Recently, Carnatic vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan began a series on his YouTube channel titled ‘On That Note’. In the around-2-minute clips, Sanjay sings a refrain from the titular ragam and shares anecdotes from his rich reminiscences. Delivered mostly in English with occasional Tamil, the videos are branded with a distinctive logo…
With time on their hands and normalcy nowhere in sight, Carnatic musicians are resorting to thought provoking, interesting and carefully curated video series’ to engage with others. This reflects a change from the first lockdown fourteen months ago which resulted in a surfeit of ad-hoc, generally poor-quality programming, in what…
The ARTery is dedicating its just inaugurated Svatantra 2021 festival to the late violinist Sangita Kalanidhi Prof. T.N. Krishnan. Professionally recorded, hour-long concerts by several recognised artistes will be individually released every fortnight for about 15 Sundays, culminating around Krishnan’s first death anniversary in November. Ramanathan Iyer, the brains behind…
Senior musician N. Vijay Siva recently inaugurated Vande Sangeetam, a video series with a difference, on his YouTube channel. The first episode titled Kaveri Saveri sees Vijay ensconced at the Kapila River, pristine water streaming behind him. He talks of the importance of rivers to civilization and the fact that…
From the 1st century CE Sangam period to the present day, there have been numerous female composers from the southern-most states. While some were revered as saints, most were ordinary women who straddled all household domestic responsibilities – some being closet-composers out of necessity. Under the auspices of Kala Prashala…
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…
A scientific rethink of a craft steeped in tradition, when unencumbered by hallowed strictures, can shatter long-held beliefs, shed valuable insight and provide illuminating perspective. Dr. Bhushan M. Jayarao of The Pennsylvania State University, a non-musician, has constructed a tuneful tanpura in State College PA, USA, with local materials and…