Kalavanta 2015 by Karnataka Fine Arts Council

nadasurabhi · Post by **nadasurabhi** » 10 May 2015, 20:22

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 May 2015, 08:59

Great to see this! This is a commendable effort started last year by the major sabhas of Bengaluru.
The programs afford exposure to many young artistes who are drawn from different states where CM is heard--apart from the southern states, Bombay too.

Hats off to Bengaluru sabhas for this effort.

Do I see the USA represented too?

kssr · Post by **kssr** » 11 May 2015, 16:53

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 11 May 2015, 21:21

Best wishes!

Congratulations to the featured artists!

I do have a (tongue-in-cheek) question - when the location of the artists from India is mentioned, state level information is provided (e.g., TN, AP, Kerala, Karnataka), but in a couple of instances Mumbai is called out...why is that? Or did Mumbai acquire statehood while I was sleeping?

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 11 May 2015, 22:34

Good question, rshankar. I also was wondering about it!
No, I was not sleeping and I live in Mumbai!

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 11 May 2015, 22:36

About the event, a laudable effort! Congratulations and best wishes for the same.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 11 May 2015, 22:54

PUNARVASU wrote:Good question, rshankar. I also was wondering about it!
No, I was not sleeping and I live in Mumbai!

LOL

thenjasatta · Post by **thenjasatta** » 12 May 2015, 02:59

Quite easily Vignesh Ishwar will win the prize in Vocals. Incredible talent ! Very underrated.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 12 May 2015, 03:26

Come on, Punarvasu! You know much better than I do

Mumbai (Bombay) has been very much a part of the CM scene for seventy five years or more (Shanmukhananda Sabha being a major force among CM sabhAs).

Also, Mumbai has had many outstanding teachers, and has been active in training young students. What Cleveland is today is because the immigrants love(d) to transplant their music in their new land. This is what happened then, when droves of southerners found jobs and made their homes in Mumbai. Isn't that so?

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 12 May 2015, 08:33

arasi, rshankar was asking why it is mentioned as Mumbai instead of Maharashtra, as in other cases!

kssr · Post by **kssr** » 12 May 2015, 11:55

Rasikas seem to have a keen ear too besides a keen eye for details.

Hope Maharashtra is not complaining

Purist · Post by **Purist** » 12 May 2015, 12:56

Pobably, the fact CM 's prevalance is confined to the four southern states (Kar,Ker,TN & AP) is recognised, and other
hailing one's are identified with particular city like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkota etc.

kssr · Post by **kssr** » 23 May 2015, 17:45

The series starts tomorrow at 4.15 (before raahu kaalam?

) IT IS FREE. ALL ARE WELCOME.

24th May, Sun - Madhu Kashyap (disciple of Neela Ramgopal) followed by Brinda Mackavachagam ( disciple of Suguna Varadachari)

arvind.brahmakal · Post by **arvind.brahmakal** » 24 May 2015, 09:32

For those outside Bengaluru, webcast links :

1. livestream.com/shaalelive/kalavanta2015
2. bit.ly/kalavanta2015

Rasikas in Bengaluru : do make it to the venue.

KFAC has also partnered with Insync 24*7 Indian Classical Music TV channel as our media partner. All the concerts will be broadcast on a later date

munirao2001 · Post by **munirao2001** » 25 May 2015, 11:17

Arvind Brahmakal, KSSR and KFAC Team,

Thank You Sirs for the second edition of KFAC-Kalavanta 2015.
Madhu Kashyap - Vocal
I was very late and missed the major part of the concert of Sri Madhu Kashyap. He did live up to his talents and showed great promise. Good voice modulation and svarastanams control. Major composition handled was "Meenakshi Me Mudam Dehi"-Poorvi Kalyani- Adi. Aalaap was interesting but scalar in approach, not appropriate for the composition with varied gamaka prayogas. Niraval was OK but, svarakalpana was imaginative. Based on the performance, his focus was on lakshana sangeetam. I observed deviation in the patantara and its purity. I did share with his Guru, Sangita Kalaacharya Vidu.Neela Ramgopal. I was amused to hear one rasika informing NR that MK has similar voice like KJY and felt KJY was singing! I was reminded about a comment of SSI, 'ida maari pechai, kaadoda ketka koodadu, kannoda ketkanum ( kettamadiri irukkanum, avvalavudan)'. Vid.Achuth Rao on violin was very good. With improvement in both the bowing and fingering technique ( not that it was deficient ), he would achieve recognition and support, very soon. Vid.Vinod Shyam, is already recognized as highly talented mridanga vidwan. Today he lived up to his reputation in both accompanying and solo -tani- very imaginative, intelligent in ideas and its execution. Shivu Sir, VS made you proud.

Brinda Maanickavachakam-Vocal
Vidu. Brinda lived up to her reputation as a talented and very promising vocalist. With intent to perform with primacy for lakshya sangeetam with adequacy for lakshana sangeetam. Syama and Varaali raaga alaapanams were truly the highlights. The concert planning should have been better with balance of turita-madhyama-vilamba kaalapramanam compositions. Voice control on the upper range also should have been better. With deeper classicism, I rate her performance better than Vid.MK. Vid Chidambaram Badrinath, already regular in performing concerts, was adequate and I felt he must be more attentive and involved in accompanying to offer both support also to his solo interludes. Vid.L.Subramanyam gave good accompaniment and also his tani showcased his vidwath. With more practice and experience, LS will also make his Guru, Vid.Sri Kalidas proud, in the near future.

I join Sri Arvind to appeal all the Bengaluru forumites to attend the concerts in full strength to offer our support to the very talented young vidwans and vidushees and also to KFAC Team. See you all today MON25th, May.

munirao2001

pperumal · Post by **pperumal** » 25 May 2015, 16:47

Heard a bit of madhu kashyap - thanks to the webcast.
on the day, his shruti was all over the place unfortunately - the youngster needs to get back to his basics and work hard on it.
wish him all the best.

brinda was very polished though - liked her music and i hope such music finds its place in today's rat race.

upcoming list looks promising. kudos to the team for organising this.

- PP.

thenjasatta · Post by **thenjasatta** » 25 May 2015, 19:38

youngster needs to get back to basics ? Oh really ? who are you ? can you sing an iota of what he sang yesterday ? im sorry, I found his concert much better than the latter concert. His raga interpretations were refreshing. Yes, he has a great voice. Great modulations soaked in emotions. Unfortunately, people are so narrow minded about music that anything that deviates from their preconceived notion of "good sangeetha" is not worth it.

Brinda's varali alap had way too many repetitions. No interesting prayogas. The same old prayogas and lot of repitition. Good choice of ragas. Sama could have been much better.

arvenky · Post by **arvenky** » 25 May 2015, 20:56

I came when purvi kalyani alapana was in progress by Madhu Kashyap and I found it was rendered neatly.

The varnam sung by Brinda is Lalgudi's composition? Can someone help to identify?

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 25 May 2015, 21:24

S K Mahathi's cocncert has been enjoyable.

pperumal · Post by **pperumal** » 25 May 2015, 21:30

thenjasatta wrote:youngster needs to get back to basics ? Oh really ? who are you ? can you sing an iota of what he sang yesterday ? .

No offence - but isn't this meant to be a forum for rasikas only please?
I was not aware of the entry criteria that one had to first repeat what the performer rendered before criticising it

- PP.

pperumal · Post by **pperumal** » 25 May 2015, 21:31

Mahathi's varali and todi were neat. Missed the 2nd concert though.

- PP.

gardabha_gana · Post by **gardabha_gana** » 25 May 2015, 21:37

thenjasatta, you need to listen to more music and calm yourself before shooting off.

thenjasatta · Post by **thenjasatta** » 25 May 2015, 22:42

i need to calm myself ? who is shooting off here ? me ? what did that guy/gal mean when he/she said that he needs to focus on basics ? Did he/she even listen to the concert properly ? if you think Brinda's concert was better than Madhu's you need to listen to more music. Not me. Calm yourself ? Need to concentrate on the basics it seems. Thats definitely a statement from a very "calm" guy who has listened to a "lot" of music. The guy has a great voice with such emotive appeal and modulation. His raga elaborations were refreshing and did not at the same time stray away from the grammar.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 26 May 2015, 01:07

Bengaluru is doing something which I don't think any other city has done before: ten sabhAs coming together to encourage young talent as one force...

We don't have to shower compliments on the emerging performers in excess, but don't have to be too critical of them or even worse--compare them

We could dwell a bit more on their plus points while pointing out the areas for improvement.This may encourage them to do better.

We do not spare the established ones either, and we criticize the older ones for their voices not cooperating. No big deal, so long as we do not forget to mention their merits. What I'm driving at is that we all don't have to become Subbudus. As rasikAs we are there mainly to encourage the performers--especially the young ones?

arvind.brahmakal · Post by **arvind.brahmakal** » 26 May 2015, 11:12

What a start it has been....we had Sri P S Narayanaswamy, Smt Neela Ramgopal, Sr N S Krishnamurthy, Sri S V Sharma among other eminent musicians at the venue. Appears the youth brigade is charged up with the presence of such luminaries

munirao2001 · Post by **munirao2001** » 26 May 2015, 14:10

Rasikas must be clear that all the artists performing for KFAC-Kalavanta Awards, are already performing artists and have been recognized for the potential. All the artists have already established that Karnataka Sangeetham is being well served for its sampradaya continuity.

I am happy to report that the two concerts-Vocal on MON25th,May - Vidu. Mahati and Vid. Sunil Gargeyan and their accompaniment Vidwans, were good. But, Vid.Sunil Gargeyan very good and with yogam he will be very 'popular' performer in the near future. I heard him for the first time and to honor the request of PSN to give my feed back, I had to hear him with all attention.

Vidu.Mahathi was confident and exhibited with plan and precision. I missed the first part of 15-20 minutes. Reeti goula, in brief, Varali and Todi, the main composition were delineated. Has very good voice and clarity-sahithya and also fast paced brighas. She established the rakthi with ease and comfort gained over the performing experience. Good grasp of both lakshya and lakshana knowledge. Vid.Gokul, on Violin is also talented and with higher sadhana and experience he can achieve higher efficiency in both accompanying and solo interludes. Vid.Charudutt, on mridangam is also talented and experienced and gave good support in accompanying and tani was good enough. Whether all the artists get award or not, I request and wish that associate member Sabhas of KFAC provide good opportunities for these Kerala based artists, who do not receive the support they deserve, in general.

Vid.Sunil Gargeyanalso was confident and exhibited with plan and precision. His planning was better than Vidu.Mahati with intelligent inclusion of two compositions in the Kannada-One on Raghavendra by Venkatesa Vittala Dasa and the second one by Purandara Dasa, both rarely handled. Vid.Sunil is endowed with natural high pitch-2 Kattai and powerful voice. Vid. has done the saadhaka to gain skill of both the chest and head voice, which enables him to communicate his manodharma forays, be it alaapana, niraval or svarakalpana ( sarvalaghu). Vid. gave me the feeling that his style is based on GNB and TNS more than Vid.Bhashyam and Great Maestro PSN. Right from the Varnam to the end, all the compositions were well balanced with sense of proporation. Raamakriya, minor composition and Begada, the main composition-Nadopasana were admirably sung, clearly establishing the state of Vidwath attained. With continued saadhana and yogam, SG will receive the rasikas recognition and support, in the near future. Vid. Dilip, on Violin, was excellent and lived up to his talent and reputation already established. Technical mastery was admirable. Vid.Akshay Ram on mridangam ( I have heard him for the first time) is also highly talented and exhibited the benefit of learning from Great Maestro Ummayalapuram Sivaraman and also Vid.Suresh-his accompaniment and also tani were very good. He should pay attention to the skill of tuning the mridangam to the shruti. All the three Vidwans will be good contenders for the Kalavanta Award.

Learning KVChellapa and few other Bengaluru forumites attended through their posts, I am unhappy that we did not meet.

I am likely to miss in attending TUE,26th May ( today's concert ).

munirao 2001

thenjasatta · Post by **thenjasatta** » 26 May 2015, 20:05

Excellent singing by Anirudh Venkatesh. Very masculine, majestic voice. Very neat, unhurried presentation. Although could have allotted more time for neraval. Or maybe sing neraval in another song too. I have a feeling that a lack of kuraippu in any of his songs may cost him the award. I was expecting a kuraippu in his kalpana swaras for thodi. This may cost him the award. Overall, excellent singing!

kssr · Post by **kssr** » 27 May 2015, 10:31

And all six concerts so far have been of a very high quality. Heartening to see that Carnatic music is in good hands in the future.

hnbhagavan · Post by **hnbhagavan** » 27 May 2015, 11:44

May 26 concert,accompaniment on Violin by Sreya devnath,disciple of Sri Lalgudi sir was excellent in Anirudh Venkatesh's concert.Highly energetic Mridangam by Akshay anand.Overall performance in the junior artist series is good.

sanjaysubfan · Post by **sanjaysubfan** » 28 May 2015, 09:39

I heard the webcast of J.A.Jayanth flute. It was really excellent. Superb blowing and control over the instrument. Also found out that he is now learning from Sanjay sir. How fortunate to be under the great master. It definitely shows in his approach and playing. All the best to him

arvenky · Post by **arvenky** » 28 May 2015, 18:40

Both the concerts of yesterday 27th, Thursady were good. Vani Ramamurthy rendered a good Todi. Jayanth's Sriranjani was very good. His list look alike Sanjay's (he is learning from Sanjay).

pperumal · Post by **pperumal** » 28 May 2015, 23:38

Jayanth is an excellent flautist - one who, definitely, has a very looong innings ahead of him.
Wish him the very best and I hope he scales to the top.

- PP.

arvind.brahmakal · Post by **arvind.brahmakal** » 30 May 2015, 22:55

All the scheduled 14 concerts are now done ! Those who have not heard yet, can use these links to view the concerts in Full HD

1. http://www.livestream.com/shaalelive/kalavanta2015
2. http://www.bit.ly/kalavanta2015

Tomorrow...31st May is the finale ! The program starts at 10 AM IST with a grand concert by the Chief Guests, Vidwan Mysore M Nagaraj and Vidwan Mysore Dr M Manjunath, accompanied by Vidwan Arjun Kumar on mridanga and Vidwan Giridhar Udupa on the Ghata. This will be followed by the Award Ceremony. There are 5 awards to be won :

1. Best Main Artiste
2. Best Main Artiste - 2nd Prize
3. Best Violin accompanyist
4. Best Mridanga accompanyist
5. Best Upa pakka accompanyist

KFAC warmly invites everyone at the venue to join us for lunch

arvind.brahmakal · Post by **arvind.brahmakal** » 31 May 2015, 15:50

KFAC congratulates all the award winning artistes for their super performances :

1. Best main artiste jointly shared by Vani Ramamurthy and Vignesh Ishwar
2. Best violin accompanyist : Dileep K j
3. Best mridanga accompanyist : Anoor Vinod Shyam
4. Best upa parka accompanyist : Khanjira by Sunaad Anoor

With this Kalavanta 2015 comes to a close...a grand celebration of young talent

hnbhagavan · Post by **hnbhagavan** » 31 May 2015, 19:36

I found that many artists are already in performance circuit.The notable example is Sri JA Jayanth Flute who is already on stage giving 3 hour concert.In fact today he is performing at Arkay Convention Center for Mali remembrance day(Webcast Live)with very seasoned accompaniments - Sri S Varadarajan,Sri TV Gopalakrishnan.
However this does not taka away the credit for organising Young Talent Display - Kalavanta.The concerts were well attended by any standards.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 May 2015, 20:21

arvind.brahmakal wrote:KFAC congratulates all the award winning artistes for their super performances :
With this Kalavanta 2015 comes to a close...a grand celebration of young talent

Congratulations and best wishes to the ones selected! Looks like the Anoor family is very much into percussion!
By the way, I may have missed it - who were the judges?

Rsachi · Post by **Rsachi** » 31 May 2015, 20:49

The judges' names were announced in today's award function:
1. Prof Mysore Nagamani Srinath
2. M.A. Sundareshan
3. S. V. Ramani
The organisers repeatedly stressed that the judges had done a thorough job and were absolutely convinced in their decision.

All the concerts have been archived in Livestream.

Further data points: 20000 views thus far on Livestream for Kalavanta 2015. 18 million TV viewers on InSync DTH will be treated to recorded webcasts.

The Kalavanta 2015 will organise a 3 day festival in Chennai this Dec season to showcase Karnataka-based Kalavanta youth talent .

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 31 May 2015, 20:59

Hope we have our own Music Academy in Bengaluru sooner than later. I have heard the musicians say how they love to perform in Bengaluru. Kalavantha must be unique to Bengaluru.

munirao2001 · Post by **munirao2001** » 01 Jun 2015, 11:32

Arvind Brahmakal, KSSR and KFAC Team,

Great efforts. Good results. All the performing young Vidwans and Vidushees who won the Kalavanta awards, truly deserve. Shivu Sir (Anoor) must be a very proud Guru and father. Please improve on - 1. Media coverage 2. Artists,Teachers and students participation.

RSachi The Kalavanta 2015 will organise a 3 day festival in Chennai this Dec season to showcase Karnataka-based Kalavanta youth talent .

very good plan and wish KFAC, all the success.

munirao2001

badari · Post by **badari** » 01 Jun 2015, 12:53

Hearty congratulations to the organisers of Kalavanta 2015 for conducting another memorable event. The vidwat demonstrated was of high standards and the quality of broadcasting too.

Hope to see many more talents budding from Karnataka occupying the stage in the forthcoming years.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Jun 2015, 17:26

Sachi- thank you for that information.

arvind.brahmakal · Post by **arvind.brahmakal** » 01 Jun 2015, 18:55

On behalf of everyone at KFAC, thanks to rasikas for the warm wishes

Chennai celebrates classical music during December every year. The scale and grandeur are really admirable - kudos to all the organisations, rasikas and the eco system that has enabled this over several decades.

It will be KFAC's pleasure to join the celebration this year at Chennai. We plan to have a 3 day festival on 11th, 12th and 13th December, 2015 to bring great music to the rasikas ( to clarify, this is not restricted to youth artistes and is distinct from Kalavanta). Kalavanta will continue to happen every year in Bengaluru only. We eagerly look forward to this upcoming event and invite rasikas, in advance, to KFAC's next festival

munirao2001 · Post by **munirao2001** » 02 Jun 2015, 11:37

Arvind Brahmakal Sir,

I had suggested during the KFAC 'Open Door' meeting, 'Proudha Kalavanta', performing opportunity to Maestros of Karnataka in Chennai during the December music festival, maestros not given any or rare opportunity to perform by MA and other leading Sabhas like Narada Gana Sabha or Krishna Gana Sabha. Please plan proper promotion and publicity to serve the goal and objective of KFAC -MADRAS MUSIC FESTIVAL-2015.

munirao2001

pperumal · Post by **pperumal** » 02 Jun 2015, 23:13

Interesting concept - kind of like a "road show" of artists from a particular state ("karnataka" here).
the broader question i am curious about here is whether this is being done because these artists are discriminated against in chennai/tn? is that the reason? just trying to understand.

- PP.

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 03 Jun 2015, 01:53

I did not get the impression that it will be confined to Karnataka artists (the Bengaluru event was for all). Mr. Muni Rao mentions about Karnataka artists,
but not Mr Brahmakal.

munirao2001 · Post by **munirao2001** » 03 Jun 2015, 11:20

kvchellappa Sir,

You are right. It is only my suggestion to meet the aspiration and yearning of many practitioners based in Karnataka. With the recognition and success of KFAC, I also wish similar Organizations, patrons and event managers from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and other centers also plan and conduct the music festival in Chennai and provide the performing opportunities to the well deserving practitioners.
All the practitioners get sense of fulfillment in performing in sacred Music Academy music festival and sadas. I suggest KFAC and similar other organizations from other centers to discuss with MA and make the music festival extended to 30 days with mutual cooperation, participation and conduct. This would be better than organizing the event at other venues. This suggestion is made with the knowledge that such sincere attempts done in the past did not result in achieving the goal and objective.

munirao2001

arvind.brahmakal · Post by **arvind.brahmakal** » 03 Jun 2015, 14:09

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Shall let you all know as this develops

hnbhagavan · Post by **hnbhagavan** » 04 Jun 2015, 06:21

Dear Arvind,

I do not see Indranagar sangeetha Sabha in KFAC.Is it correct?

arvind.brahmakal · Post by **arvind.brahmakal** » 04 Jun 2015, 12:01

Dear Hnbhagavan,

Not at this point in time....

kvchellappa · Post by **kvchellappa** » 05 Jun 2015, 14:38

Report in The Hindu today:
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp ... 283436.ece