New year resolution!

Wishing all a very happy New year. I think this year my resolution is to make more people appreciate Carnatic music as an art form and not as a form of religous music...Divinity is in every note..."parathmathmudu veligey"..not in the rantings of nouns..more Nadopasana is needed...more manodharmam. More music that touches the soul without the musician having to say the name of any particular god...just tremulations in the ether that strikes the chords in your hearts...bless me....

try this...for the season!

There is so much to write...so much to write..so, I always postpone the ceremony of writing!! The music season is here now and Chennai is having the feel of celebration and festivity. I like it all. I feel very happy to be here. I just wish that rasikas would do something different every year like the artistes too!!
Chennai is a place where Vocal music is appreciated more than instrumental music. Instrumental music is beyond language and religion. So, world over the appreciation that they get is remarkable. But in chennai...why are rasikas drawn more only to Vocal? why cant they try something different this time? How about alternating between one Vocal concert and one Instrument concert?? want to try???

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...