“As an excellent vocalist himself, he knows to emote according to the raga and to highlight the kriti, neraval and swaram uniquely too,” say senior musician RK Shriramkumar and senior ghatam artiste N Guruprasad. Sangita Kalanidhi designate Dr. S Sowmya adds, “As a result, he does not look at percussion…
This is a detailed on-camera interview I did of Pandit Arijit Mahalanabis, Guru and Founder of the Society for Indian Music and Arts (SIMA), based in State College, Pennsylvania, USA. Before a live audience, Pandit Arijit expounds very candidly on all that is wrong about our classical arts, the state…
This year’s Sangita Kalanidhi designate, Dr. S. Sowmya, is a musician’s musician – at 50, the second youngest female recipient evokes the epithets ‘scholarly’, ‘erudite’, ‘cerebral’ etc. among fellow artistes, old or young. Given her long list of award winning academic and musical accomplishments, it is no wonder that many…
Anirudh Athreya, kanjira exponent, elicits copious appreciative comment from fellow artistes. Senior mridangam vidwan K. Arunprakash says, “He is a genuine team player, knowing how to enhance each of the other artistes on stage.” Vocalist and violinist Amritha Murali notes, “His sense of aesthetics, care and sensitivity towards his own…
Bubbly, enthusiastic, cheerful – these describe multi-faceted Sumesh Seshadri Nath Narayanan to a T. As a vibrant mridangist, he has accompanied Bombay Jayashri, Abhishek Raghuram, S Sowmya, Sikkil Gurucharan and more. A key member of the fusion bands IndoSoul and Sparsh, he has also acted in the recently released movie,…
Intuition coupled with rigorous practice has made the violinist a front line performer. Her silky smooth bowing, unhesitating fluency, thorough competence and immaculate accompanying skills make Charumathi Raghuraman a sought-after violinist for leading artistes in the Carnatic firmament such as Ranjani Gayatri, Sudha Ragunathan, Vijay Siva, Gayathri Venkataraghavan, Ramakrishnan Murthy…
Facile singing, tremendous creativity, immense appeal and a completely pliant voice are hallmarks of this precociously talented, award winning, seasoned Carnatic vocalist who just happens to be young. Ramakrishnan Murthy’s countenance, manner and speech are as traditional as his music, belying the fact that he spent the bulk of his…
Torchbearer of the DKJ/DKP bani, Vijay Siva is not one to compromise on classicism. Total conviction, clarity of thought, unstinted devotion to patantharam, wholehearted commitment to the cause of music and the courage to follow through — these make Vijay Siva stand out in the realm of Carnatic music .…
Sangeetha Ramprasad believes in the calming power of sahaja yoga Stress seems to dog everyone these days — from young children to the elderly. Sangeetha Ramprasad comes to their rescue, bridging the world of Carnatic music with meditation, the art of stilling/calming the mind. Sangeetha had her initial training from…
It is his pleasant countenance that first draws attention but once you settle down, his playing of the mridangam keeps you absorbed. Vijay grew up in Mumbai, the son of Geetha, a vainika, and N. Balasubramanian, a Chartered Accountant and bhajan singer. Vijay’s father, an ardent admirer of T.V. Gopalakrishnan…