Sep 23, 2007
During the time my daughter, Deepa, was growing up and learning Bharatha Natyam a few dance teachers visited from India and gave workshops. Some of them were truly inspiring that left a lasting impression on our kids. But unfortunately, I have also heard some harsh criticisms from some others such as “This level of dance is good enough for these kids growing up in America”, “That’s all you can expect from them”, “You cannot expect the same as the kids from India” etc. Some of these comments have reached the ears of these kids and they may have put up a glass ceiling to their performance levels. It is also quite possible that some of our very capable kids may have been discouraged and quit. But, NOT ANY MORE! Speaking for the NRI parents, I can say with our heads held high that our kids have proven the critics wrong! Shivanjali program is another example of the talent of our kids.
Our kids are termed as ABCD’s which has been redefined as American Born Cultured Desis. The “C” can also be for Confident. Let there be no confusion! Folks, let me make a strong statement here. These NRI kids growing up in America are in fact in a better position than their cousins growing up in India to maintain and spread the art. The reasons are several – dedicated teachers, eager students, co-operating parents, availability of resources and many more.
But one reason that stands out among the NRI kids growing up in America who are learning various Indian art forms – it is their Guru Bhakthi. The teacher-student relationship here is of mythological proportions, no doubts. I am speaking from the personal experiences Jayanthi and I are having as parents in bringing up two children in the US and having given them opportunities to learn Indian art forms. I am sure many parents out there will agree.
Sure, there are instances of arranging performances to pad resumes or to climb the social ladder. But, so what! This is America! We need to put our best foot forward. Please don’t tell me that this does not happen in India. Where else could those horrible dancers on SUN-TV come from! Any one of our kids, on their worst day, can take them on!
We are proud of our kids but we should also recognize the limitation as the training has been focused on dance and mridangam. While we are reaching a good level of maturity in these fields, we have a long way to go to produce a better class of musicians. I am anxious to see several groups of musicians and dancers form that are made up of only NRI kids. It is up to all of us to take them to even greater heights. Guru Bhakthi and the blessings they receive from their gurus will surely take them places, metaphorically and physically! Parents – let me close my long preamble with this. Surely, there is a Rukmini Devi Arundale or a Palghat Mani Iyer among our kids. Find them!
I will be right back after a short break…
===============================================================
Carnatic Music Vocal Concert
by
Smt. Gayathri Venkataraghavan
Vocal
Kum. Akkarai Subbalakshmi
Violin
Sri. Manoj Siva
Mridangam
On Sunday, September 30, 2007, at 4:00 PM
OK, I am back…
The singer is a DR. KVN student and I understand is very good. I have listened to the violinist and she is really good. Please come and support the concert.
Let us get back to the program. The Guru Bhakthi I talked about earlier was evident among the students of Smt. Sangeetha Sridhar in the dance program today. Sangeetha presented a fabulous thematic dance performance called Shivanjali with her senior students – ABCDs. Organizers should be commended for an on-time start.
I have witnessed a few programs of Sangeetha and clearly this performance was the best I have seen. Sangeetha was the main dancer with support provided by her senior students. Her sense of rhythm was perfect. Her chosen style of dance provides a lot of circular or symmetric motions and fluid body movements. She gracefully executed them and there were also several elements of surprise in the presentation. The group presentation with the students had some spectacular choreography and striking costumes. It is very clear a lot of thought had gone into this. I particularly enjoyed the churning of the ocean scene with one dancer posing as Mandara Mountain and the others pulling the serpent tied around the mountain. The timing of the pulling and the churning was well executed. Using several dancers to come together as the multi-headed Shiva with multiple hands was very innovative. Also, this is one of the few dance programs I have seen with a humorous act as well. Good job!
The guru bhakthi discussed before was demonstrated by Sangeetha herself towards her guru Padmabhushan Padma Subramanyam, a legend among the living. This program was a fundraiser for the Bharatha Muni Temple being built in Chennai. It will be a unique temple dedicated to dance and a research center promoting our culture. Please approach Sangeetha for any information or if you can contribute in any way.
The music accompaniment was excellent. Singer was Sri Sudev Warrier, a disciple of Sri Balamurali Krishna. I have heard him sing a couple of years ago but he has improved by leaps and bounds. The only qualm I have with the flautist, Sri Krishna Prasad, was his Kambodhi alapana was too short! I guess it is a dance concert not a music concert! What an energy displayed by the Mridangam player, Sri Sudhaman! I think I missed a few abhinayas while watching his hands play, head rock and hair fly! He was playing the instrument so hard I had to ask him during the intermission if he had a couple of spare ones in the back! Fortunately, he made it through the concert with the same mridangam! But God only knows why he needs two dozen throat lozenges to take him through the concert! Thanks to Ranga, the supplier.
Nattuvangam debut done by Vijayalakshmi showed promise. Sangeetha demonstrated her experience when she did the Nattuvangam. I noticed the style of Nattuvangam was different from what I have heard before. The lyrics were presented in the Nattuvangam style and then the singer took it over and sang the same lyrics in Ragam. I guess someone will tell me the technical term for this!
Though the program had a total of 13 songs it went through very quickly. Being a group presentation the costume changes were very efficient. It was a very traditional program with invocatory Thodaya Mangalam, Mallari, Shiva Sthuthi, Someshwaram Bhajema, Adi Kondar, Rupamu Joochi Varnam, Thalaye Nee Vanangai, Shambu Natanam, Bho Shambo, Aalandan, Chandra Chooda, Thillana and Mangalam. Bho Shambho song was sung in Darbari Kanada, different from M. Santhanam’s Revathi, it was very refreshing.
“Adi Kondar” song in Mayamalava Goula ragam performed by the mother-daughter team of Sangeetha and Shilpa was choreographed and presented well. Roopamu Joochi Varnam was long and was performed as a solo by Sangeetha was truly a treat to watch and listen. The song was in Thodi and was performed beautifully by the musicians. The song provided a lot of scope for sancharis, bhavam, nrithyam and footwork. Varnam, as many of you know, is the toughest piece in any dance performance testing the endurance of the dancer. A! The Thillana in ragam Kannada (not Kaanada) was spectacular in choreography. The speed, poses, formations and footwork were all brilliant and the song was very peppy.
I would be remiss if I did not provide some feedback on the program in general. For some of the students who have finished their Arangetram, the audience expectations have naturally increased. Arangetram is only a milestone in their long journey towards perfection. They need to pay more attention to the details like walking in and out of stage, show grace while standing to name a few. Stage management could have been better in terms of spacing the dancers especially when all the dancers were on stage at one time. More dress rehearsals will help. The dancers also need to be meticulous in their alankarams without needing to adjust them on stage.
Some of the senior students like Geetha Srinivasan and Sathvika Ramaji whom we have watched over the years have grown. Keep it up! I can’t wait to witness your Arangetrams! The MC for the program was Karunya Krishnan and her Tamil pronunciation was excellent and descriptions of dances were precise.
See you all at the next concert, Sep 30 at 4:00PM!
B. Seetharaman
Sep 26, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Maharajapuram Ramachandran
Sep 9, 2007
Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida
We all grow up to become our parents. This was a scary thought when we were young and it is even scarier for our kids! There are three stages to becoming our parents. First stage is, NEVER! The second stage is one of SHOCK – oh my God, I am becoming more like my parents. It creeps up on you and the realization is sudden. The final stage is to ENJOY or ACCEPT becoming our parents. Personally, I am somewhere between the “shock” and “enjoy” stages of becoming my father.
Sitting in Sri Maharajapuram Ramachandran’s concert, my thoughts drifted to the many car rides I have taken with my father whenever he would visit us. We would always play Carnatic music and over 80% of the time it would be the songs of Sri Maharajapuram Santhanam, who is Sri Ramachandran’s father. Every time, after listening for a long time my father would let out a sigh followed by an inevitable lament, “I wish we had such excellent recordings of Sri Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer”, who is Santhanam’s father! He would share stories from the times when he was a boy scout in Thiruvaiyar during the Thayagaraja Aradahana working as crowd control (and crowd!). He would describe how he enjoyed those concerts and especially one of the Pancha Rathna Krithis in Varali “Kana kana ruchira” rendered by Sri Vishwanatha Iyer. Here I am, talking to my daughter, Deepa, about how I enjoyed the few times I have listened to Sri Santhanam live in concert. I lament that I should have listened to a lot more of Sri Santhanam’s live concerts. The most striking qualities of Sri Santhanam are his shruthi suddham (perfect pitch), ability to bring out the emotions of the song through his voice and his extraordinary musical talent.
It seems like Sri Ramachandran is finding himself in the same ‘predicament’ of becoming his father. WOW! What a blessing! Some places during the concert, I closed my eyes and actually listened to Sri Santhanam! This experience was shared by many who were privileged to attend the concert. The voice, intonation, the bhavam in those songs were exactly the same as his father. Even the body language and hand gestures shown were getting close to Sri Santhanam. The songs selected for the concert were also the ones that were made popular by his father.
“Mahaganapathim Manasa Smarami” in the uplifting ragam of Nattai set the stage for the entire concert to follow. He then sang the song on Adithya, the Sun God, as it was a Sunday concert in the ragam Hamsadhwani. It was one of the songs from the Navagraha CD that was released on the same day.
At the beginning of the next song, I joined the long line of Carnatic music rasikas who have difficulty differentiating between Purvi Kalyani and Panthuvarali. I was corrected by Madhu, the resident singer of South Florida, who was sitting behind me that the Kannada song was in fact in Panthuvarali. It was later confirmed by Dr. Ramakrishnan, the resident Mridanga vidhwan of South Florida.
Dr. Iyengar, one of our South Florida patrons, must have been in seventh heaven at this point. Usually, he would wait for the thukkada section and request a Kannada song from the singers. But Sri Ramachandran probably knew this and preempted the request and sang a series of “Iyengar Specials” (Kannada songs!) like “Ksheerabdi Kannigai”.
The main piece was O Rangasayee in Kambodhi. The alapana was simply superb. The songs, niravals, kalpana swarams were fantastic. The singer was taking some risks in the high pitch and trying some very difficult gamakams. Some of them paid off and some did not. On the low pitch side he was flawless. Well, he needs a little more time to become his father! Who doesn’t?
The RTP was in the beautiful ragam of Brindavana Saranga. During the raga maligai section of the RTP he gave quite a work out to the audience. He sang in Vaasanthi (not Vasantha) and Sumanasa Ranjani. CLEAN BOWLED! Sri Ramachandran saw the “deer in the headlight” look on our faces and took pity on us to announce ragam name.
He sang a wide variety of ragams either in a song or as part of ragamalika including Rithi Gowle, Yamuna Kalyani, Kanada, Sindhu Bhairavi, Madhyamavathi, Shanmugapriya, Shivaranjani etc. The Sai Baba song, another one from the CD that was released, in ragam Dwijavanthi touched many hearts. He sang his father’s favorite Nalina Kanthi Mathi with the names of several ragams in each line and those lines will be sung in that specific ragam! In other words, the ragams chosen did not put us to sleep but made us sit up in the chair wanting even more! Sri Ramachandran also demonstrated his extensive range on the musical scale from low Madhayamam to the high Panchamam.
Folks, let me tell you something – today, even in India you cannot attend a kutcheri like this which is more than three-and-a-half hours long. The December season kutcheris end in two to two-and-a-half hours. The sabhas have to pack so many concerts in so few calendar days and so they schedule two kutcheris in the same evening. To hear very traditional concert like this one with complete with varnam, invocatory songs, two elaborate songs full with alapana and kalpana swarams, an extensive main piece with thani avardhanam, a complete RTP with Raga malika section, viruttham, thukkada songs and thillana – it is a rare treat. It is like paying for one and getting two concerts! These are the good old days!
The veteran player, Sri Nagai Muralidharan was on the violin. He was excellent but for this concert he sounded somewhat sterile. He did not seem to put his full being into the playing during this concert. He had talent but lacked some spark or luster on this day. Surely, there were many bright spots and he offered a great support for the main artist – but we want more! Sri Thanjavur Ramadoss on the mridangam was brilliant, but in patches. First half of his thani was average but the second half was brilliant. The final hand off to the singer after the thani was poorly orchestrated. It looked and sounded clumsy. The singer and the violinist dropped the ball. The naadam that came out of the mridangam was divine and his training from Palghat Mani Iyer was very evident throughout the concert.
Let me close with how the evening opened – the CD release ceremony.
Sri Ramachandran had set to music songs written by our very own Dr. Venkataraman Balu of South Florida. The songs were written in Tamil on the Navagrahas and Sathya Sai Baba and published on a beautiful CD along with a detailed booklet. As mentioned above, he sang a couple of songs from that CD and mesmerized the audience. Sri Ramachandran was “a chip off the old block” when he mentioned that the navagrahas placed a lot of obstacles during the production of the CD! Do musicians learn to have a sense of humor as part of the music training?!
Mrs (Dr.) Daya Balu, may have started a new trend. It may be the first time I heard a woman publicly acknowledge the talent of her husband! I hope more women follow this trend. There will be fewer wars! Hmmm, I can dream, can’t I? But seriously folks, it is fascinating to hear from her how Dr. Balu’s poetry was transformed into this beautiful garland of songs on a CD. Hearing a set of songs on the Navagrahas is a rarity. The raga selection, arrangement of the instruments, vocal talent of Sri Ramachandran, recording quality and the lyrics were all excellent. I highly recommend the purchase of this CD with the proceeds going to a worthy institution, our very own Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida. Please approach the board members of the Shiva Vishnu Temple or Dr. Balu himself for the CD. Hats off to the Balus! Great job!
Congratulations to our Cultural committee. Another great job! Sound system set up was excellent! Crowd is getting bigger! I tasted the vada, bonda and the milk sweet – super job by our Food committee! What is a carnatic concert without some cholesterol medication?! Keep up the great work!
See you all at the next concert on Sep 30 at 4:00PM!
B. Seetharaman
Sep 10, 2007
Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida
We all grow up to become our parents. This was a scary thought when we were young and it is even scarier for our kids! There are three stages to becoming our parents. First stage is, NEVER! The second stage is one of SHOCK – oh my God, I am becoming more like my parents. It creeps up on you and the realization is sudden. The final stage is to ENJOY or ACCEPT becoming our parents. Personally, I am somewhere between the “shock” and “enjoy” stages of becoming my father.
Sitting in Sri Maharajapuram Ramachandran’s concert, my thoughts drifted to the many car rides I have taken with my father whenever he would visit us. We would always play Carnatic music and over 80% of the time it would be the songs of Sri Maharajapuram Santhanam, who is Sri Ramachandran’s father. Every time, after listening for a long time my father would let out a sigh followed by an inevitable lament, “I wish we had such excellent recordings of Sri Maharajapuram Vishwanatha Iyer”, who is Santhanam’s father! He would share stories from the times when he was a boy scout in Thiruvaiyar during the Thayagaraja Aradahana working as crowd control (and crowd!). He would describe how he enjoyed those concerts and especially one of the Pancha Rathna Krithis in Varali “Kana kana ruchira” rendered by Sri Vishwanatha Iyer. Here I am, talking to my daughter, Deepa, about how I enjoyed the few times I have listened to Sri Santhanam live in concert. I lament that I should have listened to a lot more of Sri Santhanam’s live concerts. The most striking qualities of Sri Santhanam are his shruthi suddham (perfect pitch), ability to bring out the emotions of the song through his voice and his extraordinary musical talent.
It seems like Sri Ramachandran is finding himself in the same ‘predicament’ of becoming his father. WOW! What a blessing! Some places during the concert, I closed my eyes and actually listened to Sri Santhanam! This experience was shared by many who were privileged to attend the concert. The voice, intonation, the bhavam in those songs were exactly the same as his father. Even the body language and hand gestures shown were getting close to Sri Santhanam. The songs selected for the concert were also the ones that were made popular by his father.
“Mahaganapathim Manasa Smarami” in the uplifting ragam of Nattai set the stage for the entire concert to follow. He then sang the song on Adithya, the Sun God, as it was a Sunday concert in the ragam Hamsadhwani. It was one of the songs from the Navagraha CD that was released on the same day.
At the beginning of the next song, I joined the long line of Carnatic music rasikas who have difficulty differentiating between Purvi Kalyani and Panthuvarali. I was corrected by Madhu, the resident singer of South Florida, who was sitting behind me that the Kannada song was in fact in Panthuvarali. It was later confirmed by Dr. Ramakrishnan, the resident Mridanga vidhwan of South Florida.
Dr. Iyengar, one of our South Florida patrons, must have been in seventh heaven at this point. Usually, he would wait for the thukkada section and request a Kannada song from the singers. But Sri Ramachandran probably knew this and preempted the request and sang a series of “Iyengar Specials” (Kannada songs!) like “Ksheerabdi Kannigai”.
The main piece was O Rangasayee in Kambodhi. The alapana was simply superb. The songs, niravals, kalpana swarams were fantastic. The singer was taking some risks in the high pitch and trying some very difficult gamakams. Some of them paid off and some did not. On the low pitch side he was flawless. Well, he needs a little more time to become his father! Who doesn’t?
The RTP was in the beautiful ragam of Brindavana Saranga. During the raga maligai section of the RTP he gave quite a work out to the audience. He sang in Vaasanthi (not Vasantha) and Sumanasa Ranjani. CLEAN BOWLED! Sri Ramachandran saw the “deer in the headlight” look on our faces and took pity on us to announce ragam name.
He sang a wide variety of ragams either in a song or as part of ragamalika including Rithi Gowle, Yamuna Kalyani, Kanada, Sindhu Bhairavi, Madhyamavathi, Shanmugapriya, Shivaranjani etc. The Sai Baba song, another one from the CD that was released, in ragam Dwijavanthi touched many hearts. He sang his father’s favorite Nalina Kanthi Mathi with the names of several ragams in each line and those lines will be sung in that specific ragam! In other words, the ragams chosen did not put us to sleep but made us sit up in the chair wanting even more! Sri Ramachandran also demonstrated his extensive range on the musical scale from low Madhayamam to the high Panchamam.
Folks, let me tell you something – today, even in India you cannot attend a kutcheri like this which is more than three-and-a-half hours long. The December season kutcheris end in two to two-and-a-half hours. The sabhas have to pack so many concerts in so few calendar days and so they schedule two kutcheris in the same evening. To hear very traditional concert like this one with complete with varnam, invocatory songs, two elaborate songs full with alapana and kalpana swarams, an extensive main piece with thani avardhanam, a complete RTP with Raga malika section, viruttham, thukkada songs and thillana – it is a rare treat. It is like paying for one and getting two concerts! These are the good old days!
The veteran player, Sri Nagai Muralidharan was on the violin. He was excellent but for this concert he sounded somewhat sterile. He did not seem to put his full being into the playing during this concert. He had talent but lacked some spark or luster on this day. Surely, there were many bright spots and he offered a great support for the main artist – but we want more! Sri Thanjavur Ramadoss on the mridangam was brilliant, but in patches. First half of his thani was average but the second half was brilliant. The final hand off to the singer after the thani was poorly orchestrated. It looked and sounded clumsy. The singer and the violinist dropped the ball. The naadam that came out of the mridangam was divine and his training from Palghat Mani Iyer was very evident throughout the concert.
Let me close with how the evening opened – the CD release ceremony.
Sri Ramachandran had set to music songs written by our very own Dr. Venkataraman Balu of South Florida. The songs were written in Tamil on the Navagrahas and Sathya Sai Baba and published on a beautiful CD along with a detailed booklet. As mentioned above, he sang a couple of songs from that CD and mesmerized the audience. Sri Ramachandran was “a chip off the old block” when he mentioned that the navagrahas placed a lot of obstacles during the production of the CD! Do musicians learn to have a sense of humor as part of the music training?!
Mrs (Dr.) Daya Balu, may have started a new trend. It may be the first time I heard a woman publicly acknowledge the talent of her husband! I hope more women follow this trend. There will be fewer wars! Hmmm, I can dream, can’t I? But seriously folks, it is fascinating to hear from her how Dr. Balu’s poetry was transformed into this beautiful garland of songs on a CD. Hearing a set of songs on the Navagrahas is a rarity. The raga selection, arrangement of the instruments, vocal talent of Sri Ramachandran, recording quality and the lyrics were all excellent. I highly recommend the purchase of this CD with the proceeds going to a worthy institution, our very own Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida. Please approach the board members of the Shiva Vishnu Temple or Dr. Balu himself for the CD. Hats off to the Balus! Great job!
Congratulations to our Cultural committee. Another great job! Sound system set up was excellent! Crowd is getting bigger! I tasted the vada, bonda and the milk sweet – super job by our Food committee! What is a carnatic concert without some cholesterol medication?! Keep up the great work!
See you all at the next concert on Sep 30 at 4:00PM!
B. Seetharaman
Sep 10, 2007
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