A Sum up for February and mid March 2016

It has been a great February and a wonderful March as on date. 

While I had the second opportunity to perform in Tamil Nadu Music University as part of the Founder Day's celebrations on the 25th February, I presented 6 sets of Medleys with Ganapathy and Suri uncles, Sridhar anna and my College mate Vijay. The Vice Chancellor Smt Veenai Gayathri Amma was so happy on our Team's presentation and assured to extend more opportunities as the large student assembled  were responding so positively with whistling, clapping and dancing. 

Sivarathri nights:

Thanks to Mr. Harikrishnan, a Carnatic music organiser in Kerala, got the first opportunity to perform in the Prestigious Trupanittura Siva Temple Music series on the 6th March a day prior to Sivarathri. With great enhancement and a wonderful sound we gave a performance that was so well received by the large knowledgeable audience who were so receptive to this concept of Carnatic on Keyboard in a Traditional ground! Thanks to Sri. Narayanan Rao the entire concert has been recorded and now available in YouTube. My pranams to Hari ji for with his request of few songs I could learn performed it for the first time on stage. 

On 7th MArch,  Sivarathri day I had the opportunity to perform with VL KUMAR uncle on Violin, Swaminathan uncle on Flute and Papanasam Kumar on Mrudhangam at BVB Mini Hall in the Sivarathri Agandam conducted by Sri. Kumar and family.

It was a rewind if sort at Kalahasthi on the 8th March, the day after Sivarathri,  as this time the concert ended up with many in the audience personally came in to take selfies and appreciated our presentation.  Thanks to ex Chairman of Kalahasthi Temple Board Mr. Kola Anand and his family got an opportunity to perform on the 6th March, 10 years after my earlier performance and thanks to our Team of Ganapathy uncle, Swami &  Sridhar annas and my friend Vijay it went well with fabulous response from a large audience. 

I have also made my little musical efforts for this year's Cleveland festival and hope it's accepted well, thanks to Shashikiran Anna.

I am waiting to see the upcoming website of one of India's wonderful Camera architect in Sri. Iqbal for which I have tuned some own composition and looking forward to seeing it with his work.

Happy exam time and look forward to Happy Holidaying!!!

"Keyboard - The Trendsetter in Indian Classical Music"- 20 January 2016

Recognition Time

January 2016 was a month especially of bringing RECOGNITION in a great way! Yes the Etv reality show of legendary SPB sir's Padutha Theeyaga was telecast on the 11th and 18th January and was overwhelmed with the calls and the messages all over the world. I was humbled and honoured with SPB sir's compliments, wishes and blessings in the show.

On the 20th January i had the opportunity to present first full length Lec-dem titled "Keyboard - The Trendsetter in Indian Classical Music" in the National Conference organised by The Tamil Nadu Music And Fine Arts University, Chennai and South Zone Cultural Centre, Thanjavur and i was really exited to do a good job as it was for the first time i was attempting to do this at this Grand Level. It turned out good with Nadas Bala anna and Swami anna enhancing my presentation with their Nadaswarama and Mrudhnagam respectively with Thirunavukarasu anna's Team on Sound. My sincere thanks to the Vice Chancellor Tmt. Veenai Gayathri amma for the thought of calling me and also blessings me. 

I was so happy that Veenai Gayathri mam stayed for the entire presentation of mine and blessed me with great words of appreciation. I was humbled and honoured when my request to her to open a Department exclusively for Keyboard in the University, was accepted in principle and also assured to do so if i would directly get involved in the process with my presence along with people i could train with. WoW!  I was in cloud nine and understood that while the Lec-Dem has been successful More Responsibility has just got Added up on me! Looking forward to a positive outcome on this venture soon!

I also had a good feeling when people of my age and students from Sai Fine Arts, Nanganallur who looked at me as a roll model and wanted to take photos with me! It was again a honour to have been on a stage as Guest of Honour with a Padma Vibhushan Awardee, Sri Trichur Ramachandran who was so simple and was nice to interact with no frills attached of him being a Great Musician! Another person in my life from whom a great lesson learnt to keep our heads down in spite of name and fame!

What was most surprising is the Most Surprising opportunity coming way in Doordharshan through my college Professor's wife to give an intro for this year's Thyagaraja Aradhana Pancha Rathna Krithis presentation which was to be telecast live and was indeed blessed! My concert also went well in Thiruvaiyaru and it was so nice to see me on the DD screen just before the start of the Pancha Rathna Rendition at Thiruvaiyaru. 

Thanking Almighty for all these recognition and many more to come as well with prayers to have a cool head as always! The gigs with Mysore Manjunath uncle and Ms. Mahathi along with Rajesh Vaidhya anna gave different experiences and look forward to great Years Ahead as i enter 21from this February!

Seeking all your wishes, blessings and Almighty's Grace, signing off from this post.   

Welcoming The New Year 2016

Had a good send off to 2015 with a good gig with Embar ji at Vani Mahal this time along with many musicians organised by Carnatica. 

The New year 2016 has begun with a good presentation of the first concert for Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha on the 2nd January. I was so moved when i saw Rajesh Vaidhya anna in the audience for this concert and sincerely appreciate his expressive nature of showing up his love and affection for me. Even though you have many rasikas turning up for concerts and this has been on the growth side in the past year, seeing an artist of his calibre to come and spend time was indeed a surprise!

I was also pleasantly shocked when Rajesh Vaidhya anna mentioned that he felt me missing on stage at The Music Academy while he performed a Solo on the 1st January during this year's Sadas. I do not know how many of us would do this! He indeed is a different artiste not only on performance but also in the Way he supports, encourages and compliments his co-artists. Hats Off Anna!

The Thematic solo concert for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on the 14th January was indeed a challenging presentation what with myself committing to perform just Navagraha Krithis for a 90 minute concert. While i did not expect many to turn up on that day to my surprise the mini auditorium in the 2nd floor of BVB, Mylapore was full and with Almighty's Grace managed to present the Navagraha krithis with some detailed Alapana and kalpanaswaram as well. I enjoyed the enhancement give by Madurai Venkat, Sunil and Hari annas and with "The Grace of Navagrahas" the concert went well and was indeed well received by one and all. A blessing and honour was the presence of many in the audience and in particular Sri. Keyboard Venkatasubramanian sir, a senior musician, keyboard artiste and a wonderful composer and Smt. Malavika, A Musicologist. They did interact with me and appreciated this Theme Presentation which they felt was indeed a Brave and Successful Effort.

Sum up for the Year 2015

Its been quite a long time to be precise over 8 months since i got in touch with through the blog. I sincerely feel bad but with WhatsApp, twitter and facebook we tend to communicate in short and the habit of detailing is really been lost. What a Shame! After all our custom and culture is to narrate incidents in detail and this art is now almost dwindling due to sheer laziness and un willingness to spare time, even though we definitely can make it. Let me try and be as narrative as possible at least from now on and hope to be in regular touch.

The second half of last year has been very encouraging. With many concert presentations happening with Sivamani anna & Rajesh Vaidhya anna which has given me greater experience, especially to show case the presentation in different perspectives. The solo programs have also grown up in terms quality of presentation growth in Audience turn out and thats indeed a encouraging sign.

The flood in December has indeed taken its toll with water coming into our house to almost 3 - 4 feet and thank Almight we have managed to survive with considerably a lesser loss in terms of valuable and yes it has increased our confidence and the outlook of life totally. 

The concert for Brahma Gana Sabha which i thought was gone, came our way and it was a totally a different experience to collaborate with Mannargudi Vasudevan uncle on Thavil and Sreesundarkumar anna on Mrudhangam. Teaming up with Embar ji this was indeed one of The Best Concerts of my career and look forward to many more. The Season concerts went very well also with Rajesh Vaidhya anna and one more with Embar ji. The encouraging factor is that in all the concerts the audience attendance is growing!