Veteran violinist Sikkil R. Bhaskaran passed away on 20 July 2021. Dedicated exclusively to accompaniment, the artists he shared the stage with straddle generations and read like a who’s who of Carnatic music—from Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, K.B. Sundarambal and M.M. Dandapani Desigar to Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar, N. Vijay Siva and…
V. Sai Subramaniam who (along with vocalist Palghat Dr. R. Ramprasad) is the recipient of this year’s Kalki Krishnamurthy Award, is the first morsing exponent to receive the prestigious honour in the over 25 years since its inception. According to ghatam exponent G. Chandrasekara Sharma, Sai is, in fact, the…
When Jayalakshmi Balakrishnan suggested to the family of the Late Sundaravalli Ammal that some of the lady’s compositions be set to tune and performed, she also knew exactly whom to entrust the task to. Most know K. Arun Prakash as an erudite and avant-garde mridangist. However, besides percussion, he is…
A smiling young man opens the door to a beautiful house and sings 10-12 second snippets of 73 Indian classical rAga-s in quick succession when prompted, effortlessly and instantaneously, whilst casually walking around the home. The camera follows him around, shooting without any cuts, for the entire ~14 minutes. Abby…
A comprehensive and detailed interview with dhrupadiya and rudra veena exponent Sri. Mohi Baha’ud-din Dagar where he candidly debunks myths, shares personal and family struggles, explains and demonstrates the rigorous, often ‘mystical’ training techniques of the Dagarvani and much more. He also recorded two pieces of music exclusively to accompany…
Senior mridangist J. Vaidhyanathan believes his commitment to accompaniment begins right from arriving well on time for the concert. “A concert is like a yagna, a lot of effort—we should not cause any consternation to either the organiser or the artists—rather, we should ensure that we do whatever we can…
Women in percussion are so few that their gender alone makes them the cynosure of attention. Bengaluru-based Bhagyalakshmi M. Krishna, however, has gone beyond that, earning respect for her skills on the morsing, the identical adjectives used by her fellow artistes serving as testament. She has shared the stage with…
Praveen Sparsh’s recent passion project, Unreserved, puts the mridangam in settings outside its traditional confines, and marries it with sounds he painstakingly recorded over the years on treks, at traffic signals, airports, rail and bus stations. To hear music, or the potential for music, in noise – or what the…
For Dr. N. Rajam, who just added the Maharashtra government’s Pt. Bhimsen Joshi Lifetime Achievement Award to her already full kitty of honours (including the Padma Bhushan, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, and the Padma Sri), the many challenges she faced in the music world are no different from how…
After having performed concerts for many years, the 24-year-old student approached the new Guru. “You should not touch the mridangam for five years. I have to teach you new fingering.” G. Guru Prasanna, whose musical trajectory has seen him play multiple instruments initially, before settling on the kanjira, says, “I…