Friends in Concert, a unique production featuring 13 well known Carnatic musicians, first aired digitally in 2020. A new, live production premieres on January 19th at The Music Academy. TM Krishna, the brain behind it, explains. “During the pandemic, musicians were putting out clips mostly by themselves. Music making, however,…
In 1926, Bangalore Nagarathnamma was not allowed to perform at the annual tribute to Saint Thyagaraja – because she was female – despite constructing his temple at her personal expense. It was 1941 before men and women could perform together at the Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja Aradhana. Now the armed forces have…
A recent Carnatic concert presented in the south-eastern city of Atlanta in the United States reflected a beautiful amalgam of cultures, faiths, diasporas and demographics. The event was organized by Emory University’s Office of Spiritual and Religious Life, and Telugu Studies at Emory. The venue, Cannon Chapel, within Emory’s…
“We get criticised for trying to break conventions,” says Hardial Rai, the founder of ZerOculture, a UK based organisation. “We do that to adapt to new audiences, new aesthetics and new sensibilities,” The website of ZerOclassikal, ZerOculture’s musical arm, terms it an initiative to ‘offer a radical approach to south…
Despite the world of the arts being severely impacted, Jayalakshmi Balakrishnan and Arkay Ramakrishnan each organised hundreds of concerts throughout the pandemic, all free to rasikas, for their respective non-profit organisations Naada Inbam and Madhuradhwani. A mechanical engineer with a degree in Indian music as well, Jayalakshmi Balakrishnan took…
Smt. Vishakha Hari, noted Harikatha exponent, concludes this podcast by bringing in a philosophical perspective. She talks of a ‘jvarA’ (fever) mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam, and other anecdotes from the scriptures, to make sense of the malady we are currently amidst. She suggests programs resume in green zones, with adequate…
Smt. Vidya Subramanian, rasika, entrepreneur and vocalist, gets into listeners and musicians, supply and demand, income streams and more, in this candid conversation. She says listeners and musicians fall in two broad categories and that, for the vast majority of listeners, physical concerts will take a back seat, for now,…
Sri. A.S. Ramakrishnan says listeners are eagerly awaiting resumption of concerts and that he is ready to begin conducting them. He discusses the modus operandi he would follow and also a different idea, should rules for gathering be very restrictive. This video is part of the Melodies during Maladies podcast.…
Smt. S. Mahathi categorically states that online concerts can never be a substitute for physical ones, making her point with a simple analogy and discussing the elephant in the room – artistes’ compensation. She thinks it is too early to get back to live performances, however, much as she would…
“I feel this culture of the sabha-s themselves giving ‘All are welcome’ concerts should be gradually phased out.” Providing a listener’s perspective, Sri. Ramanathan Iyer says if all stakeholders do their respective parts, he would be eager to attend physical concerts now. As a curator of artistic events, in addition…