amrithavarshini, again Ragam, thanam and Pallavi. Later on they sang back to back in quick succession which necessitated violinist and mridangist to switch their instruments quite swiftly. I noticed in a couple of places during the switch, Kamalakiran played on the same violin even after the switch for a few seconds and at another place one of the male singers sang along with the female singer in Amrithavarshini. I guess both of those will be similar in technique to what they do in Grahabedam ( correct me if I am wrong here ).
Leaving aside all the technicalities, performance wise, it was quite an enjoyable concert. All four are talented singers with excellent and pliable voices and they performed very well. There are enough differences in their voices and styles so there was quite a bit of variety thus portraying a form of unity in diversity. Their alapanas sounded different in color and content and that is quite commendable. They are mature enough musically to show their individuality. Vasantha and Amrithavarshini were in full bloom right from when each pair started the respective raga. The Pallavi line was quite pleasnt to hear and the structure of the pallavi line over the thala was very well laid out for proper balance between the uttaranga and purvanga.
It felt like it ended too fast though they probably sang for an hour or so. It was really that good.
There was a short thani by Sri. Seetharaman and the main performers took the pallavi line back and brought it to a grand conclusion with great applause from the audience. Violinist Kamalakiran Vinjamuri is quite exceptional and I do not see any reason why he can not be a top grade professional violinist if he so chooses. It was an extremely pleasant experience to listen to these young performers and they put together a concert of quite a bit of complexity but made it look simple through their excellent execution. Congratulations and best wishes to all of them.
His imaginative ways in music is well reflected in this program by his students, it seems.