Palghat Dr. R. Ramprasad
“I don’t see any reason why concerts halls shouldn’t open when TASMACs do, or when flights have resumed.”
In this video, Carnatic Vocalist Palghat Dr. R. Ramprasad shares his views as a performer, very clearly suggesting the resumption of concerts. He explains why, with insight from his background in Economics and Public Health, and suggests ideas for implementation in keeping with necessary ‘distancing’ norms. In Episode 2, an organiser weighs in.
This video is part of the Melodies during Maladies podcast. After almost two full months of worldwide quarantine due to COVID, restrictions gradually began loosening in May 2020. In this podcast, musicians, concert organisers and audience members share their thoughts on getting back to physical concerts.
Palghat Dr. R. Ramprasad is a Carnatic vocalist and the grandson of the famous mridangist Late Palghat Sri. T.S. Mani Iyer. A student of his father Sri. T.R. Rajaram, Dr. Ramprasad gave acclaimed performances at a very young age and, even as a teenager, was accompanied by doyens. He is a PhD in Economics from the University of Georgia and was post-doctoral fellow at The Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Ramprasad was also part of the earlier Quarantunes podcast where several Carnatic and Hindustani musicians shared what was on their mind while quarantined.
Economics is one subject that has more relevance to the past, present, and the future. Mr.R.Ramprasad and Ms.Lakshmi Anand both centered their discussion more on the Economics of revival of on stage concerts before the audience in a Concert hall. But it is not out of place to bring to memory once the Tamil dramas staged in Sabhas every week end in Chennai. We can list several reasons for their absence today. Many Cinema theatres were closed in the last 15 years and many are converted into marriage halls and malls. Today one cannot invite more than 50 people for a marriage, and the sophisticated marriage halls have no use. So also the malls shut down in Chennai and they dont come under relaxed categories for doing business. If I can say in the Economic term, we are moving towards Recession, and priorities after Covid19 would be revival of Economic activities , and finding Money for that. Atleast for an year from now, the entertainment industry would suffer whether it is cinema production or fine arts shows staged in an auditorium. I include here the Carnatic music . Whether the young rasigaas will attend or the aged will attend the Sabha concerts is secondary. Whatever produced must be sold to sustain. In the first place in the immediate future the organizers would find it financially difficult to arrange live kutcheries and secondly, there may not be enough rasigaas to attend. Again vitamin ‘M’, is a strong factor for the rasigaas also. We are also sure, the term new normal, includes wearing of masks, social distancing, and transportation issues. It is too early to talk about plane services and deployment of seats inside the planes conforming to social distancing norms. An average rasigaa is not going to be disappointed totally in the absence of live Sabha kutcheries as long as internet and youtube provides answers to the music hungry citizen. Therefore it is too early to judge the impact of Covid 19 in the coming months or years and , to discuss and arrive at conclusions for creating space in conducting carnatic concerts. Who knows ” The World may see New Currencies also”. Better, keep your options wide open.