May 2007 keertana Volume 13 Issue 2... a bridge to the rich South Indian cultural heritage... Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan Accompanied by Embar Kannan on violin & Palladam Ravi on Mrdangam Friday 25th May 2007, 7.30pm Supper Room, North Melbourne Town Hall Cnr Queensberry & Errol Streets, North Melbourne 3051 Mel. Ref: 2A J10 Saturday 26th May 2007, 7.00pm Kel Watson Theatre, Forest Hill College Mahoneys Road, Burwood East 3151 Mel. Ref: 62 C5
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An Interview Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan Chitra Sudarshan spoke to Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan [camp Sydney] last week, and put this together from that interview and others. On Performing. Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan is an extremely intelligent musician who gauges an audience s response and calibrates each of her performances accordingly. Indeed her repertoire is so vast and her versatility legion, that she can do it almost impromptu and think on her feet. In a recent interview, she reiterated this point saying that singing what an audience wants is important. I have trained myself to like an audience that I perform for on any given day, she said. Firstly, she finds it equally challenging to perform before carnatic music connoisseurs as well as total novices. Both require deft handling of a totally different sort. Second, there is the question of what repertoire to choose: when she performs in Karnataka, she often sings exclusively in Kannada; as she sings mostly Tamil kritis in Tamil music festivals. When she toured South Africa and performed before a largely ethnic Tamil audience, she had to include Tevarams and Tiruppugazhs to cater to their tastes. She doesn t try to dwell on the question of whether she would be able to give a balanced and solid performance without including Tyagaraja or Dikshitar kritis, and tries to remain positive. At another level, when she is on the stage performing, Sudha usually gets a feel for an audience s taste within the first few items she sings, and tailors her choice of music accordingly. On her guru M. L. Vasanthakumari (MLV) and grand guru G. N. Balasubramaniam (GNB) Sudha Raghunathan lost her guru MLV quite early in her career and the void that was left was too great to be filled she had such an extraordinary relationship with her, and was in such awe of her musical prowess and genius. She has by and large tried to adhere to the MLV-GNB parampara, which has been demanding; although she has taken a few things that she has liked from others, and has evolved her own style. On perpetuating the GNB heritage, she said she has been working to bring out the numerous kritis that the great musician-composer had created, and has already released about 7 CDs on his numerous compositions. His varnams have been included in several other CDs that she has released over the years. It is a slow and arduous process: although I have the notations to his compositions, it is not enough. One needs to listen to the music to get a feel for the bhava it has been a difficult project. I am trying to listen to tapes of GNB kritis sung by Sri Kalyana Raman and Sri Trichur Ramachandran to understand the kritis better On global and local audiences Sudha has always been interested in taking carnatic music to worldwide audiences and should the route involve fusion and other genres of music, so be it. Having taken part in different music and Voices festivals around the world, she enjoys the experience of sharing the stage with artistes from everywhere. She is engaged in many projects that involve the fusing of musical genres, and loves to represent carnatic music globally. Increasing international opportunities put enormous strains on the schedule of artistes of Sudha s calibre so many simply cave in to the pressure and perform exclusively in Chennai, if they are not touring overseas. Sudha is one of the few who tours extensively in the smaller cities and towns of Tamilnadu despite family commitments. She said that link-concerts or chain concerts are being increasingly sponsored by corporations, big companies and Sabhas that make it possible for an artiste to do a series of performances around a cluster of towns within a limited geographical area [like Coimbatore, Pollachi, Pazhani, Tiruppur, Uludurpet etc]. This enables the organizing of kachcheris in smaller cities and towns more feasible and costeffective. On whether her children are following in her footsteps Having learnt music for more than seven years from her very talented mother, Choodamani, one was keen to know if Sudha s children were following in her footsteps. Her son was interested in all genres of music, she said. Her daughter is a bharatanatyam dancer, having completed her arangetram recently. She is interested in music as well, and shows promise, but is not altogether sure if she is ready to put in the hard work and commitment right now. I came to professional music relatively late in my life, so I wouldn t completely write it off, laughed Sudha.
Artiste Profile Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan - Vocal After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music, believes Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan, one of the foremost disciples of Padmabhushan, Sangeetha Kalanidhi M. L. Vasantha Kumari (MLV). Sudha had her initial training in Carnatic classical vocal music from her mother Choodamani at the early age of nine and then continued training under B. V. Lakshman for a brief period. In 1977, Sudha received the Central Government Scholarship for advanced training in Carnatic music which made it possible for her to come under the expert tutelage of MLV. She left her brilliant academic achievements [thrice winning the best student medal in Ethiraj College] in favour of a musical career, giving vocal support for her Guru MLV during the years between 1978-1987, travelling widely to the US, Canada, UK and the Middle East. Sudha is a top ranking artiste of the All India Radio, Madras, and performs regularly for the AIR and the Doordarshan, and is a regular at the Radio Sangeeth Sammelans, special programmes organised by Akashvani, and numerous programmes on many TV Channels. She has to her credit a number of cassettes and compact discs of classical and devotional music, with many leading recording companies and banners such as Amutham Inc. (New York); AVM-Sony Nad; Music Today, Vani Recording Co., INRECO and Super Recording Co. Ltd.. Sudha has won over 250 prizes in music competitions conducted by various institutions at the State and National levels; has won accolades and awards for her outstanding performances at the Music Academy and Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai, among others. One of the most memorable moments for her was the winning of the Akashvani Music Competition awards in all three categories- Classical, Semi-Classical and light music - simultaneously; others include the Kalki Thambura Prize and the Rajaji Thambura Prize of the Music Academy and the Tamil Isai Sangam respectively. Sudha s concert schedule amazes many. It would be easier to mention the countries she has not performed in than the other way around. Sudha has certainly carved a niche for herself in the international circuit, and represented Carnatic music at several International Festivals. She had the exceptional honour of being the only Indian, in fact, the only Asian to perform at the International Festival - ECHTERNACH at Luxembourg on June 3, 1995. After that, she did 19 performances touring France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Holland and UK. Recently Sudha had the privilege of participating in the national celebrations to earmark 50 years of the Indian Republic. She had the unique honour of rendering the Vande Mataram at the Central Hall of Parliament, New-Delhi on 27th January, 2000 to a full house in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, and other dignitaries. She was invited by the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi to participate in the Yuva Utsav 1992 at Hyderabad, and at the India International Festival, Bombay on March 12, 1993 in collaboration with the ICCR. She also had the honour of performing at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Centre, New York Broadway on September 18, 1998 for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, New York to commemorate 50 years of its founding. Sudha has founded a Trust, the Samudhaya Foundation, to promote social awareness and welfare. As the first project, Samudhaaya Foundation raised Rs. five lakhs for the KARGIL DEFENCE PERSONNEL RELIEF FUND. As the second project, Samudhaaya Foundation donated Rs. one lakh to the cyclone-stricken victims of Orissa in December 1999. She performed a Jugalbandhi concert with Aparna Panshikar of Pune in aid of this project. The well known music critic SUBBUDU once wrote: If I were stranded on a lonely island, and if I were allowed to keep only three things, I would choose these in order of preference: An audio-visual cassette of singer Padmashri Sudha Ragunathan; betel leaves to chew while I listen to the music, and poet Kannadasan s works to read. That Sudha has undergone musical training from the great musical genius and maestro, the late Dr. M. L. Vasanthakumari is evident everywhere. There is none equal to Sudha s creative expression in Carnatic Music today. It is packed with both melody and power. I listen to only Sudha twice at the December music season in Chennai. The first time to review her music and the second time to just enjoy it.
Artiste Profile Embar Kannan - Violin Born in 1975 to Vidwan Sangeetha Bhushanam Sri Embar Sadagopan,from a well known musical family, Kannan is a leading violinist among the younger generation of musicians today. He is renowned for his silky smooth melody rendition on the violin and for his impeccable sruthi alignment. A disciple of the well known violinist Ms. A. Kanyakumari, Kannan has travelled the globe performing in prestigious venues like the Theatre de Ville in Paris, Al-bustan Palace in Muscat, Radio France and Toronto York University. He is a sought after accompanist and who has performed with almost all the names in carnatic music, and has been featured in many festivals. Kannan is remarkable for he combines within himself a deep rooted traditional carnatic artiste of the highest calibre on the one hand, and an adventurous innovator on the other. As he is proficient at reading and writing western notation as well, he records and performs comfortably in settings as varied as traditional Indian classical music, jazz and fusion. Kannan is a key member of drummer Nagi s fusion band Dhinak Dhin, and features frequently in other fusion groups and in ad-jingles as a guest artist. He is much in demand in the Indian film industry primarily as the leading violinist in Maestro Ilayaraja s film orchestra. He is also a part of many music ensembles, especially HeArtbeat, in which he leads the melodic wing. This ensemble has released their first CD Taka Dimi Taka Junu which was highly acclaimed by both the press and public. Besides, he has composed music for TV serials, advertisements and several devotional albums. Kannan has been awarded and honoured both for his solo performance and his role as an accompanist by various prestigious institutions like the Music Academy in Chennai, All India Radio, Indian Fine Arts (Chennai) and Annamalai Mandram. In 1998, Bharat Kalachar awarded him the title Yuva Kala Bharathi. Kannan is an A-Grade artist in All India Radio s panel of artists. Palladam Ravi - Mrdangam Palladam Ravi hails from a family of musicians steeped in traditional classical music. His great grandfather was the flute maestro Sangeetha Kalanidhi Palladam Sanjeevi Rao, and his father the renowned mrudanga vidwan Palladam Ramachandra Rao. Even as a child, he demonstrated an innate ability to play the mrdangam, and thanks to the rigorous and systematic training from his father, he has matured into a confident percussionist in the last ten years, sharing the platform comfortably with reputed musicians. Ravi has accompanied musicians in all the leading sabhas and concerts in India as well as overseas. His keen ability to observe and imbibe the different techniques used by leading mrdangists of our time has helped him develop his own unique style. Ravi has won several awards such as Best Mrdangist from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, and also from The Music Academy, Chennai.
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