heArbeat ensemble 25th Feb'07 at Trichy

It was a private concert and I enjoyed the concert as I was sharing stage with my mama Embar S Kannan. I had nice sleep before the concert in the room and in the train back to Chennai after the concert. I actually was asleep as soon as I boarded the train and woke up on reaching Trisulam station. A great two day trip which I enjoyed thoroughly

Janaranjani Sabha – 24th Feb’07

I like train travel and so I am always happy to perform outstation as this gives me joy. Appa and myself took Rockfort Express on 23rd and on reaching Gopalan uncle (secy Janaranjani Sabha) started playing with his grand daughter (studying in 8th std) The enquired and with her and appa went to a nearby theatre which was actually like half-step & jump distance, saw Pokkiri – a Vijay movie. Enjoyed the movie which had good fight scenes. Thanks to mami, had good food. Gopalan uncle told me lot of real instances and narrated his nostalgic moments he has shared with great artists who had come and stayed in his house.

After the concert we came home and continued our playing till almost midnight and then went to sleep. Poongulam uncle was great today and with him all the three of us took a passenger train to Tanjore and then to Trichy for the concert of heArtbeat. I had great fun during the three train journeys by this time.

Morning concert at Sivan Park, K.K.Nagar 23.02.2007

I sincerely thought there would not be much crowd for today’s early morning concert at 630am but was surprised to see people attending the group songs rendered by the students of Tamil Issai College, Chennai. The crowd started getting more and it was really a good turnout for a morning concert. The concept has clicked and if the Government starts doping this on regular basis I am sure the interest in various arts of our nation will prosper.

It was a good ambience to perform in a park and this Sivan Park was indeed a well maintained one and had a good temple of Siva. I have been blessed to perform in this park and I was appreciated after the performance by the audience and the organizers present. I also had my classmate friend Aathithyan attending this concert. He had told my friends and when I went a little late to school my classmates cheered me up and welcomed me in to the class & this was indeed a nice experience.

With The Japanese Delegation 22.02.2007

I had been to Balu uncle’s house for dinner after the concert in Mylapore with Sri Ravikiran uncle and was pleasantly surprised to see a delegation of Japanese volunteers who had been to M. S. Swaminthan Institute for a project. On the request of Balu uncle and the group I performed just few songs for them as I had to leave early. Few of them tried to communicate in Tamizh also. The reason was that I had to get up early today to perform concert at Sivan Park. K.K. Nagar

In the team of Sri Ravikiran Uncle - Thursday 22nd Feb'07

On the 21st evening I was thrilled to get a call with the information that I would be performing with Ravikiran uncle once again, this time for “Chennai Sangamam” festival on the 22nd Feb’07. On the stage Ravikiran uncle gave me ample opportunity and asked me to play with ease with no restrictions.

While playing the Suryagantham raga alapana uncle guided me so well that I could bring out most of the phrases he performed and he appreciated my efforts. K.V. Prasad uncle, Akkarai Subbulakshmi akka and MS Anuradha Pal appreciated me after the concert and it was a good experience once again to be performing in the fusion concert of Sri Ravikiran uncle.

Today i ahd a concert for the upanayanam of Shashaank S. Yogesh who is the grand son of Sri Bagyam Ramasamy - famous writer of the story Seetha Paati & Appuswamy thatha. In fact i thought he will look like that but he was not. Mr Bagyam Ramaswamy (Sri J R Sundaresan) was a looking normal and he is a very kind hearted person. Charukesi uncle - a leading music critic introduced me and also was there listening to the concert for almost and hour and a half.

I am also happy to inform that it was for the upanayanam of TamilNadu's Table Tennis champion (under 10) i performed today. Shashank S. Yogesh is in front of his mother in thier family photo above and the one giving me the rich fruit basket.

Todya's concert was well attended by Shashank's father's company and also many leading personalities. Infact Shashank's mother's company had also given me a gift of IV std books on seeing one of my concerts. Shashank and his cousin were so nice to me and were with me almost all the time after my concert. The food was good and Hari Hara Sharma anna who played Kanjeera performed very well and it was just the first time with me. Asusual AnanthaKrishnan anna and Arjun Ganesh anna performed and enhanced the concert today.

Also seen are the photos appa had taken at the venue of Chennai Sangamam concert held under Paul Jacob Uncle. My mother was also a part of it and the show was directed by Director Sri Vasanth and stage decor by Sri Thotatharani, all seen in one of the picture with amma & Vijay anna with Donnan uncle on the right extreme. I am looking forward for tmrw's concert with Sri Ravikiran uncle at Mylapore Mada Veedhi time 6pm for Chennai Sangamam.

Jugalbandhi on Keyboard.

It was a great day and again i was doing a first act at Narada gana Sabha Mini Hall on the 20th Feb'07. Yes, it was on the 16th Aug'03 at the same venue my first album Carnatic on Keyboard - Vol 1 was released by Padmashree Sri Mandolin U Shrinivas, Sri Deva, Sri A V M Saravanan and Sri Krishnabswamy, Secy NGS. On the 20th Feb'07 it was another first i.e. first Jugalbandhi concert on Keyboards - Adithi taking up Hindustani on Keybaord with myself - CArnatic on Keyboard.

Thillaisthanam Suriyanarayanan and Ganesh Rao uncles were excellent and truly enhanced the show with their percussion. It was a different experience for me as i was ideal for almost 20-25 mnts when Adithi performed her solo number on ragam Bheemplas. May be next time i need to think on something else instead of sitting ideal.

Being first time the concert came out very well and was well attended . Thanks to Nalli uncle and Natarajan uncle this was showcased on this day and it looks like if we can jam together more regularly many performances can be given. I was happy that Adithi akka liked and enjoyed my performance so did me with her's.

After the concert i had my dinner at the Woodlands counter in NGS with Kalarasana Srinivasan uncle, Pyarilal uncle, thatha, ammamma (appa's mom) & Suri uncle. As we were having dinner i had a surprise with SV Sekar uncle joining in the next table with Baski took a wrist watch and presented me with same. This was for my upanayanam and i enjoyed the timing as it was just after the concert and that too a gold strap one!

I also met Sri AVS Raja uncle, chairman Shriram Chits & Group of Comapanies on the 17th Feb'07 during the felicitation function held for Photographer Sri Yoga by Sri Nalli uncle. Photos displayed in this blog.

Beethoaven Re-incarnated Award from Rotasia

I was one of the three children who got award today from Rotasia Master of Percusiion awardee Siddharth nagarajan, Princess of String awardee - Athira Krishnan and myself - Beethovan Re-incarnated Award.

All the 3 of us also jammed to give one hour of music and it actually came out well inspite of the fact that we did not have much rehersals at all. Many people from Srilanka and many corporates wanted us to do shows for them and the best of all is the support extended by Sri AVM Balasubramaniam, AVM Studios to offer us (three of us) to use AVM studios for a recording of our project together.

I am sure every one liked our presentation so did we with a good food provided to us for dinner. Thank you Pyarilal uncle, www.carnaticsangeetham.com for teh first two wonderful photos.

Thanks to Rotasia for the excellent trophy, Citation and the award. Details of teh last picture from left to right: A memento from Army, the memnto from Sri Kalahasthi Temple and the Trophy from Rotasia.

Concert at Hamsadwani on the 16th Feb'07

I was playing almost after a year here and had a good attendence too. Since i had performed with my KORG PRO keyboard earlier, it should have been a new dimension for the audience to listen to my new KORG TR board which i have been using from Aug'06.

I was happy that my mom appreciated the alapana and swaram performed for Sankarabaranam for the first time. This has surely improved my confidence and i am sure i will try out various ragas one by one from now on in the concerts to come.

I wanted to stay back for Smt Gayathri Venkatraman's concert but as i had another performance for Rotasia & also was to receive an award from tehm could just stay for the first number only.

96th Anniversary celebration of Signal Corps day.

I had the privelage of being a part of the celebration of our Army in Chennai headquarters on teh 15th Feb'07. The stage was well laid one had a good ambience for performing with a good PA system. While having dinner everyone came to me personally and appreciated my talent and i was very much moved. I had a great satisfaction to perform on this day and been a part of their 96th Celebration.

Sri Kalahasthi Temple concert - a unforgettable concert

I am still to come back from the pleasant shock of being declared as the “Aasthana Vidwan of Sri Kalahasthi Temple” just after seeing our team’s performance for the Sivarathri festival in Kalahasthi on the 12th Feb’07. It is indeed a great honour as it came aafter seeing the performance. Prem uncle, brother of Sivamani uncle – World’s best drummer, also got this title. I sincerely thank Sri Kola Anand for announcing this and also extend thanks to Sri Murugan uncle my amma’s friend and also Sri Danapal for having thought of me to give this programme.

I also take this opportunity to thank my team members Drums Prem uncle, Violin Annathakrishnan anna, Ghatam Hari anna, Mrudhangam Suri uncle, Guitar Suri uncle, Tabla Rajagopal uncle, Sri Karthik audio and the local audio persons for having given excellent support this day and I am sure this was also very important for Sri Kola anand to make this decision.

After a long journey of almost 3hrs from Chennai to Kalhasthi, performance of almost 3 hrs and a night drive back to Chennai for 3 hrs – it was all possible only because of the almighty’s grace. I am sincerely thrilled and I am sure this will be one of my best days ever in my life time. I hope with the grace of Sri Kalahasthi Easwarar and with the wishes of my well wishers I will be in a position to full fill the expectation.

Concert on the Feb 11th, 2007

This is one of the few weddings were people were as silent as in a Sabha concert. It was a full house wedding reception with people really decked up with jewels and I think every one liked the concert but hesitant to express by way of claps but almost every one came near the stage and appreciated me as I was performing. Our team had a nice team with good co-ordination and the sound system of Karthik Audios was also good except that in couple of places hum sound was noticeble.

Just before we started the show, when Guitar Suri uncle had gone some where, appa and myself had a hang of his guitar and photos were taken by me and appa.

A special mention about the Gnambika catering which was superb and the team enjoyed the great variety of food served. I noticed that there were very few children who attended the reception, may be it is exam time.