Toronto Bros-Chamber Music-Kaumarams Invitation

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 16 Dec 2008, 21:13

Why has it got to be on the 19th? I am going to be a day too late. Wanted to hear the Bros this season. And Ram playing too! SRJ might pop in as well, you say.
Thanks for hosting this , Kaumaram. Hope other forumites behave themselves, not donning pink kurtAs, turbans and the rest. Not with a chatterbox mouth like mine either...

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 17 Dec 2008, 01:33

Chatter away! It is nice to read about that too!
When are the Jam sessions starting?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 17 Dec 2008, 06:57

Kji,

As usual, hats off to you! ananta kOTi namaskAram! Thank you kaumaram for your generosity!

Ram - kAl vaNNam anru kaNDOm, can't wait for your 'kai vaNNam' .....

I am thrilled that we will get a chance to listen to this team before I will have to wend my way...It does make up a bit for having to miss Prashant and Ram in Jan. I look forward to this treat from Ashwin and Rohin! And I have heard SO much about Smt. Padma Shankar. Promises to be wonderful...

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 17 Dec 2008, 07:54

this is bad - I would have loved to be in town to hear Ashwin and Rohan with the also the great chance to meet the colorful Prof SRJ

Arun

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 17 Dec 2008, 11:36

Having just e-mailed Cool for details of this, now I find the thread!

I'll be the one in the pink kurta.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 17 Dec 2008, 12:22

And the only one dressed dESi, perhaps!

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 17 Dec 2008, 20:11

Great! Sorry I will miss this, but hope to hear a recording of this concert featuring our forumites Ashwin, Rohin and Ram, and my neighbour from long-ago childhood days in Mumbai, Smt. Padma Shankar.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 17 Dec 2008, 22:31

kAumAram,
I have a training to attend from Friday Afternoon to Sunday afternoon, sorry I will be missing not just your concert but also atleast 3 more which I would have gone had I been at madras.

Toronto Bros,
Good luck. Test Ram for more than 2 and half hours to 3 hours atleast , ram is OB adichufying in concerts less than 2 hours.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 18 Dec 2008, 08:39

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 19 Dec 2008, 01:21

Wow I hadnt been following this thread, and here I am in the last minute. Hope I can drop in for the music of the brothers and catching up with all after a long time.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 19 Dec 2008, 08:04

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 19 Dec 2008, 08:21

Have fun , cool are we recording , hope we get to see photos as well

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 20 Dec 2008, 08:12

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 20 Dec 2008, 09:04

A very nice concert, even better company - what more can one ask for?

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 20 Dec 2008, 09:36

Looks like we all missed a good concert in a good ambience; it is always nice to enjoy music with like minded friends. Looking forward to hear some clippings.Thanks.

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 20 Dec 2008, 10:40

Excellent concert.

Tani avartanam had a pleasant surprise. Sri Mani who was playing kanjira during the songs, gave a wonderful konnakol performance during tani. Ram was brilliant.

Personally I would have liked the percussion volume to be slightly lower and for violin slightly higher.

Thank you kaumaram for a wonderful evening and nice dinner.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 20 Dec 2008, 11:28

This was my first opportunity to hear the vocalists and the accompanists. I have heard tracks of Ashwin and Rohin accompanying Prof SRJ, but this was the first concert experience. They did an awesome job, and going by the reviews, they seem to be going from strength to strength! Congratulations and best wishes to them!

The best thing about Ram's percussive support was his total humility - after that very supportive accompaniment and the brilliant tani, he actually was able to wonder if it was 'OK'? It was way beyond OK! I am sure that Ram will do his guru proud!

I have heard pre-recorded vocal tracks of Padma Shankar's back home, and was very impressed. I have also heard a lot about her sensitive violin accompaniment - I had a chance to hear her in person - very sweet and evocative!

As Raju mentioned, the surprise came from Sri Mani - a very interesting display of an almost extinct art-form - made the concert unique! Even more interesting was the fact that he appeared to be the guru for a host of young boys who sat through the konnakoL enunciation (?) with rapt attention.

The ambience was awesome - kaumaram was a wonderful host (who else would apologize for not being able to do anything about the mosquitoes? - those pests, by the way, were very well behaved, or, if they did have a feast, people were so engrossed in the music, scant attention was paid to these creatures!

) The food at the end was very nice! Thanks to Kaumaram and his family.

One of the lingering images for me from this concert will be the obvious joy with which Prof SRJ and his wife appreciated the music.

And finally, coming to Punarvasu's point - while the above ingredients readily make for a great concert experience, it is the company (Kji and his ardhANgI, Raju, Ram, Nandagopal, Bharat, Sri Gobilalitha and his wife, and the surprise of the evening, Vijay, along with the host kaumaram, and one of the guests of honor, Sri Akella Sarmaji) that elevated it into an unforgettable experience, IMO. If I may, I would like to suggest to all of the members of this forum to try and attend at least one of the concerts that Kji organizes - while the musical quality is assured, his special touch and secret ingredients, along with the company of the others adds to the heady experience that has to be appreciated - I promise that you will exclaim - 'piyE bin Aj hamE caDhA hai nashA' at the end of it!

Rajesh, we all missed you. Hope your training is worth it!

For myself, I can't wait for the next opportunity to meet everyone again!

s_hari · Post by **s_hari** » 20 Dec 2008, 11:47

Great to hear. But what did they sing? What did Ram play in tani?

-hari

rajumds · Post by **rajumds** » 20 Dec 2008, 12:47

Bharat , can you please post the song list

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 20 Dec 2008, 14:04

I am so sorry to have missed what sounds like a great concert and a great event.

Such an event is a one off --- one is either there or, not.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 20 Dec 2008, 14:17

Toronto Brothers - Padma Shankar - R Ramkumar - Manian

vanajAkshi ninnE - kalyANi - aTa
srI mahA gaNapathi - gauLa - misra cApu - MD (S)
praNatAtihara prabhO - mELa rAgamAlikA (1 to 12) - Adi - MVS
anupama guNAmbudi - aTANA - kaNDa cApu - T
sandEhamunu - rAmapriyA - Adi - T (RNS)
kAncanamantE - cArukEsi - Adi - Veenai Krishnamachariar
srI rAjagOpAla - sAvEri - Adi - MD (RNST)
cidambaram pOi nI vArum - sAmA - Adi - GKB
prANa sakuDitu - senjuruTTi - catusra Ekam - DS
amrutAhu nI hODa - bhImpLAs - Adi - Namdev (abhang)
AkaTi vElana - subhALi - Adi - A
tillAnA - kApi - Adi
kAdi mOdi - kuntaLavarALi (thiruppugazh)
nI nAma rUpamulaku - saurAshTram - Adi - T

It was a great evening. i loved meeting all the people and the food as well.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 20 Dec 2008, 21:49

Wow!

What an audience and what a concert!!!
Serve it to us in audio/video/photos so that we too can relish them. First of all kudos to A&R for the tantalizing song list. A meLa-ragamalika imbedded among rare gems. Of course that is to be expected when the Scholar Guru is watching and the honoured Sarmaji monitoring! They even sang a javaLi (my favourite) and a Thiruppugazh which according to Guruji Raghavan is in the exotic anga tala (10.5) (takita takita takatakita takadhimi takadhimitaka) which I will take up with Sarmaji after the hectic days are over.

Greetinga to the Gang and Thanks to Coolkarni for the organization and awaiting....

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 21 Dec 2008, 07:11

Sounds like it was a great concert. Congrats to Ashwin/Rohin and Ram on their performance ably supported by Smt. Padma Shankar. Looking forward to hearing clips. Wish I could have been there!!

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 21 Dec 2008, 12:04

good to hear a great list of songs...

ram... looking forward to hear you in more concerts...

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 21 Dec 2008, 12:53

I fully endorse the appreciative views of R.Bharat. A high class performance. T he subtle transition from one mk raaga to the adjacent raag in the melaragamalika took ones breath away. a pity that the sabhas are still to consider their upgradation,I was sitting near their venerable guruSri SR jANAKIRAMAN shedding tears out of sheer joy of immense satisfaction. gobilalitha

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 21 Dec 2008, 17:52

Unfortunately due to some social commitments I have not beena ble to attend the rasikas' meets..Pity! Wish I catch up with all of you soon.

knandago2001 · Post by **knandago2001** » 21 Dec 2008, 21:16

It was wonderful meeting with everyone and a very enoyable concert by the Toronto Brothers. The konnakkole during the tani was indeed memorable...

Rohin · Post by **Rohin** » 22 Dec 2008, 10:43

Dear friends and rasikas,

Thanks very much for your kinds words and for all the encouragement and support you've provided along the way. Reading through the thread we now realize how many of you were involved in putting together this program and we're really touched to hear that some of the forum members travelled from far off places to attend. Thanks so much!

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Shivakumar sir (kaumaaram) for offering up his own home for this concert. Those who attended know that he literally converted the ground floor of his building into a full-fledged concert platform complete with stage, lighting, a sound crew and mixer, mics, speakers, monitors, and a camera man, as well as food for all of those in attendance. He was also kind enough to provide a car as transportation for us and our guru Shri S.R. Janakiraman, whom he arranged to be felicitated by Akellaji.

We're also very thankful to our uncle Mr. Balakrishnan who introduced us to Shivakumar sir in person (they work at the same company in Chennai) and facilitated much of the initial communication. Our mother's first cousin Balu uncle (gobilalitha) and his wife Lalitha Aunty came all the way from Bangalore and we were very happy to see them there as well.

A big thanks to coolkarni sir for arranging the camera and for coordinating the accompanists. We sincerely hope we did justice to the charukesi kriti you requested, sir! Mr. SL Narasimhan was also kind enough to take care of the audio recording.

Our accompanists were nothing short of brilliant. Smt. Padma Shankar was perhaps one of the most sensitive violinists we've ever had and Shri R. Ramkumar on the mridangam dazzled us all with his wonderful percussive nuances that were highly reminiscent of his guru, Shri Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. Of course we were delighted and surprised by the inclusion of Shri V.V.S. Manian on the kanjira and the konnakol performance was simply mind-boggling.

Last but not least, we would like to thank all of the forum members of rasikas.org for making this such a positive experience. We are glad that in addition to sharing some music with each other, it gave us all a chance to meet up and create some lasting memories.

Rohin/Ashwin

PS>There are so many of you to thank, if we missed anyone please excuse the omission!

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 22 Dec 2008, 23:51

Missed this thread until now. As mentioned above, I arrived only in time for the Tani but it was satisfying enough for a I heard a great tani from Ram who was just superb and very enjoyable kadas from the brothers! Thanks to Mr. Sivakumar for his kind hospitality - as I had not had lunch, I was particularly grateful for the wonder sambar rice!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 23 Dec 2008, 07:46

rshankar wrote:IMO. If I may, I would like to suggest to all of the members of this forum to try and attend at least one of the concerts that Kji organizes - while the musical quality is assured, his special touch and secret ingredients, along with the company of the others adds to the heady experience that has to be appreciated - I promise that you will exclaim - 'piyE bin Aj hamE caDhA hai nashA' at the end of it!

Very well said, ravi .Though I never got 'piyE bin Aj hamE caDhA hai nashA'.

How long was the concert?What was the snack/dinner menu??

Rams and Toronto Bros looks like a nice list , with padmA shankar's melodious touch and konnakkOl must have been very challenging to you.

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 23 Dec 2008, 11:27

Dear all rasikas,

Many many thanks to all of you for the words of praise and encouragement.

My regret has been on two counts: (a) I could not give abundant notice to many of my friends who are basically carnatic music buffs, that they missed the concert; and (b) the mosquite menace [more so because we are close to Kodambakkam, the cultural heritage for mosquito development] that many persons chose to stand and watch the concert.

It was indeed a heart-filling concert which lasted for over 2-1/2 hours. Possibly, it was only the little kids who were playing around, who could not be controlled. But otherwise, the atmosphere was filled with music, divine music and eternal music. My mobile phone was jammed with calls the following day from those who attended thanking me, Yessel and Kulkarni; and with calls from others admonishing me for not giving them the required notice.

Both the video and audio versions will be uploaded in Sangeethapriya shortly. My apologies to those who did not have abundant notice to attend this concert.

The Toronto Brothers were thoughtful enough to render a Thiruppugazh as the last piece satisfying me all the more that they had sung in praise of my Lord.

If RajeshNat is not kidding me, the dinner menu went like this: Chappathi, Gulab Jamun, Kuruma, Pulav with onion raitha, bisibela (that made some really busy) with chips, curd rice with pickle [and packaged drinking water]! [E.&.O.E. - the menu was decided and arranged by my wife who is good at handling events.

The crowd was indeed composite : bankers, finance experts, software professionals, housewives, engineers and students of carnatic music participated.

My family joins me in thanking you yet again for your encouragement and appreciation.

Presently self and Yessel are contemplating to bring out an album with background music and wondering to include only artists from the forum and/or those recommended by the forum members. Let me finalise and get back to you. Ramesh Vinayakam will be scoring the music [his permission has not been obtained as he is my friend]. Yesterday I spoke to Coolkarni who agreed with me that we should have more solo concerts of those who are presently accompanying others.

Prof SRJ has extraordinary affection for the Toronto brothers. While getting into the car, he quipped "Do you now agree that my sons deserve lot of encouragement?". I said "Mama, they deserve something more than mere encouragement".

At the time of arranging the concert, when I spoke to him, I congratulated him for bringing up the brothers well in this field. He quickly replied that he should not be congratulated for bringing up his sons. Lucky brothers!

Kaumaaram

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 23 Dec 2008, 11:35

I missed the following:

(a) Migration from RAmapriya to Charukesi was seamslessly done that it invited lots of praise from the audience. [Some including self misinterpreted Ramapriya for Vachaspati!].

(b) Yessel is forwarding the photos to Toronto Brothers to host it in their site.

(c) Concert also sponsored by: Blend Financial Services Limited [Managing Director: Mr Ravi Gupta, Regional Manager: Mr Mahesh], Chennai.

Kaumaaram

prashant · Post by **prashant** » 24 Dec 2008, 09:21

Thanks kaumaaram for this great effort... wish I could have been there but looking forward to the audio / video.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 24 Dec 2008, 19:36

The Toronto Brothers were thoughtful enough to render a Thiruppugazh as the last piece satisfying me all the more that they had sung in praise of my Lord.

...touched my heart too! Also touched by the paternal affection of SRJ for our Toronto Boys!
All of us Rasikas in Canada are proud of them..

Thank you Kaumaram from all our behalf. Looking forward to see/hear the videos!

SaravaNa bhava

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 29 Dec 2008, 16:34

Until the concert is fully uploaded in video form in Sangeethapriya, let me give you the audio links for your limited use:

) http://www.mediafire.com/?weqttzt3ywv

2) http://www.mediafire.com/?l3nwmhw2a2z

3) http://www.mediafire.com/?dngne2awdmy

ram · Post by **ram** » 31 Dec 2008, 09:09

kaumaaram,

Thanks so much for organizing the concert and for sharing the audio promptly. Just wanted to point out that there is a lot of noise in the audio making it very difficult to hear. Will it be possible to upload a noiseless version?

Thanks once again!

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 31 Dec 2008, 12:35

Ram,

Sincerely regret inconvenience. Please wait for one or two days when I will re-post the concert

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 Dec 2008, 20:06

Pictures 1-14 at this link (http://www.flickr.com/photos/33862969@N04) are from the concert of Ashwin and Rohin at Sri Shivakumar''s (kaumaaram) place.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 31 Dec 2008, 22:41

Many thanks Shankar!

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 31 Dec 2008, 23:45

Pictures are worth thousand words. I got to see some of our rasikas. Thanks rshankar.

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 01 Jan 2009, 03:12

I've listened to almost 3/4 of the concert so far, and I must say that I'm very impressing with Ram's mridangam. His accompaniment throughout the concert is excellent and he plays with a lot of maturity.

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 01 Jan 2009, 05:22

Ravi,
thanks for the photos; the first thing in the morning I saw the kapAli kOvil Gopuram;
it is said 'gOpura darshanam kOTi pApa nAsanam'. Thank you for this good start of the New Year.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Jan 2009, 05:56

Punarvasu: You are welcome!

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 07 Jan 2009, 07:27

kaumaaram: Thank you so much for the audio. Thank you, rshankar for the photos. The cArukEShi piece is etched in my mind; rAmapriyA was rendered with grit and determination. The brothers music exudes nidhAnam, and this concert proves the depth of their learning and the richness of their repertoire!
Ashwin & Rohin: Keep up the good work and best wishes!

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 07 Jan 2009, 09:42

sakthi.balan · Post by **sakthi.balan** » 07 Jan 2009, 11:38

Thanks kaumaaram for the audio links......

I have heard a lot abt brothers when I was there in Penguin land.

kaumaaram · Post by **kaumaaram** » 09 Jan 2009, 12:15

coolkarni wrote:Watch out for the Video upload !! No glitches with the audio there.Kaumaram must be working on that upload now.

I am getting slightly delayed. Please bear with me. Will upload on 12th Jan 2009.

Ashwin · Post by **Ashwin** » 05 Mar 2009, 00:51

Dear Kaumaaram Sir,

Was this video posted? If so, would you be able to send me a link?

Thank you,

Ashwin