Lec Dem on Shyama Shastri on 31st March 2012, London, UK

[sruthilayabhava]

All are welcome to this very rare lecture demonstration on Shyama Shastri

By students of Smt. Manorama Prasad on 31/3/2012

Venue: Wimbledon Ganapathy Temple, 123-133 Effra Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 8PU, UK

Date 31/3/2012 Saturday at 6:00 PM

Accompaniments by Sri. Balu Raghuraman on Violin and Sri. Somasundara Desigar on the Mridangam

[sruthilayabhava]

Carnatic music is well and truly alive in the UK, as evidenced by this unique program of sorts at the Wimbledon Ganapathy Temple hall.

This program was by a group of 8 kids who are under the tutelage of Smt. Manorama Prasad, one of the leading teachers of carnatic music in the UK. The kids presented on the life history and works of Shyama Shastri. Given that they were a group of 11-13 year olds, I was a little skeptical at first given that Sri Shastri's compositions are not easy ones for any singer to bring out the essence, even for senior artists and professional performers in this art. But to my pleasant surprise, the kids performed beautifully and it was a very enjoyable and mainly informative program too. Some of the rare, not so often heard pieces were also chosen (by the kids, apparently, as they had to do the research on the topics given to them by their teacher and present the compositions relevant to their assigned topics). All the children seemed to enjoy their own performance, which resonated well with the audience. There was a powerpoint slide running behind the performers which suited the overall presentation and helped provide context. It was a well thought out and professionally presented lecture demonstration. Some children also demonstrated nuances such as the notes bringing out the pleading mood of the composition or layam aspects such as Shastrigal's tala expertise, eduppus etc.

Both accompanists Sri Balu Raghuraman - violin and Sri Somasundara Desigar - Mridangam, are very senior artists, who were kind enough to accompany little budding artists (reminds me of the young Mandolin Srinivas days when Valayapatti used to accompany on thavil). Both accompanists did a good job in making the kids feel at ease. Sri Balu even gave intro phrases of the raga before certain pieces. In spite of limited opportunity to play i.e. short intervals between pallavi-anupallavi and anupallavi-charanam, I think the senior artistes did a great job.

Kudos goes to Smt Prasad and some of the search results on the forum about Mrs Prasad which have nothing but great things to say about her as a teacher, are fully justified, IMHO. She announced that all she did was fine tuned whatever the kids learned by themselves - this is quite astonishing since some of the pieces were quite advanced for 11 year old kids. Smt Nandini Muthuswamy was the chief guest and gave a very apt and concise speech appreciating the teacher and students for the effort that had gone into creating such a program in honour of one of the Trinities.

I have listed the composition list sung by the kids from whatever I could recollect.

First performer (didnt catch any of the names)
1. Varnam - Dayanidhe - Begada - Adi
2. Varnam - Nivegatiyani - Kalyani - Adi

Second performer
1. Swarajati - Todi - Rave Himagiri - Adi
2. Swarajati - Bhairavi - Kamakshi Anudinamu - Chapu

Third

1.Swarajati - Yedukuka Kamboji - Kamakshi Padayugame - Chapu (It has been ages since I have listened to this; no one sings these in concerts anymore); felt very long and I think all charanams were sung

From here on, it was all krithis
Fourth child - Topic was Shankarabharanam
1. Saroja Dala - Adi

Fifth topic was on Anandha Bhairavi -
1. Marivere - Chapu
2. O Jagadamba - Adi
3. Himachala Tanaya - Adi (I have heard Dr BMK sing this with suddha dhaivatam, but this student sang it with chatusruti dhaivatam)

Sixth topic was Kalyani
1. Birana Varalicci and
2. Himadri sute (Swaram)
I thought that it was an overkill to have two songs with strikingly similar tunes tunes back to back as it did not enhance the presentation. But that is just my two cents.

3. _______ Not sure which one this was

Seventh topic was Purvikalyani and Madhyamavati
1. Enneramum - Purvikalyani - Chapu
2. PAlinchu - Madhyamavati

There was an eighth performer who sang was going to sing navaratnamalikas in dhanyasi, lalitha, ahiri, but I had to leave right after dhanyasi.

Overall it was a one of a kind program and showcased the tremendous talent available in the UK in carnatic music and teachers such as Smt Prasad who are doing a yeoman service to this great art.
UK rasika

[Ranganayaki]

Sounds very impressive to me. Congratulations to the children on their adventure, and to the guru on the success of her innovative approach.

[msakella]

Dear b/s-member sruthilayabhava, You have attended and followed this Lec-dem with true enthusiasm and gave the account in a very clear manner. I sincerely thank you for the same.

As you wrote it is true that only knowledgeable performers can only bring out the essence of Shri Shyama Shastry’s compositions. In particular, handling of the three Great Svarajatis is not that easy even to professionals. In such case if some kids sang them efficiently the credit must go to the efficient teacher only. Kudos to the teacher, Smt. Manorama Prasad, who is striving hard to sincerely preserve and propagate our culture in a non-Indian country by teaching our music to the small kids. msakella

[rajeshnat]

sruthilayabhava
It is always good to hear kids where they take turns to sing in an individual mode .To hear three swarajatis itself must have been equivalent for a decade worth of concerts. Just a tiny bit of suggestion, when music is on , let the powerpoint puddalanga not be on . People like me are rasikas who come only to wash our powerpoint gas baloon sins that we let it out during day.

[anuraja]

I have been a member of this forum for a long time but this is my first post. Since one of my children was a participant in this program, I believe it would be good to post a few more facts.

Thanks to member sruthilayabhava who has taken the interest to attend and recap this program. A couple of details he/she missed were

a. Smt Manorama sang a slokam in the beginning invoking The Lord's blessings and then announced about this project.
b. The third composition in Kalyani was also a rare one in Misra Jampa "Rave Parvata Rajakumari" (also part of Navaratnamalika on Goddess Meenakshi)
c. The teacher Smt. Manorama also sang two compositions at the end in raga Kalgada - Parvati Ninnu and raga Chintamani - Devi Brova

Raja

[nri]

Impressed with the efforts. Is a recording available?
I also request that someone please post the names of these kids, as such programs are meant to showcase their talents and some of us may want to follow their progress in the field.
Thanks to the teacher, Manorama Prasad and the organizers.

Any PPT (hate this word-PPT), I shall attend henceforth, will remind me of puddalanga and a gas balloon(?) and bring-in a queer smile on my face

[Nick H]

It sounds like Wimbledon Ganapathy Temple has become a very active centre for music education

[sruthilayabhava]

Akella ji, I agree with you that the teacher deserves equal praise. Having read some of your posts on this forum, it is nice to see that a renowned teacher such as yourself is acknowledging this.

Rajeshnat, There was no flicking through slides during the singing. All I remember was that the meaning of the composition was on (static) at the time of singing which helped some one like me to understand what the kids were singing especially for those rare compositions.
On a side note, we are all slaves to MS products how much ever we like to hate them.

anuraja, thanks for the clarification. Sorry I missed the misra jampa kriti.

nri - I saw a few people (possibly parents) recording the entire event. One can only hope they read these forums and fulfill your request to post at least audio recordings with the kids names.

nickh - I visit this temple regularly and noticed this via a flyer. It does look like there is a lot of carnatic music activity at this venue. E.g. Guru KM sir and some dancer are doing a mridangam-bharatanatyam jugalbandhi (if I can call it that) in May or June. I will post those details later if someone is interested; again, saw this on a noticeboard flyer

[rshankar]

E.g. Guru KM sir and some dancer are doing a mridangam-bharatanatyam jugalbandhi

Probably Guru KM's neice, Smt. Rajeshwari Sainath, a Hyderabad-based bharatanATyam dancer.

[Nick H]

nickh - I visit this temple regularly and noticed this via a flyer. It does look like there is a lot of carnatic music activity at this venue. E.g. Guru KM sir and some dancer are doing a mridangam-bharatanatyam jugalbandhi (if I can call it that) in May or June. I will post those details later if someone is interested; again, saw this on a noticeboard flyer

Is Manorama Prasad a regular teacher there?

[sruthilayabhava]

Nick H, yes. I think both Manorama (vocal) and Somasundara Desigar (mridangam) teach regularly at Wimbledon temple. Balu (violinist) is listed as a teacher on the Bhavans UK website.

[Nick H]

Balu does indeed teach at BVB-London, full time. I think he also leads the Indian-music degree course there. One day we'll be calling him "Professor," maybe!