concert

Padma Bhushan Sudha Ragunathan's concert on 25th February at MLR Convention Centre kept us enthralled from the first varnam. About a couple of hours into the concert, she gave a short speech appreciating our effort in restoring the lake and promising whatever help she could render to us and to the environment. This of course made the audience applaud but her next statement won us over completely. The day before the concert, she'd contacted a friend, Gayathri Gurumurthy who writes under the pen name of "Saraswathi" and got her to write a song celebrating lakes! Being a composer as well, Smt…

Much like the nurturing of our Puttenahalli Lake, the PNLIT concert featuring Padma Bhushan Sudha Ragunathan on 25th Feb. at MLR Convention Hall was a community event with several volunteers from the locality chipping in. Our heartfelt thanks to them, our donors, Jenesys Technologies, concert sponsor, and to Brigade Hospitality for the venue and accommodation for the artists.     Here's how the day unfolded ...   The lake and its premises had never looked as clean as it was when Smt. Sudha Ragunathan paid a visit on the morning of 25th Feb. After the visit of renowned ornithologist Zafar…

Javalis are lyrical compositions with Shringara rasa or romantic love being the central theme of the composition. Veteran musician Neela Ramgopal gave a lecture demonstration on Javalis at the morning session of the 46th annual conference of the Bangalore Gayana Samaja on 14th October 2014. A frequent performer in the Bangalore concert circuit, Neela Ramgopal is a much sought after teacher and is the recipient of numerous state and sabha awards such as the Sangitha Kala Acharya and Sangeetha Kala Rathna. Her lec-dem delivered in a very accessible manner, brought to life what could have otherwise easily been a dry…

“I see many young people wanting to learn the veena. Whether they want to take it up as a profession is something I’m not sure about.” I'm talking to Jayanthi Kumaresh, renowned veena artist, at her home. We're seated in what's obviously a prayer room, with its large pictures of the Chandrashekara Saraswathi, the revered former head of the Kanchi Mutt. Three or four veenas stand upright against one wall. Her observation was in response to my query about the state of veena playing and where she saw it headed.    Jayanthi puts me at ease with her charming personality…

Photo by: Karthik Dwaraknath The mridangam is a barrel-shaped drum used as a percussion instrument in a classical concert. It is a double-headed drum, with multiple layers of stretched leather skin covering either end of the cylindrical body. The word “mridangam” comes from the union of two Sanskrit words mrida (clay) and angam (body) as the instrument is made from hardened clay. Mridangams are of two types – kutchi and kappi. In the former, thin wooden sticks or reed (from a plant) are inserted under the top layer of the skin, which gives the mridangam its distinctive sound.  In kappi…

Duets – the very word evokes images of love ballads from Hindi movies. The successful pairing of Lata Mangeshkar with Mohammed Rafi or P. Susheela and T.M. Soundararajan left an indelible mark on Indian movie music. Here is a song by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar from the classic Hindi movie Aandhi.  Duets are not uncommon in classical music. In Carnatic music, the last fifty years have seen numerous successful pairing of singers. Radha-Jayalakshmi were one of the pioneering duos from the 1950s. They were followed by others such as Soolamangalam Sisters and Bombay Sisters all the way to present-day…

Bangalore Gayana Samaja is one of the oldest institutions, promoting classical arts, in the city. The 45th annual conference of the Samaja concluded in the last week of October. For Carnatic music buffs, this was a week-long feast of lecture-demonstrations (lec-dems as they're refered to) in the morning and concerts every evening.  Each year, the conference also bestows the prestigious 'Sangeetha Kalaratna' award on a musician. This year's recipient was the violinist Mysore Mahadevappa. The second concert of this year's conference was by T V Shankaranarayanan (TVS) on Monday, October 21. Sankarnarayan's vocal recital was marked with rich classicism and…