Mridangist, vocalist, violinist, trained in Hindustani, PhD in music and Guru to many, 92-year-young Dr. T.V. Gopalakrishnan (TVG) is an incredibly versatile musician and talking to him was a walk through over 75 years of music. At age 9, TVG played second mridangam for Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar (Chembai) at a…
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,…
My Guru, Sri. O.S. Thiagarajan (OST), passed away on December 31st. When I started lessons with him, I was a young child, completely unaware of (and uninterested in) his musical skills or pedigree. The first piece he taught was Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s MahA GaNapate in NaTanArAyaNi – he was kind and…
The many awards Kollengode Viswanatha Narayanaswamy (KVN) received, including the Padma Sri, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar and the Sangita Kalanidhi, served only to publicly highlight the talents of an artiste who was already acknowledged in his own lifetime as a consummate Carnatic musician. KVN’s all-round expertise was packaged in…
Sruti Magazine January 2022 Cover Story (Note: The following is only an excerpt. To read the full article, subscribe to Sruti.) How Sikkil C. Gurucharan became a vocalist is itself curious — even to him! Born in Chennai on 21 June 1982 to V. Chandrasekaran and Mythili (daughter of Sikkil Kunjumani, the elder of the Sikkil Sisters flautist-duo), he recollects his grandmothers testing the blowing ability of prospective flute students by asking…
The strummed tambura wafts in through arresting scenery, the sounds of birds, critters and water, as musicians perform in carefully curated natural, outdoor settings. Filmed across India, First Edition Arts’(FEA) Blue Planet series, launching today evening, hopes to highlight the connections between the living ecology of the planet and the…
Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer (SSI) strode Carnatic music like a colossus. However, none in his family followed in his footsteps. His eldest daughter, Santha Kasy Aiyar, explains, “My father was categorically against his family pursuing music professionally. He felt musicians were perceived as lower in the social ladder than those formally…
If one has to be recognised in Carnatic music, one just HAS to relocate to Chennai, it is said. There can be no substitute for listening to live concerts is also oft-heard. This respected violinist, however, has put paid to both the above statements. Charulatha Ramanujam is appreciated not only…
A consummate performer rarely makes a good teacher, each requiring different skill sets. Imparting knowledge to those far less conversant requires assessing and customizing instruction for each student, simultaneously motivating and pushing and, above all, zero insecurity to demystify what seems opaque and frequently shrouded. Lalgudi Jayaraman, whose 90th birth…
“…being sure of my music. Never get carried away by what peers do or get pressurised by anything that might seem like a fancy trend but is not something that is natural to me….” Ashwath Narayanan on his Guru-s’ advice. Carnatic vocalist Sri. Ashwath Narayanan tells us about his musical…