PATRI DRUM FESTIVAL

[PATRI]

Hi friends.. This is PATRI SATISH KUMAR.. I am doing a "DRUM" festival.. in chennai on AUG 30,31 & sep 01-2013. The venue is "ARKAY CONVENTION CENTRE"- opp.. Vidya Mandir, Mylapore. There will be 2 percussion concerts every day, 45 minutes each. Please check the website patridrumfestival.com for further details. I welcome you all for the festival.

[mahavishnu]

Welcome to the forum, Patri Satish Kumar!
Sounds like a great effort. All the best for this event.

[Nick H]

Very best wishes for the ambitious event. Have diaryed the dates

[rshankar]

Welcome to the forum, and best wishes!!

[arasi]

A big welcome, Patri (Uru-iNTi pEru?) Satish Kumar (gAru)!

Best wishes for the festival.

[mohan]

Congrats Patri-ji! Great line up of veteran maestros including UKS, TVG and Kamalakar Rao http://www.patridrumfestival.com/schedule.html

[rajeshnat]

Big welcome patri , very nice to hear that you are conducting the festival , best wishes

[PATRI]

Thank you friends and viewers for your support.

[PUNARVASU]

Best wishes, Shri Patri Satishkumar . And welcome to the forum.

[PATRI]

Dear friends thank you all for your wonderful support. I wish many of you who happen to be there in chennai during the festival period(aug 30-31& sep 01).. Will certainly attend the function to listen to our legendary performers. Let us all enjoy the musical and magical rhythms. The duration of each programme is around 45 mts.

[thanjavooran]

Shri Patri Satishkumar,
My best wishes,
Wishing the event a grand success.
Thanjavooran,
21 08 2013

[squims]

A very warm welcome to the forum Patri Satish Kumar ji.
That's a wonderful line up of artistes. I'm sure the event will be a grand success!

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Warm welcome to you for joining in our forum.

S.NAGESWARAN.
24.08.2013.

[PATRI]

Thank you all for your support... The PATRI DRUM FESTIVAL is going to start in few hours... With legends performing for the first ever time under drum festival in chennai.. Friends,rasikas & vidwans ... You are all welcome to celebrate THE RHYTHM.

[PUNARVASU]

Best wishes for the Drum festival. Will be there in spirit.

[sreecons]

All the very best for the festival this weekend! Will there be a live webcast? Will benefit us overseas people

[PATRI]

Hello friends, rasikas & artists.... What a day.. What a beginning .. Thanks to you all for attending in large numbers and salutes to the artists.. What quality of music..what precision ... Just out of the world.. True meaning of world class...that's all I can say.

[Nick H]

Could not make it today, although I was sad to miss an all-too-rare chance to see Ghatam Suresh. Not to mention UKS.

Hope to be there tomorrow to see TVG

[S.NAGESWARAN]

Kudos to Sri PatriSatishkumar for having arranged an excellent programme of the mrudangam maestro
Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman and the Ghatam programme by Sri Suresh and his team of ghatam vidwans.

The R.K. Convention center was fully packed with the rasikas for the programme of Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman.

Sri Chitraveena Ravikiran, his father Sri Narasimhan, Sri TRS and young mrudangam artists Sri Bharadwaj and many were present.

Sri Sivaraman, the maestro with his brilliant playing of the mrudangam and a great master in expressing
The demo with his excellent vocabulary with witty comments in-between was very much enjoyable.

Even though short of my knowledge in rhythm aspects, I was able to enjoy the myriad forms of the rhythm factors.

Perhaps, some knowledgeable rasikas who have attended the function will be able to highlight the rhythm aspects in detail.

Sri Ghatam vidwan Sri Suresh with two of his disciples played brilliantly.

A warm and big thanks to Sri PatriSathishkumar.

Considering the huge response from the rasikas, I feel that the drum festival will become an annual feature.

S.NAGESWARAN.
30.08.2013.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

01.09.2013 (Concluding day)
1. Shri. Bangalore K Amrit
Kanjira 6.30 -7.30 p.m.

2. Shri V Kamalakar Rao
Mridangam 7.45 onwards (I could listen only upto 8.15 as I had to catch a train in the night.)

Bangalore K Amrit rendered an excellent, fantastic,incredible layavinyasa in Aadi Taala (1 kalai : samam).

Before the start of the programme, Shri Patri Satish kumar introduced Amrit as the prime disciple of the great maestro (late) G Harishankar who had been described as a layamedhai. Amrit attributed everything he has to his master and started off the rendition with Sri Patri keeping the taala.

Yes, I wish to repeat: Amrit's performance was just incredible- he has imbibed the mastery of laya from his Guru in all its perspectives. He supplemented the recital at a couple of places with valuable information/anecdotes. He ensured that the 'open pitch' of the Kanjira was aligned to the Mandra Panchama swara of the sruti throughout (he had kept a sruti of the right volume).

It was sheer ranjaka at places, 'sometimes a sprint', 'then a thunder', ' a waterfall' but all aesthetically woven into the kaalapramaana. The sarvalaghus and cascading korvais covering tisra / Khanda nadais were well articulated with inimitable gumki usages. Exposition of sankeerna nadai was scintillating. All laya vadyas showed up in his virtuosity. The concluding mohra at the end was superb. The audience consisting of musicians (including sri Kamalakar Rao) and music lovers were all thrilled and applauded. One Mr Vedanarayanan from the audience congratulated patri for his unique effort. patri announced that the next year's festival is scheduled for July 2013.

Shri V Kamalakar Rao rendered a grand Aadi Tala supported by his son Yogesh. He paid rich tributes to his guru Palghat mani Iyer before commencing the recital. Mani Iyer used to comment that the element of 'TAPAS' (sort of penance in assimilating the art) was lacking among youngsters, he remembered.
Rao's recital was illustrative of his Guru's baani.

The mix of the valantalai (playing side) with more proportion of kappi (not kuchchi) itself was a proof.

(as mentioned earlier, I had to leave by 8.15p.m.) I would request any other forumites who were present to complete the review of kamalakar Rao's rendering

[CRama]

Thank you Sivaramakrishnan for your meticulous and comprehensive report of the event. I feel that the regular cutcheri format do not provide enough opportunity for the percussion artistes to show off their vidwat People do not relish longish Tanis too. So, festival like this are a welcome affair where they can display their vidwat and people who are more interested in laya aspects will get a chance to listen to them. Thanks to Patri Satish Kumar.

[Nick H]

I only made it to one day, but it seems that all three days were equally successful.

Although the Thani walkout seems to me to have diminished, it certainly still happens --- and yet this festival was well attended, proving that many, many rasikas enjoy the percussion aspects and many really do have a deep understanding. It makes one wonder why such a festival has not been going on for years! Well, that doesn't matter: it matters that Patri Satish Kumar has done it now, and intends to repeat it next year, and, I hope, in future years.

Noticeable by its absence was any sort of Western/Fusion type stuff. It was three days of pure carnatic percussion. One could see that there was no necessity of drum kit or pad to attract a good proportion of youngsters to the event. There is plenty of scope without expanding these boundaries at all, but there is also, perhaps for future years, the possibility of bringing in some of the Kerala drum traditions, or even moving the horizon northwards, but maintaining the learned presentation/performance format, whilst leaving jugalbandi/fusion to those who are doing it already.

Looking forward to next July

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Why no active contributions from our forumites on the Patri festival?