Review by a Dallas rasika
I had the good fortune to see young Pranav Kikkeri, all of 10 years of age, who took the Dallas area by storm, with a highly commendable Carnatic vocal debut performance.
Many great stalwarts such as Dallas' own Smt Lalitha Seshadri, the debutant's guru the eminent Chitravina Ravikran and his brother K.N. Sashikiran (themselves child prodigies), spoke on this occasion and much of what this rasika has to say will only be an echo. However I am happy to be the echo.
Pranav has God given talent which has been honed in the right direction by his his guru, Sri Ravikiran, and his parents, Vasundhara and Narasimka Kikkeri , whom I have had the good fortune to be friends with for quite a few years now. His parents are musicians of repute themselves and his guru needs no introduction to Carnatic music rasikas. Pranav has put in hours of practice, to make the very challenging repertoire that he presented today to the packed auditorium at the Allen Public Library, seem effortless and easy.
The pieces presented covered a wide range of ragas, composers and talas and types of compositions. I did not keep notes as I usually do, as I will be the first to admit, that I had way too much invested emotionally in every note that the young artist sang today, as I have known him since he was a toddler.
He started with the Kanada ata tala varnam. This was followed by Vatapi Ganapatim in Hamsadhvani, adi talam ( Dikshitar) with swarams rendered cleverly at Pranava swaroopa . He was thus off to a solid start. He also presented one of my favorite Oothukkadu Venkata Subba iyer's Saptaratna kritis in Kiravani ,namely Balasarasa Murali.
He rendered an excellent Shanmukhapriya raga alapana followed by Annamacharya'sParamapurusha. This piece included neraval and kalpana swaras, that were very well rendered. Nannu brovu in Lalitha of Shyama Sastry set to misra chapu talam followed.Manasuloni in Varam was also on the list. The main piece was an exquisitely rendered Shankarabharanam raga alapana followed by the Thyagaraja kriti Emi neramu. He handled all the improvisation with a maturity well beyond his years. Other pieces presented included the javali Smarasundaranguni ( Paras) , a tillana composed by Sri Ravikiran, Krishna nee begane ( Yamuna Kalyani) and a Tirupugazh in Sahana.
Akkarai Shubhalakshmi, an immensely talented violinist and also a former child prodigy, who has matured into a wonderful artist; gave marvelous support and encouragement to Pranav with her skillful accompaniment. All her solo portions were very well rendered and that goes without saying.
DFW's own Poovalur Sriji, provided percussion support on the mridangam. He too skillfully accompanied Pranav, while shining during his tani, that followed the Shankarabharanam kriti.To echo the stalwarts who spoke once again, Pranav has a remarkable ear for sruti. His voice has a pleasant tone and is well modulated. He has a great natural stage presence, with not even a hint of nervousness at being accompanied by such seasoned professionals. His transitions into various kalpana swara phrases were always highly professional and seamless. He amazed me first musically about 5 years ago at the DFW Hindu temple, when he rendered Dikshitar's Sri Guru Guha, in Devakriya, with the flair of a senior vidvan. He has scaled greater heights since then, to attain the level of skill he demonstrated in today's performance.
At a mridangam arangetram that I attended over 27 years ago in Madras, Sri Balamuralikrishna said that an arangetram should be the start of munnettram., meaning the debut performance should be the beginning for greater progress to follow. Pranav Kikkeri has set a very high bar for himself with today's performance. May this be the first of many more great performances to come, spread over many decades!
