Wednesday 30 April 2014

It is getting tough to organize music festivals

Budgets for the mandalis has been going up and up. So organizing the music festivals for Sri Ramanavami is hard work for the hosts.

This year seems to have been a trying one for the men at the mandalis. Sponsorship has been slow in coming and sponsors have had tight fists.

As each organizer tries to schedule some top end artistes to present an attractive festival, the team has to consider the fee that artistes seek. Top end artistes from Chennai command fees that makes the hosts think twice before signing them up.

"Today, even Bangalore artistes want to be paid well," says one organizer. "We cannot grudge them the fee that is rightfully theirs but they must also consider the capacity of the host."

Bangalore's rasikas are also demanding; after all this season is their best time to listen to the best.

And if there is one host who feels letdown it is the one in Chamarajpet. The team here is cut up that the fest is treated as a religious-arts event and some governments want to keep away from such colors.

But with the BJP projected to form the next government in Delhi, this team hopes to see great seasons ahead.

Yakshagana too . . .

Music dominates the Sri Ramanavami season at the mandalis. But dance and dance-drama also finds a space at some venues.

Keshava, the curator of the festival for Vani Kala Kendra in Basaweshwara Nagar has been making space for dance too. This year, he scheduled two Yakshagana performances. And he will be pleased with the audience turnout for the two programmes.

On April 29 evening the well known Yakshagana troupe - Sri Idagunji Mahaganapati Yakshagana Mandali led by Karemane Shivananda Hegde - was on stage, presenting ' Seeta-paharana'.
It ran for almost two hours and held the audience till the end.

Shivananda Hegde's troupe is on the road often, for shows. And when the artistes have a show anywhere in Karnataka, they hire a van and do not mind the road travel. "We have so many costumes and props for our shows so being on the road all by ourselves helps," says Hegde whose base is near Honavar in North Karnataka.

Summertime at the Mandali's base is holidays for those who are attending the Yakshagana gurukula. Classes begin as the monsoon breaks out.

The veena and the violin . . .

At a recent concert for Vani Kala Kendra at the Vani school campus in Basaweshwara Nagar, Suma Sudhindra, the city-based veena artiste had Nalina Mohan, the violinist alongside her besides Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma on the mridangam and Narayanamurthy on the ghatam.

Photo features Suma Sudhindra and Nalina Mohan.

Dr. Abdul Kalam to decorate vidwan M. Chandrasekaran


Former president of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam is expected to grace the special event hosted by Sree Rmaseva Mandali at its Chamarajpet venue where a music festival has been on since early April.

The event is on May 1 evening, and on this occasion the S V Narayanaswamy Rao Memorial Award will be decorated on the senior vidwan and violinist, M. Chandrasekaran from Chennai.
The visually impaired vidwan will join his daughter Bharathi to present a violin concert.

On May 3, another great violinist, L. Subramaniam is to be decorated with an award. The hosts have invited the Reserve Bank of India governor, Dr Raghuram Rajan to be the guest at this event and are keeping their fingers crossed on his presence here.

Photo here shows a poster at the venue. 'God of Violin', is how it describes L. Subramaniam

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Evening of the techies . . with a maestro


Bangalore's techies on stage. That was the scene on Monday, April 28 when the special vent-veena-violin concert got underway at Chamarajpet.

The trio - H K Venkataraman ( violinist),  G. Ravikiran ( flute) and Ashwin Anand ( veena) - are all wellplaced and experienced techies in this city and they perform together quite often.
On Monday, they had a great artiste alongside - mridangam maestro Umayalpuram Sivaramam from Chennai.

Having come in early to the venue, the artistes had time to interact with the maestro, backstage. Seen having a long discussion was ghatam artiste Giridhar Udupa who also performed in the concert.

TMK's concert generates much debate on the sidelines

The refreshment tent at the Fort High School in Chamarajpet isn't  a great place to have a cup of coffee or a just-cooked snack.

But the past few days, conversation between rasikas who hang out here before a concert has been on T M Krishna's concert which was on Sunday, April 27 evening.

TMK's concerts nowadays generate much debate and many rasikas under the Big Top had their own strong views; some had left the venue midway, not happy with the unexpected; some stayed on till the end. There were close to 3000 people that evening.


A stage for young artistes

There are some positive notes from this season of music. It provides, in some places a stage for Bangalore's up and coming musicians.

One evening this week, young vocalist Mysore N. Srinath with mridangist Narendra and violinist Archana Matre were on stage at the festival of Sree Ramaseva Mandali in Chamarajpet. They had begun the concert at about 5 p.m. and may have had a dozen people as audience, half of whom were family. ( the photo here is of the three artistes on stage)

And yet the trio carried on with their calling. The hosts could not afford to put on all the lights nor the fans and the shaman may not have been the best place to listen to music on a  day Bangalore bore the heat at about 36degrees. But Srinath and Co. did what they had been invited to.

Young artistes are get a stage at the festival in Seshadripuram and at Vani Kala Kendra; in fact at the latter's venue some of the youngsters are those who learn music/dance at Vani'w campus training and their concerts are well publicized.

The fact that these young artistes get their names into the festival brochures does help to get the buzz around.

< If you were one of this who got an opportunity to perform do share your experience here >>

Monday 28 April 2014

Music on a hill . . .

Sri Ramanavami season has spawned a number of music festivals across Bangalore.
And this provides yet another avenue for local artistes.

The mandali at the famed Guddade Anjaneya Temple in Hanumantha Nagar, near Basavangudi has taken small steps to celebrate the festival as others do.

This year, the mandali had a three-concert festival in the open air.

We could not be here when the music concerts were held but to get a sense of the place we ventured to the unique destination early one recent evening.

A small posse of policemen, looking bored were at their post at one of the flight of stone stairs that takes you to the top. In the nooks along the stairs and at the neatly designed summit were a few young couples and some students revising their lessons, making the best of the shade and the gentle breeze at 5 p.m.

The hillock has been well landscaped and is lush, so it now does not allow much for people seeking a good ledge to survey this part of the city.

The hillock is well lit too.

Rising above the roof of the simple temple is the image of lord Anjaneya, painted in gold and glistening in the summer evening.

The open yard makes for a great open air space for concerts, with a built stage on the north side.

One can only imagine the play of music as it floats in the air here when concerts are held at dusk.


At T. M. Krishna's concert . .



T. M. Krishna performed at the Sreerama Seva Mandali at the Fort High School campus in Chamarajpet on Sunday, April 27.
The attendance must have over 3000 rasikas; almost all chairs under the Big Top were occupied even before Krishna started the recital ; cars of rasikas who came a tad late had to be parked on the main road.

As his his wont nowadays, Krishna had violinist R K Shriram Kumar in the middle, next to him.

Sunday Laksharchana, and then a concert by Neyveli Santhanagopalan


Sunday was just the right time to hold a Laksharchana for the community at the Sree Seshadripuram Ramasree Samithi as the fag end of the annual music concerts it hosts for Sri Ramanavami unfolds.

This took place under a large shamiana that had been raised in the open centre court of this well known school/college. Following the elaborate rituals, a Harikatha by Sosale Suresh was held. By the time this and the distribution of prasadam - given in generous packs to all members - was over it was past 2 p.m.

The Sunday evening concert featured Neyveli Santhanagopalan, with Chennai-based M. Narmadha on violin, Jayachandra Rao on mridangam and Giridhar Udupa on ghatam. Over 400 rasikas were in attendance.

Since the Samithi had to hold over two concerts since polling was held at this campus on April 17, the two concerts held over will be on April 28 and 29. Mambalam Sisters on Monday and R. K. Padmanabha on Tueday.

These two concerts will bring the curtain down on the music festival here.

Monday 21 April 2014

This swamiji attracts listeners from all over

Discourses are also part of the Sri Ramanavami music season. And at the Sree Ramaseva Mandali venue in Chamarajpet, there are a few stalwarts who take the stage.

One hugely popular person is Sri Satyathma Thirtha Swamiji of the Uttradhi Mutt in Bangalore.

His Sreemad  Valimiki Ramayana upanyasa is from April 20 to 24, 8 am onwards for about 90 minutes.

Mandali organiser Abhijit tells us that the swamiji has a legion of diehard followers who will attend almost all his discourses wherever they are held.
He says that 100 to 200 people from neighboring districts take the buses/trains every night, arrive at the venue in Chamarajpet to listen to the swamiji and then take the bus/train back home.

This too adds to the atmosphere of the season here in Bangalore.

Vyalikaval's festival curator, Bhashyam

Behind the music festivals for the Sri Ramanavami season here in Bangalore, are a few men and women who had lots to contribute.

One such person is C R Bhashyam, the man at Vyalikaval.

He is the man who knows his music well, who knows a large number of artistes in Bangalore and outside and who keeps a tab on the concerts.

So for years, this now retired electronics engineer has been given the job by the team at Vyalikaval mandir to curate the music fest at this season of the year.

He keeps a low profile, is at the venue first and has the concert going.

Want to connect with Bhashyam? Call him at 9844497239.

Five veena artistes, one concert



Five veena artistes on stage.
That was the picture on April 15 at the Seshadripuram College open air concert space.
D. Balakrishna, Geetha Ramanand, Revathi Murthy, Manjula Surendra and Vani Yedunandan made for the pancha-veena concert that evening.
They do not perform together often but when invited, they rehearse and then take the stage.

All of them belong to the Doreswamy iyengar bani - Balakrishna is the maestro's son,  Geetha and Revathy are disciples of his prime disciple, Krishnamurthy. The other two are sishyas of Balakrishna. All are in Bangalore.

- Reported by Srimatha Ramanand

Thursday 17 April 2014

Geetha Ramanand, Revathi Murthy on veena

A concert on the veena by Geetha Ramanand and Revathi Murthy at the Sri Raja Rajeswari Nagar Cultural Association's music festival. This concert took place on April 14 evening in Bangalore.
Photo by Srimatha Ramanand.

- KutcheriBuzz invites you too to share photos taken at the Sri Ramanavami concerts that you attend. Mail to - kutcheribuzz@gmail.com

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Pavandeep in Rajaji Nagar

It was a cool evening, the day after heavy rains in Bangalore. 
We were at Rajaji Nagar Rama Mandir. At the concert of C K Pavandeep's concert.

He provided us showers of swaras for Bhairavi, Latangi and Kamas. 

The concert started with the dasar pada Odibaraiyya in Bhairavi. The short and sweet Latangi with Kamas Brochevarevarura was a nice treat to the audience. 

The concert hall was full and Pavandeep managed to hold the rasikas' attention to the end.

- Report by P. Narasimha

April 15 in Seshadripuram: pancha veena concert

Interesting concert at Seshadripuram this evening ( April 15).
A pancha veena concert.

Veena artistes D. Balakrishna, Geetha Ramanand, Revathi Murthy, Manjula Surendra and Vani Yedunandan are featured.

Challenges in Koramangala

The face of Koramangala shows itself after dusk. A time when the billboards come alive, the signboards of stores, restaurants and malls scream and when the pathways are packed with young people.

This is probably the most cosmopolitan of Bangalore, since the people who work in the IT sector hail from all parts of the country and most are young.

Classical music has a small band of followers here. So Dinakar Rao, the secretary of the Sri Rama Seva Mandali here says he and his team has to be satisfied with a small audience for the music festivals.

Partnering Indian Heritage Centre which has two small halls on its premises, the mandali sets up the Sri Rama shrine in one, has the music concerts there and the dances, only on the final evening are held in a  slightly bigger hall.

Photo; Secy. of Sri Rama Seva Mandali, Koramangala, Dinakar Rao.

Music, dance at Koramangala

Here are a few photos that Raghvendra Kulkarni shared with KutcheriBuzz.
These are of events hosted by the Sri Rama Seva Mandali of Koramangala.

The first is of Sandeep Narayan's concert held on Saturday, April 12. The other two photos were shot on the last evening of the music and dance festival ; Rashmi Ravishankar presented and solo and then, the Tarangini dance troupe went on stage.




The OST concert in Seshadripuram



The classical rasika has a list of senior artistes on his mind when it comes to concert choices. One of them is O S Thyagarajan.

OST as he is known all over presented a concert at the Seshadripuram College campus on Monday, April 14 evening with G Chandrmouli on violin, Umayalpuram Mali on the mridangam and Srishyla on the ghatam.

Though the concert went on till about 9.30 p.m. there were about 200 people who stayed on till the end.

Among them was Hariharan. This keen rasika is a station master with the South Western Railway and when he gets his 'off' he attends concerts. "I never got a chance to learn music but I follow it closely,"he said.

Hariharan also collects the autographs of artistes - on brochures, invitation cards and small books that he carries with him. He proudly showed me the signature of Dr. Balamuralikrishna he collected sometime ago.

On Monday evening he collected the signatures of OST and Umayalpuram Mali.

The photos featured here are of OST concert, the artistes receiving prasadam after the event and rasika Hariharan shows his collection of autographs.


Monday 14 April 2014

A break in Seshadripuram; for polling

One mandali will have to take a break this week.

Since the venue used by the Seshadripuram-based mandali is the famous College here and it is a key polling station, the venue will be used for the poll on April 16 and 17, the latter being the polling day in this state.

So the hosts have shuffled the two concerts that were due, to a later date.

Concerts at other venues which are on till the end of the month will go on as planned.

Hyderabad Bros. in concert

The Hyderabad Brothers - Seshachary and Raghavachary - in concert on April 14, Monday at the Sree Ramaseva Mandali music festival at Chamarajpet.
The second photo shows a section of the audience in the front rows.


Who is still the big star?

So who is still a big star at the Sri Ramanavami concerts in Bangalore?
If you go by the attendance then this far it is the veteran K J Yesudoss.

At the Sree Ramanavami Mandali concert at Chamarajpet, the organizers had to arrange makeshift arrangements for rasikas after the tent which can accommodate about 6000 people was over flowing.

The concert took place this past week and though the hosts are well aware of the big attraction that Yesudoss is they didn't expect this big a number.

Mandali hosts say that lots of Keralites still want to listen to him and since his concerts are rare, they come in when the opportunity is there.

The big challenge for the hosts was to regulate the fans when the artiste had to leave the venue.


"There are some diehard fans who sport a beard and even copy the mannerisms of Yesudoss,"says a Mandali team member. "It is amazing!".

Sunday 13 April 2014

Rain. Again.

What a relief these pre-monsoon showers bring to us!

The temperature in Bangalore had hovered around 35/36degrees and created a climate that is peculiar to this place - stifling heat and occasional waves of low chill.

Just after 7 p.m. on Sunday (April 13) the heavens opened and to muted sound of thunder the rain lashed. We were at the pandal in Sri Raja Rajeswari Nagar and the emcee on stage, Brinda said in the passing that the award to the artiste of the evening in the name of Purandaradasa had brought good tidings.

The rain stopped in less than 7 minutes but it was enough to cool the city and make the late evening enjoyable.

Award for vocalist Manda Sudharani

It is a Sunday and we decide to check out the Sri Rama Mandali in Sri Raja Rajeswari Nagar, at one end of the city.  It is a long ride to get there and our auto driver warns us of delays.




The annual Karaga Festival is on and the procession this evening is going to crawl and cover a good part of the city.

The Karaga fest is at the core of Bangalore; celebrated by a people who can be said to be the very early inhabitants of this region. As the metro grew, took a different shape and took care of other gods and goddesses, this fest has been celebrated by a small community.

It takes close to an hour to get across to our destination and we are greeted by the music of the flute in the shaman that has been put up on the local playground ( BEML 3rd Stage).

A aradhana to saint-composers Thyagaraja ana Purandaradasa had been held this morning but it dragged on and people went home only at 3 p.m., says the secretary of the Sri Raja Rajeswari Cultural Association which hosts the music fest for the season.

This is an evening to honor an artiste. And an award in the name of saint composer Purandaradasa is decorated on vocalist Manda Sudharani from Vizag in Andhra Pradesh.

The chief guest for the evening is a distinguished space scientist, Dr B N Suresh, who has been decorated by the country with the Padma Bhushana recognition. He is also a local resident.

The award ceremony is simple and short and once over, Sudharani presents a concert.

Saturday 12 April 2014

Artistes are keen about promos . . .

We snapped this promo on a  flex banner hung inside the Sri Rama Temple and hall at Jaya Nagar's East End recently.
Promos are certainly becoming better and bigger over time.

Artistes too are more keen to have a say in the promos, we are told. It takes a couples of e-mails and phone calls to decide which image can be used for an artiste.

One mandali host says that this is one reason for delay in printing brochures.

Big Sunday at Raja Rajeswari Nagar

Sunday will be a big day at the mandali at Raja Rajeswari Nagar which one might say is in Bangalore Rural zone, if you keep to the election jargon that is flying in the air at General Elections time.

The morning under the tent is devoted to the saint Thyagaraja aradhana recital; artistes will pay a music al tribute and there will be goshti (mass) singing too of the famed pancharatna kritis.

Later in the evening, the mandali is going to honor vocalist Manda Sudharani for her achievement as a Carnatic music artiste. Later she will present a concert.

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Feasting. On food and music. in Jaya Nagar East End.

Religion. Feasting. Music. Community.
What a combination and best seen at the Sri Ramanavami season here in Bangalore.

We had been invited by Prashanth on Tuesday to the Sita Kalyanam event by the mandali at the East End of the sprawling Jaya Nagar neighborhood and got there at the fag end of the religious rituals.

The medium sized hall, carved out of the public utilities plot and built as a local temple was packed with people, mostly women in their brightest.

Even as the priests stuck to their rituals, outside tumblers of buttermilk and of jaggery-lime mix was handed out to the guests who bore the sultry heat of early April. News had come in that there were some good showers in coastal Karnataka but Bangalore sweated hard.

The nadaswaram and tail artistes played on and off, on cue to the priests' suggestion in a hall where for the past seven days Carnatic and Hindustani music had enthralled guests.

V Venkataraman, secretary of the Mandali and longtime Jaya Nagar resident shares stories of early life in this area when there was only one bus from City Market to the border of the nagar, letting early habitants to walk for 45minutes to an hour to get home; how howls and calls of animals in the thick vegetation filled the night and how life was peaceful and quiet.

The festival brings the 500 plus members together. And it welcomes even strangers to a meal every afternoon. Thanks to donations of rice, oil and veggies by well wishers the Mandali offers free lunch every day of the fest.

On Tuesday, when the rituals were done, prasadam presented and the hall cleaned up, everybody sat down for a simple lunch. The desserts of payasam and laddoos were wow.

It was 2.30 p.m. when we dragged ourselves out.

Sri Ramanavami celebrations present the best in food and music. The Jaya Nagar experience was just a window to the season, the atmosphere and the people.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Kanyakumari rewinds to 70s

Senior violinist A Kanyakumari was fighting the sultriness of the backstage room for artistes when we met her at the opening of the fest of Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Chamarajpet. She was to perform along with Kadri Gopalnath this evening.

She said she had first performed here in the 70s.
"Those were times when I performed for MLV... they used to have thatched pandal... but the crowd would be huge... bigger than what we get today. Artistes like MLV, MS ... used to draw big crowds".

Litterateur opens fest in Seshadripuram

Dr. Kamala Hampanna inaugurated the 66th edition of the Sri Ramanavamimusic music fest of the Sree Seshadripuram Ramadeva Samithi this evening (April 8).
Also present was Dr. R V Raghavendra, founder, Ananya, a cultural body based  in Malleswaram.

This fest is held at Seshadripuram main college campus.

It was a still evening; Summer is setting in well and on evenings like today's when there isn't a wave of breeze the sultriness makes you sweat.

The first concert was of saxophone artiste Sridhar Sagar, a sishya of Kadri Gopalnath (Gopalnath was  performing in Chamarajpet this evening). Sagar on stage had tavil and tabla artistes to accompany him.

The fest in Seshadripuram is on till April 29. 

Karnataka state governor opens Sri Ramaseva Mandali fest


Karnataka state governor H. R. Bharadwaj formally opened the 76th edition of the Sri Ramanavami music fest of Sri Ramaseva Mandali at the Fort High School in Chamarajpet on April 8 evening.

Making a very perceptive speech on the Ramayana, the Vedas and the Gita, the governor highlighted the values these propagated. A scholar himself, the governor who was once a Union Cabinet minister also shared details of his own effort to explain the religious texts.

The MD of State Bank of Mysore Sharad Sharma was a special guest. Mandali president Mani Narayanaswami said that the festival is now a landmark event.

The annual souvenir was released on this occasion.

It was also a time to rewind to the time when the Mandali founder S.V. Narayanaswamy Rao began the event off a Bangalore pavement. Rao was then a teenager.

Now, his visage can be seen looking at you from backdrops, the souvenir and on the side of the pandal.

The formal inauguration was followed by a concert by Kadri Gopalnath and violinist A. Kanyakumari. The artistes took at least 15minutes to get the audio levels right; it did test the rasikas but once the notes began to float strongly through the packed pandal, the music had truly taken over.

- Photos are of the venue on the evening of the inauguration and of the first concert.

Election fever peaks

The big guns of the big parties headed to Bangalore. On Monday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spoke at a public meeting in the city.

Today, BJP's Narendra Modi is expected to speak at a meeting in a suburb where IT companies operate.

Traffic movement alerts have been sounded.

But the concerts for Ramnavami will go on.



Two big fests open today

Two well known big mandalis launch their music fests today. April 8.
The Sri Rama Seva mandali at Fort High School in Chamarajpet.
And the mandali in Seshadripuram.

Sangeetha Samabhashane with Balasubramanya Sharma and Dattatreya Velankar

On the evening of April 5, two vidwans conversed, sang and brought out the flavour of Indian music at Sri Rama mandali in East End, Jayanagar. Vid Balasubramanya Sharma on Carnatic music and Pandit Dattatreya Velankar on Hindustani music.

Vid Balasubramanya Sharma and Pandit Dattatreya Velankar performing at Sri Rama Mandali
The vidwans chose raga Mohana and Bhoop respectively in Carnatic and Hindustani.  A detailed alapana and the choice of the kriti, “Nammamma Sharade” were highly intoxicating to the rasikas.  The vidwans picked a common raga Keeravani and a popular composition “Neene Anatha Bandhu” to give the ‘kick’ for the evening.  They complimented each other very well and displayed a rarity of bringing the two forms of Indian music - Carnatic and Hindustani music, together.

Vid Anand Vishwanathan on the violin, Vid Ramanath Ramadas on the Mridangam, Pt Soorya Upadhyaya on the Harmonium and Pt Gurumurthy Vaidya on the Tabla supported well in making a Garland out of flowers.

Photos and report by Prashanth Kumar

Ustad Faiyaz Khan draws huge audience

The foot fall at the Mandali saw its peak on the day of Ustad Faiyaz Khan’s performance. 

He started with a Khyal, “Tan Man Dhan” and jumped into his trump card of rendering devaranamas.  He chose several compositions from the great “Dasa sahitya”. 

The rasikas did not realize that Faiyaz had concluded his rendering with “Bhairav”.  He had captivated the audience to such an extent that none were ready to leave the hall.  He was supported on the Harmonium by Pandit Shivakumar Mahanto and on the Tabla by Pandit Vikas Naregal.

Ustad Faiyaz Khan in performance

A section of the audience
Photos and report by Prashanth Kumar

Amrutha performs to a packed audience at Sri Rama Mandali, Jayanagar


Vid Amrutha Venkatesh rendered a superb vocal recital to a highly knowledgeable rasikas.  She started with Thodi varna, “Eranapai”.  She elaborately spent time singing “Aparama Bhakti” in Panthuvarali. 
She also rendered a superb RTP in Kaapi, “Rama Mantrava Japiso”, lines from Purandaradasa’s devaranama.  She was ably supported on the violin by Vid BK Raghu and BC Manjunath on the Mridangam.
Vid Amrutha Venkatesh in concert




Vid Prince Rama Verma (Right) and Vid Amrutha Venkatesh sharing a lighter moment


Report and photo by Prashanth Kumar

Varijashree on the Flute at Sri Rama Mandali, Jayanagar

On the third day of the Music festival, the stage reverberated to the performance of Vid (Kum) Varijashree’s Flute recital at Sri Rama Mandali, Jayanagar East End.  Such was her perfection that she started the concert with a very short Sa-Pa-Sa and boom, she started with Naatakuranji Varna. 

This was a good start to a silent evening with rasikas trickling in.  All the chairs were occupied by the time she concluded the Varna.  She followed this with a very detailed alapana in raga Nata and recited "Mahaganaptim".  It was a rarity to hear her perform a very detailed swara prastaram to this kriti.  She displayed all the nadais with ease.

Varija then picked a very rare Thyagaraja kriti “Adugaradani” in raga Manoranjani.  “Rama Nee Samaana” in Kharaharapriya was the main item in her recital.  She displayed finesse in rendering this number.  In the lighter parts she rendered “Pibare Rama Rasam”, “Ramchandra Krupalu”, “Venkatachala Nilayam” and concluded the concert with a Balamurali’s Thillana in raga Brindavani.

Ably supported by Vid Achyut Rao on the violin, she kept the audience in awe with her excellent stage presence and humility.  Vid Adamya and Vid Srishaila gave a fantastic boost on the Mridangam and Ghatam respectively.

Reported by Prashanth Kumar

Monday 7 April 2014

Time for prayer

It was a day for Sita Kalyanam.
At two venues.
At Vyalikaval Sri Rama temple the rituals were held first in the temple and then the images of the gods taken out in procession through this quiet colony.
The images were later placed in the hall. They remained there through the evening concert.
Similar rituals were held at the mandali in Jayanagar East End.
Sri Rama Pattabhishekam is due on Tuesday.

Elections; different music

It is 5 p.m. Traffic builds up. We are in Vyalikaval. Traffic slows down and a different music of drums and cymbals greets us. The music of slogans and jingles. On the Vyalikaval roads the election caravan of the JD(S) is in slow motion.

We are in Vyalikaval for the evening's Ramanavami music concert at the local Sri Rama Temple.

We are early and so we stop to have a cup of coffee and the campaigners engulf us. Even the candidate comes in and greets diners tucking in set doses or rava idlis or nursing a hot cup of coffee.

The party's candidate is a former police officer. Abdul Azeem. While the poll music blares Azeez greets the tiffin diners and the caravan moves on.

Elections here are due on April 17.

Friday 4 April 2014

Awards to violinists M. Chandrasekaran and L. Subramaniam

The 76 year old Sri Ramaseva Mandali, founded by S.V. Narayanaswamy Rao decorates musicians with awards in memory of the founder every year. This year marks the 90th birth anniversary of S.V. Narayanaswamy Rao.

Violinist M. Chandrasekaran will receive the S.V. Narayanaswamy Rao memorial National Award this year. The award will be presented to him on May 1 at 6.15 p.m. A violin duet concert by vidwan M. Chandrasekaran along with his daughter and disciple G. Bharathi follows the award ceremony.

The annual 'Rama Gana Kalacharya' award will be presented to violinist L. Subramaniam this year on May 3. He, along with his son Ambi Subramanyam will give a violin duet concert following the function.

The concerts at Sri Ramaseva Mandali are held at the special pandal in Old Fort High School grounds, Chamarajapet and are ticketed. Season passes are available. Contact Sri Ramaseva Mandali at 080-26604031, 26604031

Thursday 3 April 2014

Facade to look at; Bangalore heritage

The Big Daddy of the mandalis is of course the Sree Rama Seva Mandali which has its music fest at the Fort School grounds in Chamarajapet.

Over the years, the facility has got better and better and some may say more swanky and rich - tents, sofas, smart lights and all.

Regulars at this festival may not have missed the heritage school block where car parking space for rasikas is provided.
One school block here has been the result of support made by this Mandali. And it is a great facade to look at in the evening sunlight.

- Photo by R. Revathi

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Srividya Ramanath's vocal concert at Jaya Nagar


On the second day of the music festival (1st April) at Sri Rama Mandali, Jayanagar East end, Srividya Ramanath performed to a reasonably packed audience. ( seen in photo with accompanists)

Her vocal and music maturity was definitely beyond praise.  She started the concert with a varna, “Veeriboni” (Bhairavi).  She sang with ease in the second speed and the samasti charana were beautifully carved out. 

She then chose to sing “Gam Ganapathe” (Hamsadhwani) and “Smarane Sukhamu” (Janaranjani).  She picked a beautiful Tamil composition, “Ramanukku mannan mudi” in raga Hindola.  One could easily recall P Bhanumathi singing this in a 1974 movie.  “Nee vaadane gana” in Saranga carried with it clear sangathis.

Srividya chose “Pakkala Nilabadi” for her main rendition.  The Kharaharapriya alapana was elaborate and she brought out the intricate prayogas of the raga.  She spent a good amount of visthirna on the kalpana swaras. 

H N Smitha on the violin was a good choice for the accompaniment.  She highlighted the right sangathis with ease and she seemed to enjoy the music as she played.  The main attraction at the concert was Shivu (Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma) on the mridangam. 

We did not see rasikas move out during the tani avarthanam.  In fact we witnessed a lot of rasikas moving back just to listen to Shivu.  Along with his nephew Sunaad Anoor he enthralled the audience with his evergreen tala prayogas.

Srividya concluded her concert with Purandaradasa’s composition Rama Rama Enniro.


- Reported by Prashanth Kumar

Cover of the Ramnavami Music Fest Guide 2014

This is the cover of the Sri Ramnavami Music Fest 2014 Guide from KutcheriBuzz. The Guide is in print now and copies will be circulated at all leading mandalis in Bangalore from April 8 onwards. Free of cost.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Mandali in Jaya Nagar starts with Srinath Subbarayan's concert

The 46th edition of Sri Ramaothsava of Sri Rama Mandali in Jaya Nagar's 9th Block got off to a start on Ugadi evening on a traditional note with Dr Srinivas lighting a kuthuvilakku.

Vidwan Srinath Subbarayan was the first artiste featured at the fest. He started his recital with Abhogi Varna followed by Mahaganapathim, Bantureethi Kolu & Thelisi Rama Chintana. 

He sang a very rare composition 'Rama Pahi' in Kaapi raaga followed by a brisk 'Nagumomu'. For his main rendition he chose Bhadrachala Ramadasa's, "Rama Nee Nama" in raaga Purvikalyani. 

Sathyanarayana and Vasudeva Rao supported him on violin and mridangam respectively.

- Reported by Prashanth Kumar H V

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Stage for young talent . . .

Now this is a smart and well meaning goal.
The team which schedules concerts at Vani Kala Kendra in Basaweshwara Nagar keeps in mind the need to provide the stage for young talent.

So it choses the best among students who study at its group of schools in Bangalore and also those from other city schools and one o two from outside.

For Vani it is important to make the music fest relevant to the young ones too - the ones who choose to learn music/dance on campus or outside.

They get 45-minutes slots on top of the evening on a few days; an opportunity to showcase their talent at a key season.

Good idea.