afternoon musings..Maestros of yester years

One thing I really missed during my ph.D research and defense was the absence of the Veena Maestros of yester years...We have lost almost all the senior Vainikas..Be it S.Balachander sir or Emani sir or Chitti Babu sir or Doreswamy Iyengar sir....no one is there...That is probably creating an illusion among the press that Vainikas are a vanishing tribe. It is true really that we cannot get back those great masters of the past. But the future looks good with so many young Vainikas now...

Veena Yagam!

Whew! Back home after the TWO day Veena Yagam! It was an amazing experience to hear so many different styles of Veena playing in two days. We had Mudikondan Ramesh, B.Kannan, Ananthanarayanan, Ananthapadmanabhan, Srinivasan and ofcourse periamma and me. Goddess Saraswathi has blessed each Vainika with something special, something divine and unique. All the Veena artistes paid their homage to the unprecedented phenomenon in the field of Veena playing - Dr.S.Balachander. Sastri hall was buzzling with the Vainikas and it was rather sad that the event got over so soon. It was also nice that there was a very good audience for an exclusive Veena festival! What are people talking about when they say terms like 'dying art' or 'extinct instrument' or other such negative cliches? we have so many wonderful practitioners of this art and the festival was really heartwarming!! Missed all of you who were not there!
yours,
Stringpuller!

S.Balachander day

It is noon time and we are just getting ready to go and pay Homage to one of the greatest veena artistes who was born in India. I cant believe that it is 19 years since S.B sir left us. I am playing with my periama, who is my guru to pay homage to another guru of mine..There is a veena festival of about 6 concerts scheduled for today and tomorrow in chennai.
feels kind of strange. wish S.B.mama was still around to make the music field richer in every way...

Visas Visas and Visas

International travel can be fun, but can also be a big pain. I really wish that they create a rule that if artistes have traveled for 10 years on concerts, they don't need visas any more. The procedures are so elaborate and time consuming. Bank statements, Profiles, paper clippings...ooh! It is really a pain. But of course one forgets it all the moment the curtains open and the show starts!!!! Let the music go on!

Swanubhava

On last Sunday, 10th of August, I performed for Swanubhava at the Music Academy, Chennai organized by Matrka and YACM. I was absolutely thrilled to see the arrangements and the meticulousness with which the week long music fest had been organized. The care that YACM and MATRKA (founded by Bombay Jayashri and T.M.Krishna) took to see that the artistes, audience and all concerned were having a good time. Chennai really needed something like this. Many aspects of Carnatic music were highlighted through talks, lecture demonstrations and concerts. Congratulations to Jayashri and Krishna for putting this entire show together. way to go.....

Welcome

This blog has been created with a vision to be able to reach out to all music lovers across the globe. To share with all, the ecstasies of being an artiste and thrills of playing a wonderful instrument called VEENA. It would be my pleasure to share views, ideas and experiences with all friends and music lovers.