Sanjay Students' Series Chennai

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 14 Oct 2008, 23:22

Heard someone asking about this. Here is the word from the Guru himself:

http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com

A great initiative to have arranged top notch accompanists for his students. I remember getting a chance to hit a few balls with a pro when I was a kid - the smile didn't leave my face for days...

Look forward to songlists/reports etc. if anyone attended...I believe Charsur are putting up the songs for downloading shortly..

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 14 Oct 2008, 23:43

Are all four of them his students?

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 15 Oct 2008, 00:18

Apparently yes - some of them have also had other prominent gurus - e.g Prasanna Venkatraman has learnt from TR Balamani of Bombay and TKG

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 15 Oct 2008, 10:24

Also looks like Charsur is thankfully going in for a much-needed revamp of their hideous website. Glad to see that they are uploading the concerts of these young artistes - they are taking a lot of initiative to promote Carnatic Music...

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 16 Oct 2008, 10:14

I got to attend one of the four concerts and I must say that the best looking women of Chennai (even after discounting the other performing artistes) were in attendance.

PS: The music was all right too!

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 16 Oct 2008, 10:37

sureshvv wrote:I got to attend one of the four concerts and I must say that the best looking women of Chennai (even after discounting the other performing artistes) were in attendance.

No wonder, on Sanjay's blog, someone has asked for pictures of these concerts

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 16 Oct 2008, 11:51

beginner · Post by **beginner** » 16 Oct 2008, 15:30

While taking the things as such, the series also precisely display 'self promotion' by the Guru for himsel and students. A new trend is being set...

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 16 Oct 2008, 15:57

What is wrong in a Guru taking the initiative to arrange concerts with senior pakkavAdyams for his students? Plus, music is a career for Sanjay and perhaps his students. If they do not promote themselves, who will do it for them? We all engage in 'self-promotion' to bosses, customers etc in the work place so that we can get that coveted contract or promotion... what is wrong in promoting oneself as long as done in an ethical way...?

108talas · Post by **108talas** » 16 Oct 2008, 16:56

... truly a cake-walk for the students, being sponsored by Guru that too at a venue like Raga Sudha in Chennai. While other unknown equally good/better artists have to struggle for want of ...

Member_First · Post by **Member_First** » 16 Oct 2008, 16:59

now the topic gets a different colour. 'rang'anAtudai...

sindhupriya · Post by **sindhupriya** » 16 Oct 2008, 18:17

What Sri. Sanjay has done for his students should be appreciated first. He has established himself as a Musician . So this is not self promotion. It goes to show his confidence in his students . It should have been an unique experience for the students also to perform in front of their Guru. I am sure this experience would help them to perform excellently in the December Music season. Best wishes to his students.

Sindhu

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 16 Oct 2008, 18:59

wish we had reviews of the concerts-

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 16 Oct 2008, 19:14

My post above could loosely be construed as a review. Given all the recent antipathy towards song lists, I decided to skip it ;^)

sureshvv · Post by **sureshvv** » 16 Oct 2008, 19:28

108talas wrote:... truly a cake-walk for the students, being sponsored by Guru that too at a venue like Raga Sudha in Chennai.

How do you mean "cake-walk"? Don't they have to sing? And live up to the expectations of the crowd filled with people like you who are quick to dismiss? And preserve the reputation of their Guru who has gone out on a limb? Sounds like a high pressure situation to me.

108talas wrote:While other unknown equally good/better artists have to struggle for want of ...

For want of what? A Guru that is interested in promoting them as against keeping them under wraps as long as possible? Then they deserve our sympathy.

Next time please think your arguments through and try to present them in full!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 16 Oct 2008, 21:37

I would not characterize this act of sanjay subrahmanyan presents as self promotion for sure it may or may not be there(kind of brittannia 50 =| 50 biscuit situation,though I personally have a tilt one side which I will keep it to myself). But what is happening for sure is this atleast in chennai:

The artists who are in the verge of getting into /or already got into senior status (the age group of 30 + to 55 -) are not having oppurtunities because of this. It is just stopping these artist peers who are in that segment.Of course you can always argue it is just one sabha how about others, but if you look at it very keenly and see the trend in the papers , there generally appears a super senior 70 + veterans getting encouraged at times , and a small group of segmented artists are only performing exclusively and they rotate just within them and there is a territorial exclusivity only within that segment of artists. Rest of them either just donot make it and certainly musical merit is not considered there.

Fortunately there is chennai music yearly season , but for without that we will not have most of them. In my opinion we need another double count of new sabhas than what is existing now . That way kutcheris should exist like post offices ,anyone who likes just goes to the sabha nearest to his home/work. More importantly significantly more artists will have less drought of kutcheris .

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 16 Oct 2008, 21:40

I think that this is a truly commendable undertaking by Sri Sanjay, and seems very typical of his thought processes as well! I wish others would follow his lead.

A few years ago, my wife had a conversation with a leading musician about mentoring students both in the world of music as well as in academia. Some of the views expressed were that the guru's responsibilities do not end with teaching them, but should extend to ensuring that limelight shines on them - sort of lead by example before urging them to go on their own. In this respect, mentoring is no different from parenting - 'give roots that do deep, and at the same time nourish wings, and urge them to soar', or from teaching a child to ride a bicycle (2 training wheels, 1 side wheel, and both of them coming off). From that discussion, I thought that a well thought out plan could evolve through a series of steps like:
Step 1: accompanying the guru, purely as 'pinpATTu'
Step 2: accompanying the guru, but now, under the guru's watchful eyes, venturing to sing part of all of an AlApanA, nereval, swarams etc.
Step 3: performing solo under conditions arranged by the guru (like this venture of Sri Sanjay's)
Step 4: Going solo completely.....

Of course, after each step, a determination will have to made if the student is ready for the next.

One example of such a staged affair that comes to mind are the students that Smt. MLV mentored - they seem to have evolved through similar stages (Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Smt. Kanyakumari, Smt. Charumati Ramachandran). Another would be how Smt. DKP mentored Sri DKJ in the early stages of the latter's career. The latter case may be a bit extreme, because both of them made adjustments to their natural Srutis.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 17 Oct 2008, 05:12

Ravi,
You said it! MLV! A generous soul and a generous guru! She did not 'promote' her students. She gave her best to them and they were promoted to higher ranks automatically!
This is a commercial age. While there are many venues for young artistes in light music for achieving recognition, CM newbies (as Sanjay points out in his blog) do not have the kind of encouragement that was there in the eighties and nineties.
Mega corporations spend millions on ads and bill boards. Even that bit which trickles into encouraging CM is welcome by all of us. However, I have no idea what kind of sponsorship these events had. The concerts were held at Raga Sudha and the organizer was the daughter of a man who encouraged new talents (Sanjay was one of them). I think it is a good thing when musicians encourage their students in performing (and not let them spend the rest of their lives playing the tambura for them!). Hope other gurus follow suite.
There were a number of gurus then (and now too?) who did not help in the development of their students, and some even arrested their growth! I cannot think of any old world musicians attending their student's concerts either.

Rajesh,
I agree with you that big business should encourage established musicians by not ignoring them and wanting to feature only the shining stars...

moksha · Post by **moksha** » 21 Oct 2008, 18:31

LOL.which one did u attend

sureshvv wrote:I got to attend one of the four concerts and I must say that the best looking women of Chennai (even after discounting the other performing artistes) were in attendance.

PS: The music was all right too!

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 22 Oct 2008, 01:58

I did not attend any of these concerts, but I am sorry to see that the idea behind them is received cynically by some. If a guru does not promote his student, then who will? It has also been mentioned that promotion of new talent has been a core purpose of Raga Sudha hall.

I guess the numbers --- audiences, halls, musicians --- must always be at, or even above saturation point. In most of the arts, throughout the world, it takes something more than talent to succeed, and sometimes even talent is not treated fairly.

It is somewhat usual in many fields for a school to present the accomplishments of its students. Let there be more such opportunities!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 22 Oct 2008, 19:46

Vijay,
Let alone concerts, you miss the audience in Chennai too

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 22 Oct 2008, 21:26

From what has been said above, I think I am missing the audiences more

fuddyduddy · Post by **fuddyduddy** » 23 Oct 2008, 05:57

I'm missing the latest saris and salwars!!!

ram · Post by **ram** » 23 Oct 2008, 11:19

fuddyduddy,

Here is a refresher on the latest trends in saris in TN: http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.as ... =&pageno=1

. Might actually end up making you feel happy that you are away

Apologies for deviating from the topic of the post

shruthi6 · Post by **shruthi6** » 23 Oct 2008, 12:01

,

Apologies for deviating from the topic of the post

Ram

The entire thread has not discussed / reviewed any of the concerts. I don't think you need to apologize for giving some latest news / update.

fuddyduddy · Post by **fuddyduddy** » 23 Oct 2008, 17:40

i couldnt get on to bangaloremirror. Nevertheless, i never feel happy that am away

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 23 Oct 2008, 21:10

When are the reviews coming, now that we are done with 'eye' witness accounts?:)

MaheshS · Post by **MaheshS** » 24 Oct 2008, 19:48

arasi wrote:When are the reviews coming, now that we are done with 'eye' witness accounts?:)

Maybe there was nothing worth in terms of (h)ear witness to report? Even the Guru says

From Sanjay's blog @ http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/,

Everyday I could see the tension in the youngsters' faces at the beginning of the concert. Everyday I could see that as the concert progressed, they loosened up to relax and give their best. This is the inspiration that youngsters seek from senior accompanists and I am so happy that they got it from them.

I am thinking, so no one sang bad, no one sang very good. Not even worth mentioning any salient point in the concert, not that Sanjay would ever think of giving a concert list, probably because he didn't go to listen the list

Decent start, plenty more to come. Not this time. It did get a lot of attention, due to Sanjay's blog and the thread here!!!

Now, if a guru doesn't promote his sishya's then who will? It's a commercial venture people, they are trying to make a living from this thing. For me it's just a listening pleasure, hobby etc. I sit in front of the computer 10 hours a day, these people sing or practice their chosen instrument for the same amount of time.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 24 Oct 2008, 19:55

It is just that we like to hear about young talents, more so if they happen to be members of the forum. Sandeep Narayanan is one.