Season Summary 2009

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 07 Jan 2010, 12:20

Any season summaries this time?

i will get mine up sooner than later...

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 08 Jan 2010, 15:29

Waiting for yours and others' Bharath. I am afraid mine was too short to merit a summary....I heard Sanjay, TMK, Vedavalli and Sudha at the Academy - I enjoyed all except the last - Sudha was clearly having problems with her voice on that day - I left after the Bhairavi.

Also took in a little bit of one of my Amrutha Venkatesh, among my nex gen favourites, and Niranjana Srinivasan for whom Ram was playing - also a talented youngster, notwithstanding the influence of Nityasree's mannerisms and style...

The best performance though was Priyadarshini Govind's dance at Bharath Kalachar. I was transfixed throughout. Maybe that raised my expectations from Madhavi Mudgal the next day, or maybe it was just my unfamiliarity with Odissi (although I did enjoy Nrityagram's recital sometime back) ...but I found the endless interpretation of Geet Govind very difficult to sit through

Hopefully I will have more to say about Season 2010!

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 09 Jan 2010, 00:19

Vijay
You do appear to have done enough rounds but we missed your scintillating comments!
Hope to see you here more often hereafter!

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 09 Jan 2010, 03:13

vijay wrote:The best performance though was Priyadarshini Govind's dance at Bharath Kalachar. I was transfixed throughout.

Hey - we made a convert out of you - 'dEkhO, ulTE srOt sIdhE kis tarah behnE lagE!!'

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 10 Jan 2010, 21:33

Here is a take representing the best of best concert in margazhi season 2009-2010 :
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attended close to 20 concerts , period Dec 2009 till Jan 09th,2009. Attended and reviewed all 20 that I did

Best Varnam:
Not anything that worthy to call it best

best #2 :
VijaySiva@NalinakAnthi on Dec 06th,2009
entani nE varNintunu shabarI (N,S)- mukhAri - T
5 mins neraval in "kanulAra sEvinci kammani phalamula nosagi"
4 mins swaram

best submain:
raji gopAlakrishnan@MFAC on Dec 15th,2009
bhavasAgaram karai eralAm (R N S)- shanmughapriyA - GKB
11 mins alApanai of shanmughapriyA , 6 mins violin return
neraval for 7 mins in "bhakthi pannI pADi bAlakrishnan pOTri ponnambabal vAnai sindhanai seidhAl"
swaras for 7 mins

Special Mention:
---------------
For especially a neraval in this krithi , which was rare.
SuryaprakAsh@kalAkruthi on Dec 09th,2009
brOva bhAramA (N,S) - bahudAri - T
neraval for 5 mins in "kalashAmbudhilO dayatO na"
swaras for 6 mins

best no between submain and main
gayathri venkatarAghavan@kalarasana on Dec 16th,2009
upachAramu jEsE vA (R N)- bhairavi -T
2 mins each for alapanai and violin return
neraval for 7 mins in "vagidanE padilamukha vAtathinnagu unnArani????"

best main number
Vijaysiva@kalarasanA on Dec 27th,2009
6A. kAmbodhi alapanai with violin return for 14 mins and 8 mins respectively
6B. slokham in kAMbOdhi ???
6C. shree subramanyAya (R N S T) - kAmbOdhi - MD
7 mins neraval in "vAsavAthi sakala deva"
7 mins swaras
6D. tani for 22 minutes

Best Tani and Accompanist support
Nothing exceptional ,
but I would rate UKS-BSP@ Suryaprakash@MFAC on Dec 16th,2009 , more for the aesthetics and subtleness
and
srimushnam-Kovai Mohanram@ Sanjay Subrahmanyan @ Bharat Kalachar,17-12-2009, more for the intelligence

Special Mention:
---------------
# Arjun Ganesh who played in a slot in kalarasana for GeethA sundaresan@kalarasanA on Dec 27th,2009

best single rAga RTP

Salem Shriram@rAgasudha on Jan 04th,2010

RTP - gowrimanOhari
11 mins alApanai , 6 mins violin and 7 mins tAnam
pallavi for 5 mins
pallavi line was "brahmA naNda swaroopa sathguru ramnEsA"
7 mins swaras

RTP with rAgamAliga pallavi
SuryaprakAsh@kalAkruthi on Dec 09th,2009
RTP - mohanakalyAni - his own
rAga alapanai in two stages like semmangudi mama style of RTP , the first for 8 mins and the second for 2 mins
rAga alApanai violin return for 5 mins
tAnam for 7 mins
pallavi line was "gOpi jaNa mana mohanA kalyAna krishnA"
pallavi was for 5 mins with trikAlam done
swara rAgamAliga in mohanakalyAni + darbAr + ranjani all put together for 11 mins

Best viruththam
maharAjapuram rAmachandran@BGS on Dec 14th,2009
7A. viruththam "kandA guhA" - kedaragowlai +
ArumughamAi - mOhanam +
vaLLI devayAnaiudan - subhapantuvarAli
pArtharum seidhu pArAmukham - brindavana sArangA - yAzhpAnam veeramani ??
7B. chella kani kannA soLLadA - brindavanasAranga - yAzhpAnam veeramani

Best Slokham
Nothing worth rating great

Best tukkada
Few tukkadas of sugunA purushOtaman@rAgasudhA on Dec 23rd,2009
like kalinga narthana , a kAnada tukkada of hers

Best thillana
Surprise a youngster prasanna venkatesh@NalinakAnthi on Dec 06th,2009
beautiful thillana "dheem dheem udana .... mani konjUm mathiyum mudhuvanti rAgamum", in madhuvanthi, his own

Concert of the season
For the all round excellence it was
SuryaprakAsh@kalAkruthi on Dec 09th,2009
Vocal : SuryaprakAsh
Violin : MullaivAsal chandramouli
Mrudangam : Tanjore K Murugabhoopathy
Concert duration : 2 hours and 40 minutes

Violinist who were the best
S.varadarajan, MA Sundaresan and ofcourse aishu venkatraman.

Comparison of 2008 vs 2009:
--------------------------

# This year was overall not as great last year. Infact none of the concerts I have personally rated with excellent to outstanding or outstanding . Overall there were lots of new pallavis and every artist churned out something new.

Misses of the season:
--------------------

# Fell sick for 4 days on holidays hence missed lot of musicians I planned, TMK's 4 hour concert, RG Sisters, prasanna venkatraman, BMK Jr , gurucharan, V.shankar , ranjani hebbar and Sowmya was in my radar.

In the youngsters erode anantharaman , ramachandra murthy,and bharath sundar and shruthisagar(flute) are those I missed which I wanted to hear them for the first time

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 10 Jan 2010, 22:12

WOW! Rajesh - excellent recap! Hope Bharath and others will follow.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 10 Jan 2010, 23:43

Rajesh,
Good to see your recap.
Pity, I missed that particular concert of Suryaprakash. His Parthasarathy concert was very good too. M.A.Sundaresan was the violinist there as well. Yes, I go along with your choice of violinists. MAS and Varadarajan. Aishu too, though she played solos

The Bharath Kalachar concert where Srimushnam played mrudangam (Varadarajan on the violin) also qualifies for the viruttam category. OrumaiyuDan in kharaharapriya, hamsAnandi, suruTTi and sindhubhairavi leading to manadirkkugandadu murugan rUpam was a classy viruttam by Sanjay that evening. He followed it with a tillAnA and how cosy it all was, as if I had gone back in time! Yesterday, I heard on Youtube a viruttam by another artiste and I realized how the art of viruttam singing of yore is almost lost today. That day at B kalachar, I felt as if I was listening to one of those vintage viruttams. Then again, Sanjay's viruttams stand apart. We are used to them and so take them for granted, I think. Believe me, as someone who looks for bhAvam in words, I know that viruttam is a slippery piece of work in that just emoting the words isn't enough. While you sing a few words together at the time, the listener should still get the picture of the whole line and the impact of the words which come before and after. In intelligently unraveling those clusters of words in succession, the singer should not sound as if he is parsing a sentence but as if he is struck by the poetry of the line. Sanjay's viruttams achieve this, as far as I know.
Wish I had heard the viruttam by Maharajapuram Ramachandran. In fact, wish I had heard him this season...

Bhairav · Post by **Bhairav** » 10 Jan 2010, 23:45

It was a very good season for me. I donÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t have the capability to rate the concerts, though I have been involved in music as an organizer and as a rasika. Finally I found the time to open up this forum and what caught me was Abhishek Raguram coined as "musicianÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s musician"

seemohan · Post by **seemohan** » 11 Jan 2010, 08:41

Those looking for a still photography summary of the 2009 Chennai music season might wish to follow the links in my Rasikas.Org posting at http://bit.ly/7UuFQg

C. Mohan

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 11 Jan 2010, 11:34

rshankar wrote:
vijay wrote:The best performance though was Priyadarshini Govind's dance at Bharath Kalachar. I was transfixed throughout.
Hey - we made a convert out of you - 'dEkhO, ulTE srOt sIdhE kis tarah behnE lagE!!'

Oh yes Ravi...I'd been taking in the odd dance performance but it was only in Season 2006 that I started attending more regularly and have since been hooked although I have made no progress as far as the quality of appreciation is concerned....

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 11 Jan 2010, 11:45

arasi wrote: The Bharath Kalachar concert where Srimushnam played mrudangam (Varadarajan on the violin) also qualifies for the viruttam category. OrumaiyuDan in kharaharapriya, hamsAnandi, suruTTi and sindhubhairavi leading to manadirkkugandadu murugan rUpam was a classy viruttam by Sanjay that evening. He followed it with a tillAnA and how cosy it all was, as if I had gone back in time! Yesterday, I heard on Youtube a viruttam by another artiste and I realized how the art of viruttam singing of yore is almost lost today. That day at B kalachar, I felt as if I was listening to one of those vintage viruttams. Then again, Sanjay's viruttams stand apart. We are used to them and so take them for granted, I think. Believe me, as someone who looks for bhAvam in words, I know that viruttam is a slippery piece of work in that just emoting the words isn't enough. While you sing a few words together at the time, the listener should still get the picture of the whole line and the impact of the words which come before and after. In intelligently unraveling those clusters of words in succession, the singer should not sound as if he is parsing a sentence but as if he is struck by the poetry of the line. Sanjay's viruttams achieve this, as far as I know.
Wish I had heard the viruttam by Maharajapuram Ramachandran. In fact, wish I had heard him this season...

Arasi
Certainly sanjay's viruththam was excellent . Incidentally sanjay came in many numbers as the second best like his mohanam main (may be it was next to vijaysiva's kAmbOdhi), that mukhAri RTP the Alapanai was superb (his tAnam could have been slightly better as he is one of the finest there) , though the pallavi was bit shortcharged as he abandoned it without singing it as a complete pallavi trikalam. But in that concert for me sanjay's reetigowlai was the pick for me , really superb rendition of janani ninuvinA, the plead of ambA was real and words in succession just connected me.

With respect to this particular kandA guhA viruththam of maharAjapuram rAMachandran.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THis particular one kandA guhA is very very expansive one, viruththams need more extra vigour I would say and if voice sareeram matches with words it is lovely. This particular one ending with subhapantuvarAli and brindavana sArangA is just wonderful and musically haunting. Especially that small tukkada chinna kani kannA sollAdA in brindAvana sarangA , the words in thamizh are very very simple - yazhpAnam veeramani is a brilliant vageyakkarA , in thamizh tukkadAs ,he kind of just comes a fraction better than one smt rajee krishnan that I know of

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Jan 2010, 21:10

Hey Rajesh, our mrudangam playing fellow forumite Mannargudi Easwaran, bro of another forumite (Sam), played excellently for Sanjay in his music Academy concert. I may not know anything about layam, but his playing was such a pleasant experience for me that evening.

MV · Post by MV » 12 Jan 2010, 11:28

I probably didn't cover many concerts but my picks were:
1) Mannargudi Easwaran- Thani for Sanjay at MA 30/12
2) Embar Kannan - Kapi alapana for B. Jayshree's RTP @ MA 29/12
3) Ranjani-Gayatri - Viruttam Nadiya porul spec Gayatri was wonderful in Des @ SPSS
4) TM Krishna - Saragunapalimpa start to finish - Ragam, song, neraval at Varaguna Seshadri and KS @ NGS 18/12
5) Thani duo P. Satishkumar and Ghatam Karthic for B.Jayashree @ MA 30/12

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 12 Jan 2010, 17:59

I attended the following concerts:

0. Vijay Siva at MGR Janaki college
1. Sangeetha Sivakumar at BVB
2. TNK at Gokhale Shastri Hall
3. TNK at Ananthapadmanabhaswamy temple
4. N Ramani at Ananthapadmanabhaswamy temple
5. Seetha Rajan at Raga Sudha
6. TNK at Music Academy
7. Ranjith Varier at Raga Sudha
8. TRV at MGR Janaki college
9. KS at Raga Sudha
10. ?
11. Nanditha Ravi at Raga Sudha
12. TNK at Raga Sudha
13. S R Mytreyi at Raga Sudha
14. Rama Ravi at Raga Sudha
15. Ramakrishnan Murthy (same place)
16. Amrutha Venkatesh (at Academy and Raga Sudha)
17. Dhanadevi Mitradeva
18. Amritha Murali
19. TNK at Mudhra
20. Neela Jayakumar for TNK Foundation
21. Dhanadevi Mitradeva " "
Attended concerts of Nanditha Ravi at Brahmagana Sabha, K Dharini at Venus Colony, Punya Srinivas (veena) at Academy.

Missed Sathur Sisters, TRV at Raga Sudha

... perhaps could've heard more of Amritha Murali, Sangeetha Sivakumar ... maybe Prasanna Venkataraman -- and I havent heard Charumathi Raghuraman so far

. Other bad misses were R Vedavalli, Jayalakshmi Santanam, Parasalla Ponnammal. I really hope to listen to Smt Ponnammal, since I didn't listen to her the whole of last year!

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:50

Season 2009:

Period taken into consideration: 3rd December to 12th January
Number of concerts sampled ~ 35

i. Best Concerts (in no particular order)
Almost all evenings I was in raga sudha and they were all thoroughly enjoyable concerts. I am not able to decide which to list.

ii. Best Singular Renditions (in no particular order)
evarikai - V Subramanian & Palai Ramachandran at Raga Sudha
nekkurugi - Sangeetha Sivakumar at BVB
nIrajAkshi kAmAkshi - Prasanna Venkataraman at MA
cEta srI - Ritha Rajan at Raga Sudha
moratOpu - Rama Ravi at Raga Sudha

iii. Best Violin Accompaniment (in no particular order)
V V S Murari for Ritha Rajan at Raga Sudha
R K Shriram Kumar for R Vedavalli at Raga Sudha

iv. Best Mrudangam Accompaniment
V Kamalakara Rao for Trivandrum Venkataraman at Raga Sudha
K Arun Prakash for Chingleput Ranganathan at Raga Sudha

Best tani:
Erode Nagaraj, N Guruprasad and Nerkumar Shankar at Raga Sudha for Jayalakshmi Santanam

v. Congeniality Prize for Most Popular Ragam of the Season
Heard many kAmbhOjis and madhyamAvatis during this season. hence, no complaints.

v (b). Raga I Missed the Most during the Season
shankarAbaraNam, sAvEri

vi. People i wish i had heard atleast once during the season.
T N Krishan, R K Srikantan, Parassala Ponnammal, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, J Venkataraman, Seetha Narayanan, Sanjay, TMK, TNS, Sowmya,Manda Sudharani, V Sumitra, Amritha Murali, Vidya Kalyanaraman, D Vardhani, Prema Rengarajan, Sathur Sisters,

vii. Best Sabha Food
ate only at Academy canteen and liked their coffee

viii. Best Listening Environment
Raga Sudha Hall & Music Academy Main Hall (downstairs)

ix. Word/ Name of the Season:
bore

I pretty much ended up at Raga Sudha Hall on many days and enjoyed almost all the concerts there.

I found myself pretty much unmotivated thro' the season. Had to drag myself to concerts on some days.

Random thoughts:
Ranjit Warrier is a good upcoming youngster and sings very well. hope to find him more often in concert circuits.

Jayashree: her one hour concert at Tamil Isai Sangam. I am still shocked to see that list. She did not hurry, nor did she skip sangatis. Her presentations were crisp and weighty. should find more about her.

Prasanna Venkataraman seems to have got all the more impressive and popular this season.

Jayalakshmi Santanam, into her 70s is still spirited and attends concerts all through the day and gives stunning concerts too.

Attended the last concert of Trivandrum Venkataraman, never knew it would be his last back then.

Wish I was little more motivated, had some more time, attended more concerts of popular/unpopular/young/old artists and found more people to listen too.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 13 Jan 2010, 12:53

and forgot to add that

For the first time I was on stage. Not a concert, thankfully, but a panel discussion. Never knew that, once on stage time flies faster.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 13 Jan 2010, 13:40

rbharath wrote:and forgot to add that

For the first time I was on stage. Not a concert, thankfully, but a panel discussion. Never knew that, once on stage time flies faster.

Bharath
I saw that last week in the hindu, unfortunately that writeup is not published as a soft copy url , dont know why? do you have that url.

Others
bharath with sudha , mannargudi easwaran , smt vedavalli and another 6 more had a panel discussion , there is a photo of the entire panel , you can spot bharath's face too.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 13 Jan 2010, 15:33

rajeshnat wrote: Bharath
I saw that last week in the hindu, unfortunately that writeup is not published as a soft copy url , dont know why? do you have that url.

http://beta.thehindu.com/arts/music/article77511.ece

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 13 Jan 2010, 15:34

Yes I noticed too....a worthy representative of the rasika community!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 13 Jan 2010, 22:25

Bharath,
A nice picture of you, though a tad serious!
Interesting that Vedavalli who is knowledge personified speaks of how the enjoyment of a concert by rasikAs comes first and Sudha speaks of singing wholeheartedly to an audience, even if only a few show up

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 13 Jan 2010, 23:17

Thanks for the link: I missed the article. Nice to read it now.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 14 Jan 2010, 19:56

Nice to see our Bharat representing the Rasika community amongst an august gathering of musicians

pattamaa · Post by **pattamaa** » 15 Jan 2010, 06:24

Here is my summary, i attended these concerts from 19th Dec to 30th Dec 2009

1. kunnakudi M Balamuralikrishna @ KGS
2. Parassala Ponnamaal @ MMA
3. K.Gayathri @ MMA
4. Rudrapatnam brothers @ ragasudha
5. Kalyani Ganesan (veena) @ MMA
6. Ranjith Warriar @ MMA
7. Brinda manichavachagam @ sastri hall
8. nedunuri krishnamurthy @ MMA
9. parassala ponnammal @ carnatica
10. sumitra vasudev @ MMA
11. sumitra nitin @ BGS
12. manasi prasad @ MFA
13. saralaya sisters @ MFA
14. suguna purushottaman @ nada inbam
15. R.K.Shrikantan @ MMA
16. R.Vedavalli @ nada inbam
17. parassala ponnammal @ nada inbam
18. Dr Pantula Rama @ BGS
19. Vardhini @ gohale hall
20. parassala ponnamaal @ BK
21. trivandrum venkataraman @ nada inbam
22. kalpagam swaminathan @ nada inbam
23. Ashwin D.B @ NGS
24. sandeep narayanan @ sastri hall
25. Dr Sreevalson menon @ MFA
26. trichy pradeep kumar @ NFA
27. sangeetha swaminathan @ vani mahal
28. brinda manicavachagam @ isai mazhalai
29. rama ravi @ nada inbam
30. srividya ramanath @ sastri hall
31. Toronto Brothers in Parthaswami sabha

Lecdems - (from what i remember my memory)
1. lalgudi mama on GNB
2. Suguna purushottaman on dwi tala avadhanam
3. Balasubramanian on nadanar charitam
4. kanyakumari on GNB
5. TVG on carnatic/hindustani
6. Prof SRJ on SGMPN pattern

Easily the best season i attended so far, spreading over two weeks. Best concerts, all of them at nada inbam! what an atmosphere - all concerts are free, and mostly knowledgeable audience, no disturbance in the form of canteen etc.

Best concert, if i were to rank (more than one will come in same place)
1. super seniors
a. Rama Ravi, Parassala ponnamaal (both @ nada inbam)
b. suguna purushottaman

2. juniors
a. sangeetha swaminathan, K. Gayathri, Sumitra vasudev
b. D.B.Ashwin, Trichy pradeep kumar

3. upcoming seniors
a. Dr Pantula Rama

4. My find of the season (really great talent, in no particular order)
a. Brinda manicavachagam
b. Ranjith Warriar
c. D.B.Ashwin
d. Trichy Pradeep Kumar

5. Most disappointing concerts (in no particular concerts)
a. manasi prasad
b. R.K.Srikantan (due to lack of proper vocal support)
c. R.Vedavalli (only main piece)

6. Best varnam
a. Nayaki in kanda triputa - K.Gayathri in MMA
b. navarasa kanada - Parassala Ponnamaal
c. bhairavi (viribhoni) - sumitra vasudev - for singing anubandam

7. best sub main
a. purvikalyani by nedunuri garu in MMA
b. shadvida margini (gyanam osagarasha) by R.Vedavalli in MMA

8. best main
kalyani by parassala ponnamaal
kambodhi by Rama Ravi

9. best tani
UKS for RKS in MMA
UKS for Kunnakudi Balamurali in KGS

10. Best purchases during music season
a. book on MDR
b. book for kids released by brahadwani - 3 volumes
c. eswar tanpura/shruti box
d. SRJ mama's book on ragas

Overall, very motivating, very informative music season. I could meet some of my friends in rasika community, and legends i adore a lot and exchange few words, and mentally, musically and spiritually satisfying season

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 15 Jan 2010, 06:36

Very comprehensive observation on concerts attended. Thank you for taking the time to keeping record and sharing with rasikas.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Jan 2010, 09:08

Pattamma,
Seems as though we attended the same concerts, in a few instances. Wish we had met

Going by your list:
1: While I did not hear KunnakkuDi Balamurali in KGS, I did hear him a couple of times (MFA and Parthasarathy). His MFA concert was my pick.
2: I was also there at Shastry Hall to listen to Brinda Manickavasagam and thought she was very good. I am excited when I hear youngsters give a concert of such quality.
3: I needn't say anything about Nedunuri's concert at MA. It was phenomenal. A seasoned rasikA who sat next to me (have known her for ages and respect her taste) said before the concert--'hope his voice cooperates', and we both were delighted that from the word go, he just sparkled.
4: Ponnammal at Carnatica: I was moved, but wish I had heard her MA concert because the sound in the Carnatica venue, at least that morning, was not ideal.
5: Sumitra Nitin at BGS. Of course, I was there and she sang my dEvagAndhAri song engu pArtAlum.
6: Pantula Rama: Did not attend this one, but heard her earlier at Shastry Hall. Loved the concert, her husband playing the (not second, but first) fiddle.
7: Srivalsan Menon at MFA: an excellent concert.
And to think we attended five concerts at the same venues! Wish we had met!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Jan 2010, 17:30

News Flash:
Our Ram (for folks who don't know, the Ram of Ramabode too) is getting the award for the best mrudangam player of all their afternoon concerts--given by Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. Hurrah! What's more, I was there, thinking how well he played for Ritwick Raja that day! The bonus was, I met his bride too, and her family. I told his parents that he sounded even better this year.It is always nice to meet the family after a concert and to see their happy faces.
Ram, way to go! Kudos to guru UKS who can be proud of both Nagarajan and Ram from the forum.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 15 Jan 2010, 17:35

I am sorry to say that I have missed all of Ram's performances of this season, but I am delighted to hear this news.

Congratulations Ram.

Do not forget that UKS can be proud of our Arvind too! It all goes to show what a superb education in mridangam his students get.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Jan 2010, 17:58

Yes, indeed! I forgot that Arvind (Semmu) is his student too!

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 16 Jan 2010, 21:35

arasi wrote:Bharath,
A nice picture of you, though a tad serious!
Interesting that Vedavalli who is knowledge personified speaks of how the enjoyment of a concert by rasikAs comes first and Sudha speaks of singing wholeheartedly to an audience, even if only a few show up

i wouldnt want to really point out all the mistakes in the report. It would run into pages.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 17 Jan 2010, 06:37

Missed Kalyani Ganesan too.

I also missed Sadas, in fact!

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 18 Jan 2010, 11:42

Ram that is wonderful news indeed although I am not at all surprised! We hope to see the award getting replicated across sabhas and along time slots as the years go by....

jananee · Post by **jananee** » 18 Jan 2010, 20:37

I managed to attend a few concerts:

1. OS Arun at BVB
2. Pantula Rama MA
3. Chitravina Ravikiran MA
4. Sanjay Subrahmanyan NGS/ PS/MA
5. Prasanna Venkataraman BGS
6. Ranganatha Sharma MA
7. Ranjani Gayathri MA

I may missed a few but the prize concert rather lec dem was Nedunuri Krishnamoorthy on Raga Bhavams accompanied by Ravikiran at Carnatica. It was bliss! Cant say anything more ....And i caught another very interesting lec dem organised by Brihadhwani on Melody/ Melharmony by Ravikiran. Anfd of course the sunrise concert by Anil Srinivasan and GJR Krishnan.

I definitly did not manage to attend as many concerts as I wanted to but was happy with the ones i did.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 18 Jan 2010, 21:12

Ram - congratulations! May this be the first of many!!

semmu86 · Post by **semmu86** » 19 Jan 2010, 11:31

congrats ram .. very happy to hear this

ram · Post by **ram** » 20 Jan 2010, 17:29

arasi, nick H, vijay, rshankar, semmu86: Thanks so much for your wishes and kind words!

suma · Post by **suma** » 20 Jan 2010, 19:10

Congratulations Ram!

erode14 · Post by **erode14** » 21 Jan 2010, 00:48

thank you bharath... my love and affection to Ram... wish you more heights man...

appu · Post by **appu** » 21 Jan 2010, 00:52

I attended quite a few concerts during this season and I reviewed many of them here on this site. Here is a synopsis

Senior Vidwans

MSG/Narmada Gopalakrishnan/Ganapathi Raman @ Narada Gana Sabha
TN Krishnan/Viji Krishnan/Bhaktavatsalam/Vaikom Gopalakrishnan @ Music Academy
N Ravikiran/TV Gopalakrishnan @ Music Academy
TNS/M. Chandrasekhar/Vellore Ramabhadran/TV Vasan @ Music Academy
TNS/M. Chandrasekhar/Vellore Ramabhadran @ Mylapore Fine Arts (I think)
Ranjani/Gayatri@Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha
T Rukmini/Amrita Murali/Vellore Ramabhadran @ Krishna Gana sabha

Junior Artists

Sakhetaraman/Easwaran @Parthasarathy Sabha
Aishwarya Venkataraman/Vellore Ramabhadran@ Parthasarathy Sabha
Toronto Brothers/Manakkal Sriram @ Parthasarathy Sabha
Arathi Kumar/Kamal Kiran Vinjamuri/Rajna Swaminathan @ Nada Inbam
Aishwarya Venkataraman/Vellore Ramabhadran@ Nada Inbam
Ram Murthy/Rajna Swaminathan@ Nada Inbam
Salem Sriram@ Nada Inbam
Sandeep Bharadwaj@Hamsadwani
JB Shrutisagar/Rajna Swaminathan @ Nada Inbam
Aishwarya Venkataraman/L Subramanian on Podhigai hosted by N. Nivedita

I must start out by saying that I am partial to instrumental than to voice. Among the senior artists my personal pick was MSG/Narmada @ Narada Gana Sabha followed by TNS at Music Academy. Dr. Narmada in my opinion is a chip of the old block and has imbibed the Parur style to its fullest. Definitely a force to reckon with and some one to look forward to in the future years. The thing that caught my attention the most was the fluidity with which she could navigate through lecturing and performing both Carnatic and Hindustani.

The junior artists all delivered brilliant performances. I attended more junior artsits concert than senior. My pick of the day

Salem Sriram for vocal. His style involves a lot of brigas that sometimes looses its charm because of lack of clarity in delivery. If he works on singing more open throated we definitely have a artist in the maling

Aishwarya Venkataraman for violin. I have been attending her concerts for the last two years diligently in Mumbai, LA, Tampa, Cleveland, now Chennai. Each concert is very well thought out and her technique keeps improving. She delivers Sowkyam, bhavam and speed in equal measures. Her laya nirnayam is what jumps out every single time.

Kamal Kiran Vinjamuri for violin as a sub junior. An artist with immense potential. For a 10 or 12 year old he has absorbed the music and is so hugable on stage. A charming smile with absolute confidence. Hope he learns a lot more kritis, and varnams (both Ata and Adi talam)

Rajna Swaminathan for Mridangam Close your eyes and you can hear Umayalpuram Sivaraman. Gentle strokes with complete control of the instrument. Unlike other youngsters , this artist accompanies the song like a shadow, a technique that very few mridangist master in their life time.

Lastly JB Shrutisagar for flute. Could not get a read on this artist. Development of Shankarabharanam ragam was nice. It had all the right sangatis and the kriti swara raga sudha was developed with sowkyam. The read I could not get was in the Kalpana swarams. It looked like it was memorized. I could be wrong but did not get a feel for the development. Now in regards to technique, he has it all. The flute sounded shrill. If he could play on an E or a D sharp, it would not hurt the ear as much. Hope the artist takes this as constructive criticism and work on it. Looking forward to many many years of bhava laden music from this young lad.

I notice that children from North America are definitely working very hard to penetrate the inner circles of Chennai. Just like how water seeks its own levels, these children will climb up the music ladder overcoming obstacles. Looking forward to the next music season.

Lec/Dems I attended a plenty. I have decided from here on forward I plan to attend only Prof SRJ's lectures. The knowledge base is great and one walks away having learnt a thing or two. Most of the other lectures do beat around the bush. One person's opinion of course.

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 21 Jan 2010, 12:14

appu wrote: Kamal Kiran Vinjamuri for violin as a sub junior. An artist with immense potential. For a 10 or 12 year old he has absorbed the music and is so hugable on stage. A charming smile with absolute confidence. Hope he learns a lot more kritis, and varnams (both Ata and Adi talam)

indeed a great find for me too. such a cute looking kid with very good hand on the fiddle

he is good right now and hope he matures in a very good violinst for the future.

somebody to watch out for.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 21 Jan 2010, 12:26

Missed him

Appu,
Very nice to read your impressions.

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 22 Jan 2010, 10:12

rbharath wrote:
appu wrote: Kamal Kiran Vinjamuri for violin as a sub junior. An artist with immense potential. For a 10 or 12 year old he has absorbed the music and is so hugable on stage. A charming smile with absolute confidence. Hope he learns a lot more kritis, and varnams (both Ata and Adi talam)
indeed a great find for me too. such a cute looking kid with very good hand on the fiddle he is good right now and hope he matures in a very good violinst for the future. somebody to watch out for.

I never even knew that this kid has travelled from US to india during the season. When the hindu published one of the reviews of Deepika-and him , I knew that.

Appu/Bharath
Can you recollect what he played in this concert ?Arathi Kumar/Kamal Kiran Vinjamuri/Rajna Swaminathan @ Nada Inbam. Did you spot the speed and virtuosity of his guru A.KanyAkumAri there?

appu · Post by **appu** » 22 Jan 2010, 12:32

rajeshnat wrote:
Appu/Bharath
Can you recollect what he played in this concert ?Arathi Kumar/Kamal Kiran Vinjamuri/Rajna Swaminathan @ Nada Inbam. Did you spot the speed and virtuosity of his guru A.KanyAkumAri there?

Rajeshnat,

If my memory serves me right, I think the main was Bhairavi. I do not think he has reached any where close to that level yet in speed and virtuosity. The violin still feel a little big for his small stature.

music_is_life · Post by **music_is_life** » 24 Jan 2010, 09:50

I attended one of the concerts Kamal Kiran accompanied. This was a concert at Vani Mahal by the two sister's whose arangetram in Detroit I had reviewed a few months ago. Here's a picture from that concert.

This boy has a pleasant smile when he plays and was just adorable. The two sisters gave an amazing performance and Rajesh would have been happy as the PANIC index was greater than 2 even though the concert was of 2-hour duration. I understand that this team gave several concerts in different sabhas during the season as the winners of a talent search competition at Cleveland festival in 2009.

srikant1987 · Post by **srikant1987** » 24 Jan 2010, 09:52

He does look small even for a 12-year-old!

Or does he?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 24 Jan 2010, 10:05

And I missed listening to him and the sisters

music_is_life · Post by **music_is_life** » 24 Jan 2010, 10:25

Arasi.. Here's a picture of the team from the concert I attended.

Athrey Nathan, another young boy who played mrdangam was just amazing. The sisters had taken 'Chakkani raja' as the main and there was a 'misra kuraippu' at the neraval line. I was fascinated by the way he anticipated the patterns and played brilliantly. I believe he is a student of Srimushnam Rajarao. I really hope this team makes a tour in all major cities in US and show case their talent.

lswaminathan · Post by **lswaminathan** » 26 Jan 2010, 02:24

Just wanted to let you all know that Kamal Kiran (very good family friends of ours) did not play violin for Aarthi Kumar's concert at Ragasudha Hall on January 4th. It was Rajeev.

Lalitha Swaminathan
(mother of Rajna)