Vocal: ShrI Salem V. Shriram from Memphis
Violin: ShrI K. V. S. Vinay from Boston
MRdaMga: ShrI Ram ShrIram from Atlanta
Salem Shriram presented a top-notch all-in-all 'Kosher' karNATaka saMgItam this evening (October, 6, 2007) at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta, GA. Just to introduce the artist, he is a disciple of ShrI Calcutta K S Krishnamurti and an "A" graded AIR artist with a good voice and good vocal range. Dr. Ram Shriram, the percussionist this evening and the president of CAMAGA, is a leading disciple of T V Gopalakrishnan.
Details of the violinist can be found here: http://www.kvsvinay.com/shortbio.html
The list of the songs that were presented at the kaccEri are as follows:
1) Nera nammiti - KAnaDa varNam - aTa - rAmanAthapura shrInivAsa aiyaMgAr
2) jUtAmu rA rE - Arabhi - rUpaka - tyAgarAja svAmi (OS)
3) brOcEvArevarurA - khamAs - Adi - maisUru vAsudEvAcArya (RNS)
4) hariharaputram - vasantA - khaNDa Eka - muttusvAmi dIkshhitar (RS)
5) viruttam + un tiruvaDi sharaNam - kAmbhOji - Adi - gOpAlakRSNa bhArati (N)
6) paMkaja lOcana - kalyANi - mishra cApu - svAti tirunAL (R)
7) RTP - BahudAri - Adi (2 kaLai) (T)
Pallavi: harE rAma gOvinda murArE mukundashaurE muraharE
8) viruttam (en tAyum enakkaruL) + sollavallAyO kiLiyE - suruTTi, pantUvarALi, athANa,
ShhaNmukhapriya - Adi - subrahmaNya bhArati
9) ADal vazhi vIdiyil - SimhEndra madhyama - Adi - ??
10) TillAna - dhanAshrI - Adi - svAti tirunAL
11) PavamAna - SaurAshTra - Adi - tyAgarAja svAmi
Some comments:
1) As mentioned before, this concert was a 3.5 hours pure, unadulterated CM. All the songs were sung very well except for some minor slips once in a while. For example, in KalyANi AlApana, his madhyama was slightly off initially....but soon the AlApana evolved in to a nice kalyANi.
2) The replies of Vinay on the violin for Arabhi and khamAs were very good.
3) I felt that the khamAs kRti could have been a tad shorter.
4) Although the main aritst performed all speed variations of the pallavi, the violinist did not do play the pallavi in tishra gati.
5) It would have been all the more nice if the artist could have also sung a kRti by ShyAmA shAstri.
6) Although this is being just too picky, I thought the rAga selection for songs 1-7 could have had an iota more of variety. A vivAdi could have made it more delectable!
7) The involvement and bhAva infused into un tiruvaDi sharaNam by ShrIram was felt by many in the audience. Being a personal favorite of mine, I was happy I was there to hear it!
Overall, it was a very good concert by Salem Shriram, Vinay and Dr. Shriram and an excellent way of spending the saturday evening for rasikas like me!
-Badri.