Request for review / report : Divine Strings at Cleveland

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Divine Strings
Carnatic compositions in western musical arrangements

This was on April 4th, morning 8:00 am session, featuring forum member Aishwarya Venkataraman.
This was the event VKV had written about where 33 performers were going to be performing.

I know that Aishwarya and her Father Vinod had put in a lot of hard work to bring this together.

I would like to request a review / report from Rasikas who might have attended this event.

Thanks!

[VRV]

The concert began at 8:02 Am and concluded at 9:18 AM.

Venue: Waetjan Auditorium Cleveland State University
Date: April 4th 2010

The ensemble comprised of 24 musicians. Eight South Indian musicians and sixteen western musicians from the Musique Sur La Mer Youth Symphony Orchestra under the guidance of conductor Marcy Sudock.

South Indian Ensemble:
Aishu Venkataraman, Anjana Swaminathan, Kamalkiran Vinjamuri (Violin)
Rajna Swaminathan, Kavi Srinivasaraghavan (Mridangam)
Mahesh Ganeshan (Kanjira)
Vinod Venkataraman (Konnakol)
S. Aishwarya (Tambura)

Western Ensemble

Conductor: Marcy Sudock
1st Violins (Sam Lorenzini, Kim Beaudreau, Issac Ngo, Ann Hackman)
2nd Violins (Alicia Correa, Macie Perley, Danielle Beaudreau, William Hong, Parker Lewis)
Viola: Virginia Frazier
Cello: Michael Liou,
String Bass: Anthony Correa
Drum Set: Chelsea Sudock
Shakers: Aparna
Bongos/Cajon: Walter Gershon

The concert began with the ever popular Navaragamalika varnam arranged by Shri VS. Narasimhan. The hall was about 40 % full. People were trickling in. The young artists on stage were very energetic and played well. The second selection was called "Lion City" composed by Soon Hee Newbold, As the name suggested Lion City referred to Singapore and had a blend of various ragams in a traditional Orchestral setting.

This was followed by a kriti in ragam Sindhu Mandari, a composition of Patnam Subramaniya Iyer "Karunil Chuta Kine". At about this time the hall was packed to capacity with standing room only. The ever smiling Kamalkiran, Aishu and Anjana lit the room up with a sparkling rendition of this composition and had the audience applauding.

Aishwarya started out with a RTP in Ragam Thodi. Ragam was about 10 mins long traversing through the upper Shadja and very beautifully highlighting the nuances on the mandiram. The tanam included, Sahana, Shubhapantuvarali, Kapi and Mohana. The tanam was played for about 10 mins. The pallavi was short and crisp and was about a minute long followed by a 9 minute tani avartanam. Rajna Swaminathan on the mridangam just rocked. Her technique was flawless. She had the already lit auditorium ablaze with clarity and dexterity. Mahesh Ganeshan, Kavi and myself had to work extra hard to keep the momentum going. The artists received a standing ovation the first of three ovations.

This was followed by a Louis Prima standard "Sing Sing Sing" which received another standing ovation. The main piece for the morning was the ever popular kriti Vathapi Ganapathim in Hamsadwani arranged by Marcy Sudock. The kriti was rendered impeccably and both the orchestras harmonized the composition well. This piece was 17 minutes long with elaborate kalpana swarams and a two avartanam korvai rendered beautifully by the whole ensemble as a group. This got them another standing ovation.

The concluding piece was Bhagyada Lakshmi Bharamma for orchestra in ragam Madhyamavati. A wonderful and a very successful concert. Let me leave by saying we now have 16 members of the MSLMYSO orchestra who in the last one year have understood our style of music and hope to learn a lot more.

I will provide more details on how the ensemble came together as a group, our constraints, restrictions within the 2 systems etc. A special thanks to Shri VS Narsimhan for sharing his arrangement to Navaragamalika varnam.

Vinod Venkataraman

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Vinod,

Thanks for the report!

I am happy to hear it was a success (I had no doubt though - I am aware of the hard work from your team on this project)!

I hope I am not asking for too much by asking for some audio/video and pictures!

Sreeni Rajarao

[rshankar]

Yes - please - audios will be appreciated....I wonder if the CAC can be prevailed upon to release a recording...

[VRV]

Here are some pictures.

[VRV]

[VRV]

[arasi]

Thank you Vinod for the review. We have another on-stage reviewer!
The pictures are lovely. All the hard work which went into it shows. The collective pride in the performance is evident there. Who wants fusion-confusion concerts when something like this is possible? Before I get zapped for my appreciation of the concert even without hearing it, I can say this. Every face in the audience speaks of the warm response to the Divine Strings concert.
A project like this would have met with several problems. Ironing them out and carrying on with it to the day of the performance is no mean feat.
Congratulations, all!

[rajeshnat]

Is Anjana Swaminathan( one of the Violinist) sister of Rajna Swaminathan(mrudangist)?

[kssr]

Interesting photos. Gives an insight about the audiences for our programmes in the US. More "Indian" than what is to be found in India. Full of sarees, pottus, ... I think I saw nobel laureate Venkatraman too.

Would be nice if someone who attended can give an overall impression about the outcome of this obviously difficult task of putting the world in one music basket. Great effort- Greetings.

[VRV]

Rajesh,

Yes, Anjana is Rajna Swaminathan's sister. Here is a link for the orchestral concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roh8JBL6Qgw

Here is a link for the Tanam in ragam thodi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMZebHHRQYs

[lswaminathan]

Rajesh:

Anjna Swaminathan is Rajna's younger sister. She has been intensively trained by Mysore Sri H. K. Narasimhamurthy since Fall 2006. Just like Sri UKS stayed in our house and trained Rajna, so did Sri HKN for Anjna. During our India visit in the Summer of 2009, Sri HKN introduced Anjna to his Guru, Violin Maestro Parur Sri M. S. Gopalakrishnan, who took her under his wing. She received 40 one-on-one classes with the Maestro in Chennai. Sri MSG is continuing the lessons for Anjna via Skype, once every couple of weeks. Anjna will have her Chennai debut on Saturday July 10th, 2010 at Raga Sudha Hall - violin solo with Rajna on mrudangam.

I have put Anjna's audio/video clips at www.rajnaswaminathan.com/family

Lalitha Swaminathan

[arasi]

Great

[cacm]

Yes - please - audios will be appreciated....I wonder if the CAC can be prevailed upon to release a recording...

IT IS UPTO THE ARTISTS AS SOME OF THEM ARE UNDER CONTRACT TO RECORDING COMPANIES HERE AS PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS. VKV

[rajeshnat]

Rajesh:

Anjna Swaminathan is Rajna's younger sister. She has been intensively trained by Mysore Sri H. K. Narasimhamurthy since Fall 2006. Just like Sri UKS stayed in our house and trained Rajna, so did Sri HKN for Anjna. During our India visit in the Summer of 2009, Sri HKN introduced Anjna to his Guru, Violin Maestro Parur Sri M. S. Gopalakrishnan, who took her under his wing. ...

I have put Anjna's audio/video clips at http://www.rajnaswaminathan.com/family

Lalitha Swaminathan

Among many of the rAgas that Shri MSG and his disciples play like Dr narmadA, I always notice ranjani rAgam is one of their top picks. Could see anjna with lot of MSG ranjani touches in the ranjani mala clip that she played. Best wishes.

[appu]

Aishu,

I enjoyed the tanam a lot. What ragam did you play after Sahana. The transition was great. Keep it up. And what a crowd. The pictures were great. Thanks

[bilahari]

Thank you, Sri VRV, for the report, photos, and clips. I liked the thanam a lot, too - especially the sahAna. Anjna's tODi sketch was lovely too - she has imbibed the Parur technique quite admirably! Nice to see so many youngsters carry on the tradition of yesteryear greats...

[appu]

Bilahari,

From the video, the todi sketch was played by Aishu not Anjana.

[Marcy]

Dear friends,
I am a new member to this site and I wanted to give my personal account of the hospitality and grace of the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana, VV Sundaram and Dr. VK. Vishwanathan.

Marcy Sudock (Conductor for Divine Strings Orchestra)

The Story
In August, 2009 I received a call from my dear friend Dr. Vinod R. Venkataraman. His daughter, Aishu, was a former member of the Musique Sur la Mer Youth Symphony Orchestra (MSLMYSO). I have watched her mature and blossom into a gracious young woman and an outstanding musician. Aishu and VR had an idea that they wanted to discuss with me. Would I be willing to write an arrangement of one or two classical Indian ragas for classical western strings to accompany Aishu and her group, Divine Strings. They were scheduled to perform in Cleveland, Ohio at the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana on April 4, 2010 and would I bring along the core members of MSLMYSO, Honors Chamber Orchestra to perform the pieces? Without hesitation I said “Yes, of course.” This was to be a wonderful challenge and yet another way to live out our mission statement.

It took 3 months to write the first 19 minute arrangement of “Vathapi Ganapathim.” Without a guideline other than Aishu’s recording from her marvelous “Bliss” CD, I was taking down rhythms and melodies by ear and translating it into western notation. The next step was to write an arrangement that would enhance the music without sacrificing the authenticity of the sound and feel of this very traditional classical Indian ragam. In my head I heard harmonies and counter rhythms that would be most familiar to the western ear, but could take away from the haunting beauty of the South Indian theme. Within the constraints of the 5 note theme (Hamsadwani ragam), I was able to capture the mood of the music, with a touch of the western harmony without compromising what to the western ear would seem exotic.

Aishu and her father were to be in India December through January for the music season. This meant that our first rehearsal of the “Vathapi” composition had to wait until the end of January to begin. There were definite growing pains and three re-writes until we had a solid piece of unified music. The middle of February brought a greater sense of confidence in the musicians (and the conductor/arranger). I went ahead and wrote a second arrangement, for “Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma.” This short piece of joyous expression was much easier than “Vathapi”. Aishu and Vinod sat down with me to go over the main melodies and formatting. It only took one evening for me to write this arrangement.

The young musicians of MSLMYSO’s Honors Chamber Orchestra worked diligently and consistently on the music. We rehearsed every Sunday afternoon for three hours in preparation for our upcoming musical adventure

On March 7th we put together a concert that was entitled “East Meets West.” The concert was a combination of traditional ragams, a debut of my arrangements, a bit of American jazz (“Sing, Sing, Sing” by Louis Prima) and a transition piece that incorporated the sounds of eastern music on western instruments, “Lion City” by Soon Hee Newbold. We performed another concert at Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, CA on March 27th, 2010. We were able to iron oy any and all glitches at this event.

On Friday, April 2nd we all met at Los Angeles International Airport at 5:30 AM for our flight to Cleveland, Ohio. We were prepared for snow, but much to the surprise of everyone, including those in Ohio, we were met by 80d deg weather!

We were very blessed to have Dr. VKV as our guardian angel. He met us at the airport and made all of our hotel, meal and transportation arrangements in Ohio. This might not be rocket science, but it sure helped to have a real rocket scientist there to make it all happen smoothly and joyously. Originally, we were going to stay at the Comfort Inn directly across the street from the University, but thanks to Dr. VKV we were moved to the Ramada Inn outside of town. This was a quieter and safer situation for our young musicians. That first afternoon, Dr. Nathan hosted a pizza party for the teens. After pizza we went to a meeting room to have a rehearsal. It was a great rehearsal. Everyone was on their game and ready to give 100%. After the rehearsal we all had a bit of time to rest and then off to Bamboo Gardens for a lovely dinner. At this point all of the musicians, eastern and western, were bonded – lifelong friendships were made. We returned to our hotel satiated and ready for a good night’s sleep, albeit short.

You could feel the excitement on Saturday morning – we were on our way to the opening ceremonies and concerts. The colors of the brightly dressed attendees was only surpassed by the beauty of the music that filled the concert hall.

We all dined on South Indian vegetarian cuisine for lunch, returned to our hotel for another rehearsal and then back to the festival for more music and culture. Tonight’s bill of fare was Subway. South Indian music was easier for our western teens to handle than South Indian food. (Everything in time.) Tonight everyone, but VR, went to bed early. VR, our hearty soul, stayed at the festival for mike set-up and then a “jam session”. While we dreamed of India, VR was living the dream with fellow musicians until 2 AM.

Sunday morning and one bus short! We all needed to get to the University by 7 AM for a quick sound check before our 8 AM concert, but the one bus could not take us all. A couple of kind families who were attending the concert gave a few of us a lift to the concert hall. We all got there in the nick of time and only had but a moment to check the sound system. We really could have used more time. The stage was set-up, but the sound on stage was a challenge. We could not hear each other sufficiently and had to rely on visual cues to stay together. Count, Count, Count. . . . Watch, Watch, Watch and strain to listen.

Our first piece was the “Varnam”. Upon the opening notes we discovered that sound was a problem, but we did it. Musique Sur La Mer performed “Lion City: and the next few pieces only included the Indian musicians. Aishu was amazing! Immediately after the tani avartanam, MSLM took over with “Sing Sing Sing”. We were on fire. The audience went wild with an immediate standing ovation! We continued with the program with our arrangement for Divine Strings and Musique Sur La Mer Honors Chamber Orchestra of “Vathapi Ganapathim”. Despite not being able to hear well, we were tight and the crowd loved it. As the piece reached it’s climax (about 15 minutes into the piece) the audience rose to their feet and cheered! Without hesitation we moved into our finale’ piece, “Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma” in ragam Madyamavati. After the concert we were all mobbed like rock stars. This was a stellar performance and only the beginning. . . the possibilities are endless. . .

Once again a special thanks to Dr. VKV for being so patient and meticulous with the organization. What a man………..

Marcy A. Sudock
Conductor - Divine Strings and Musique Sur La Mer Youth Symphony Orchestra

[rshankar]

Marcy - thank you for that very intimate peep into the development of this clearly awesome collaboration. Best Wishes to you and the members of the MSLMYO!

[arasi]

"The possibilities are endless", you say.
Something worth remembering.
Thanks for sharing your Cleveland experience with us. With the enthusiasm and help of 'rocket fuel', you could soar, indeed!
Cheers to you all!

[cacm]

Dear friends,
I am a new member to this site and I wanted to give my personal account of the hospitality and grace of the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana, VV Sundaram and Dr. VK. Vishwanathan.

Marcy Sudock (Conductor for Divine Strings Orchestra)

The Story
In August, 2009 I received a call from my dear friend Dr. Vinod R. Venkataraman. His daughter, Aishu, was a former member of the Musique Sur la Mer Youth Symphony Orchestra (MSLMYSO). I have watched her mature and blossom into a gracious young woman and an outstanding musician. Aishu and VR had an idea that they wanted to discuss with me. Would I be willing to write an arrangement of one or two classical Indian ragas for classical western strings to accompany Aishu and her group, Divine Strings. They were scheduled to perform in Cleveland, Ohio at the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana on April 4, 2010 and would I bring along the core members of MSLMYSO, Honors Chamber Orchestra to perform the pieces? Without hesitation I said “Yes, of course.” This was to be a wonderful challenge and yet another way to live out our mission statement.

It took 3 months to write the first 19 minute arrangement of “Vathapi Ganapathim.” Without a guideline other than Aishu’s recording from her marvelous “Bliss” CD, I was taking down rhythms and melodies by ear and translating it into western notation. The next step was to write an arrangement that would enhance the music without sacrificing the authenticity of the sound and feel of this very traditional classical Indian ragam. In my head I heard harmonies and counter rhythms that would be most familiar to the western ear, but could take away from the haunting beauty of the South Indian theme. Within the constraints of the 5 note theme (Hamsadwani ragam), I was able to capture the mood of the music, with a touch of the western harmony without compromising what to the western ear would seem exotic.

Aishu and her father were to be in India December through January for the music season. This meant that our first rehearsal of the “Vathapi” composition had to wait until the end of January to begin. There were definite growing pains and three re-writes until we had a solid piece of unified music. The middle of February brought a greater sense of confidence in the musicians (and the conductor/arranger). I went ahead and wrote a second arrangement, for “Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma.” This short piece of joyous expression was much easier than “Vathapi”. Aishu and Vinod sat down with me to go over the main melodies and formatting. It only took one evening for me to write this arrangement.

The young musicians of MSLMYSO’s Honors Chamber Orchestra worked diligently and consistently on the music. We rehearsed every Sunday afternoon for three hours in preparation for our upcoming musical adventure.

You could feel the excitement on Saturday morning – we were on our way to the opening ceremonies and concerts. The colors of the brightly dressed attendees was only surpassed by the beauty of the music that filled the concert hall. This was a stellar performance and only the beginning. . . the possibilities are endless. .

Marcy A. Sudock
Conductor - Divine Strings and Musique Sur La Mer Youth Symphony Orchestra

Dear Marcy,
Please permit me to be BOTH grateful& sentimental simultaneously. I have been involved for over 50 years in arranging&attending concerts in N.A. Starting with such a wondrous name for your orchestra -even the French Genius Claude Debussy(Composer of La Mer) would have approved & be proud of your conducting & the group's performance at Cleveland. Every member of your orchestra is a GEM.
This year's FESTIVAL in my opinion was the BEST in its 33 year history & your group's efforts contributed mightily to make it so.
I have listened to Vataphi Ganapathim for ever but your interpretation & rendering showed me that DHIKSHITHAR'S GENIUS in absorbing the nuances of Western music can be matched only by DHIKSHITHAR!Absolutely Astounding! I congragulate& salute you.
Ifeel like I can write a long essay but I will spare the readers! BOB BROWN & JON HIGGINS the father & leading vidwan of Carnatic music from N.A. would have smiligly approved from above & feel proud a VVS has taken their place to push things creatively forward....Let me apolgise for the abject ignorance& lack of civilty of some in this forum.....VKV

[kssr]

Dear Marcy,

Thanks for your write up giving an insight into your experiences during this unique experiment. Also, thanks for putting in your and your team's hard work in enriching Carnatic music on the particular day, in a new dimension.

May I ask you, if you took back anything from this experience with carnatic music, to enrich western music.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Vinod, Marcy and team,
Thanks for your postings - I am glad I initiated this thread.
I am feeling good that I had a tiny little contribution to this project (connected khanjira player Mahesh with Vinod). It would have been nice to be there in the audience but I did not make it to Cleveland this time due to unavoidable circumstances.

[cacm]

Post#65 Ffrom kssr:
I am taking the liberty of writing my reactions to your post. I am looking forward to Marcy's expert opinions myself.......
As one who has discussed with MMI about Vathapi -especially he rendered it thousands of times- after he rendered it to my utter AMAZEMENT introducing new facets& wrinkles esp. in kalpanaswarams in EVERY concert he said the genius of Dhikshithar in introducing other influences inspired him to try new approaches.
I discussed this with my brother who lived in Chennai at least 8 years before me & he pointed out that even in his youth The various bands-corporation& military- used to play regularly western music at various places in Chennai; I am sure MMI whose curiosity was ENORMOUS -he used to walk to Connemara Library(near Connemara Hotel) from Mylapore a distance of at least 5 miles-would have listened to them. I was present when MMI returned from Ram Rajya(Hindi Movie) he was all excited about the hit Veena Madhura Madhura & his own hit Kandan Karunai was heavily influenced by it. It is well known that Dhikshithar had listened to such music in his time also. Incidentally S.Rajam told me that the great Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer who used to depart to his concerts from Rajam's house used to listen to Balagandharva before leaving for his concert- the S.G.Kittappa of Maharashtrian stage & used some of it in his concerts......
In short these cross influences between various systems is a fascinating subject & when geniuses use it it is exhilarating as well as yield insights. VKV

[VRV]

Vinod, Marcy and team,
Thanks for your postings - I am glad I initiated this thread.
I am feeling good that I had a tiny little contribution to this project (connected khanjira player Mahesh with Vinod). It would have been nice to be there in the audience but I did not make it to Cleveland this time due to unavoidable circumstances.

Sreeni,
Thanks for all the help you provided. I wish some of the other artists you discovered could have also participated. Time conflicts and distance made it very difficult to rehearse. Hopefully next time we embark on an adventure of such large proportions, I will contact you well in advance.

Regards,

Vinod

[kssr]

In short these cross influences between various systems is a fascinating subject & when geniuses use it it is exhilarating as well as yield insights. VKV

Thank you, Sir. We have a fair idea as to how CM has been influenced by Hindusthani music and to a lesser extent by western music- thanks to geniuses like Dikshithar. My interest was only to know from Marcy, if our music had made any impact on theirs, consequent to this programme.
BTW, a curiosity- Is the mama with ahala jarikai angavastram and spotless white kurta in the photos Sri.cacm aka VKV? If not I apologise.

With so much of CM happening in America and canada (see the volume of reviews from these places in rasikas), we in India feel like foreigners!! Great spirit. Congratulations.

[VRV]

BTW, a curiosity- Is the mama with ahala jarikai angavastram and spotless white kurta in the photos Sri.cacm aka VKV? If not I apologise.

kssr

The mama in ahala jarikai angavastram is the one and only VV Sundaram, the gentleman responsible for the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana.

VK Vishwanathan (VKV) is seen in other tyagaraja aradhana pictures.

Vinod

[venkatakailasam]

Sushala Raman Hit the headlines some time back with NDTV bringing an inerview with her
Singing some of the popular carnatic songs in English tunes.

The Hindu review is at : http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/01/25/stor ... 230100.htm

Please see her profile at : http://www.narada.com/SusheelaBio.htm

Some of her songs include:

Maha Ganapathim : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy7D_FIkWIY

Kamkshi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQjGajK_dhY

Nagummomo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbIHVppG ... re=related


Mamavathu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeUndOGq ... re=related

Sarasa sama dhana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fzdj54f ... re=related


venkatakailasam