SKB memorial concerts December 30 2017; eAmbalam

[kamalamba]

Dear friends

The SKB memorial concerts will be held on December 30 at eAmbalam.

This is a first announcement. Please mark the day in your calendar.

As of now we have 3 concerts lined up.

1. Vid. Amrutha Venkatesh (vocal)
2. Vid. Poorna Pragna Rao (vocal)
3. Sri. Vishnu Ramprasadh (will play his own raga based compositions in the guitar).

I am in the process of arranging another instrumental concert. Veena or flute (thoughts anyone on an up and coming young artiste?).

I will give more details as soon as they are finalized.

Regards
Mohan

[rshankar]

Mohan - Great to see you keeping this up. You are doing Mama (your dad) proud!!
Best Wishes!!

[Nick H]

Was wondering if you were going ahead this year. Happy to know that you are

[arasi]

Mohan,
Very glad to see that you and your family are continuing the annual concerts to honor the memory of GBL, our beloved friend at the forum. You do it with dedication and from afar too! For those who did not know him, Gobilalitha (SK Balasubramanian) was a gentle soul, and besides music, he loved humor. His Hilarity thread which you can still read in the locked threads is an example.
If I come to Chennai for a short time, and hopefully around then, I will attend. Nick and Varsha(!) might recall the very first year when it poured all day, Gayatri Girish, your sister and Suryaprakash singing through it all to delight us!

[rajeshnat]

3. Sri. Vishnu Ramprasadh (will play his own raga based compositions in the guitar).

Is he the same VRP who is #1 MMI super fan post mmi era?? If he is I did not know that he plays guitar. If it is raaga based composition in the guitar can I assume he will decide later to either write or completely jettison the words . Ganesh kumaresh call that as raaga praavaham.
Keep up your great work Mohan.

[kamalamba]

Thanks rshankar, NickH, Arasi Madam, and Rajeshnat. I hope you all can attend these concerts.
I don't think VRP is the same person, but I can check.
There may be things I don't know about this artiste, who is the son of TV Ramprasadh.
Regards
Mohan

[MaheshS]

I am in the process of arranging another instrumental concert. Veena or flute (thoughts anyone on an up and coming young artiste?).

J B Sruti Sagar - a promising young flautist, sishya of Dr Sundar. I've heard his concert on Parivadini and it was pristine music.

All the very best for your concert series! Long may it continue.

[kamalamba]

Thanks MaheshS. Do you know the artiste?
Hope you can make it. Will you be in Chennai then?
Mohan

[MaheshS]

Thanks MaheshS. Do you know the artiste?
Hope you can make it. Will you be in Chennai then?
Mohan

No, only listened to him I'm afraid, and I am still not 100% sure of my trip yet, if I am there I will defo come!

[Nick H]

J B Sruti Sagar - a promising young flautist, sishya of Dr Sundar. I've heard his concert on Parivadini and it was pristine music.

Thanks MaheshS. Do you know the artiste?
Hope you can make it. Will you be in Chennai then?
Mohan

Pretty well established, with a career playing for dance as well as concerts. Would expect him to have a busy season.

His sister, Keerthana, is a good singer too.

[rshankar]

Rajesh - this is not Vishnuramprasad...as Mohan has indicated, he is the son of the creators of eAmbalam (the dancer, Smt. Indira Kadambi, and her other half, the vocalist, Sri Ramprasadh). Sri Ramprasadh sang at one of the rasikas concert IIRC......

[kamalamba]

Dear all
I failed to mention in my first message that Sri. Poorna Pragna Rao is the son of the legendary Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao.
Incidentally, fellow forumite Sri. Madhva Muni Rao (munirao2001), brother of Sri PP Rao, alerted me that this is the birth centenary of Sri. Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao.
Great year then to have Sri. PP Rao to sing.
Thanks munirao2001.
Regards
Mohan

[vijay.siddharth]

Veena - I would recommend Ashwin Anand. Disciple of Vedavalli amma and BLR-based. Flute- I would recommend Heramba and Hemantha. Again, they are BLR-based, and play very well.

[Nick H]

I would recommend Ashwin too. In fact I planned to "lobby" Mohan for someone from my favourite school for next year!

Ashwin lives and works in bangalore. I think he will only come for specific concerts, don't know if he would be available for 30th. I know he has concerts at MA and RS hall, don't know about others.

Mohan, send me a mail/sms/WhatsApp if you want his contact details

[kamalamba]

Thanks Vijay Siddharth and NickH.
Nick I will send you a message for the contacts.
I welcome Lobbying; I almost fully depend on friends to make contacts.
My only request to lobbyers is to definitely attend the concerts (Nick H, you have been great attending every year).
Vijay, if you are in town I hope you will attend as well.
We want to have a great day seeing family and Gobilalitha's favorite rasikas members.
Regards
Mohan

[kamalamba]

Vijay, sorry didn't mean to say you were lobbying. I realize you were kind enough to suggest good artistes.
Thanks for that.
Mohan

[Nick H]

Thanks Vijay Siddharth and NickH.
Nick I will send you a message for the contacts.
I welcome Lobbying; I almost fully depend on friends to make contacts. ...

Oh good. You are looking for instrumentalists, or I would have recommended K Dharini, my favourite of Smt Vedavalli's relatively-youngsters. Perhaps next year?

[kamalamba]

Sure, next year. I am trying to have a nice balance of vocalists and instrumentalists.
I sent you and e-mail also.
Regards
Mohan

[Nick H]

Messages exchanged

[vsarmaiitm]

Mohan ji,

sent an e-mail. hope you got it

regards
Sarma

[kamalamba]

Dear all
Confirmed Sri. Ashwin Anand as the fourth artiste.
Thanks Vijay and Nick for the suggestion.
Regards
Mohan

[kamalamba]

Hi all

We will have a 4 Khanjira "Laya Chatura" concert also as part of the days concerts.

The eminent Khanjira artistes Sri. KV Gopalakrishnan, Sri. BS Purushotam, Sri. Shree Sundarkumar, and Sri. Anirudh Athreya form the quartet and this should be an exciting event of interest to all.

I will send the exact details of all concerts in a week with all accompanying artiste names etc.

Mohan

[kamalamba]

Dear all

Please find attached the final and full program.

Regards
Mohan

----------------------------
The 4th SKB memorial concerts will be held on Saturday 30 December 2017 at the usual venue.

(New No. 18, Old No. H-48A, Yamuna Sreet, Kalakshetra Colony, Besant Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600090).

9:45-10:00 Welcome (Mohan Balasubramanian)

10:00-12:30 Vidushi Amrutha Venkatesh (vocal),
Vidwan MA Krishnaswamy (violin), Vidwan B Ganapathyraman (Mridangam), and Vidwan Trivandrum D Rajagopal (Khanjira)

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:45 Laya Chatura
(4 Khanjiras of Vidwans KV Gopalakrishnan, Shree Sundar Kumar, Anirudh Athreya, and BS Purushottam).

3:00-5:15 Vidwan Ashwin Anand (Veena)
Vidwan K Arun Prakash (Mridangam) and Vidwan N Guruprasad (Ghatam)

5:30-8:00 Vidwan Poorna Pragna Rao (Vocal)
Vidwan Nellai Ravindran (Violin) and Vidwan TR Sundaresan (Mridangam)


8:00- Dinner

[srkris]

Dear Kamalamba, I hope I can attend in the morning, would love to meet you all.

[kamalamba]

Dear srkris,
that would be really excellent. Look forward to seeing you in the concert.

Dear all
This event is in 4 days.
Look forward to seeing many friends.

Regards
Kamalamba

[harimau]

Veena - I would recommend Ashwin Anand. Disciple of Vedavalli amma and BLR-based. Flute- I would recommend Heramba and Hemantha. Again, they are BLR-based, and play very well.

Heramba is a good name for a violinist who saws away with a bow. (Rambam means a saw in Tamil!)

[kvchellappa]

Is that description Rambha reserved for an apsara originally and a butt-er in this forum?

[harimau]

Is that description Rambha reserved for an apsara originally....?

I wouldn't name a girl Rambha.

People will say, "Aval romba blade podara".

[Sachi_R]

Harimau,
Heramba is an important name of Ganesha.
From Apte:

[harimau]

Harimau,
Heramba is an important name of Ganesha.

I am aware of it.

Hamsadhwani bhushitha Herambam.

[kamalamba]

Dear all,

The concerts will be live streamed, thanks to Sri. TV Ramprasadh's efforts.
Please follow online through the eAmbalam facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/eambalam/

Regards
Mohan

[kvchellappa]

Pleasant post after several rambams! Thanks.

[kamalamba]

Dear all

These concerts are held in the memory of my father who loved all forms of music, CM/HM/FM/WM...by senior and junior artistes.

The discussion has taken a tangent, I am sure in jest, but I hope the music itself will take centre-stage moving ahead.

Regards
Mohan

[kamalamba]

We had a great day with some truly exceptional concerts.

The event was really well attended with the attendance at times even above 100!.

Our Forumites srkris, arasi, NickH,sureshvv, toronto brothers, were all there (apologies if I have missed out someone).

It was great to see Sri. Suryaprakash, Sri. Rama Varma, and other musicians. I also know the concerts were watched extensively, with some top notch artistes even posting comments on the Ambalam page.

If he were looking down, my father would have been well and truly delighted.

I will make separate posts in the concerts section with links and some song lists etc.

Thanks all for making this happen in one way or another.

[kamalamba]

My message was sent before finishing.
Special thanks to Sri. TV Ramprasadh, Smt. Indira Kadambi, Sri. Vishnu Ramprasadh, and Sri. Ganesh, all from eAmbalam, who have spent so much of their valuable time to make this event proceed so smoothly.

[kamalamba]

PS: I was delighted to know members of rasikas.org (including friend KV Chellappa) managed to watch parts of the event online through live streaming.

[Nick H]

Thank you very much for good hospitality, good food and good music!

[srkris]

Thanks Kamalamba, it was an event well organized and thanks to you had some outstanding music from Amruta Venkatesh. Could meet Arasi, Nick, the Toronto Brothers, and a few others. An excellent way to remember our Gobilalitha.

Apologies I wasn't expecting to be asked to speak extempore so couldnt do that, but if I am able to attend next time, will do so.