Saying good-bye on a pleasant rainy night

And so, on a rainy Sunday night the curtains came down on the 2016 edition of the Sri Ramanavami music festival in the garden city.

At Chamarajpet, rasikas slipped out to have a cup of coffee during Vishaka Hari's discourse - the gentle chill must have made them do that.

Hari's high- pitched sharp singing floated beyond the Big Tent so you could sip coffee and enjoy the musical discourse.

The Old Fort School ground had puddles of rainwater. It was close to 9 p.m. and traffic had died down.

It was time to say good bye.

30,000 hours of archival music

Imagine the fund of archival music that will be available to rasikas from the storehouse of Sri Ramaseva Mandali when it goes public.

30,000 hours of music of the maestros, the young and the great talent. From the 1940s to the 2002 period.  Since then, concerts are not being recorded because of several issues including copyright and payment.

Some 30% of the archival music has been digitized we are told and once in place, this will be offered for online listening to donors of the Mandali who pay Rs.50,000 in one go.

After the fest, time to raise funds

Sri Ramaseva Mandali's campaign to garner funds, online and off has had a slow start. Much of the campaign will have to target NRIs.

The mandali's managers now realize that they cannot expect to tap just the Bangalore corporates and well wishers because the costs are spiralling.

Varadaraj says that his dad started the Ramanavami fest with one rupee, 78 years ago. Today, the budget is above two crore rupees.

Donors to the new fund will not only get tickets to the music fest but also access to archival music.

Dancing in the rain; in Basaweshwaranagar

Rain greeted us as we headed to Basaveshwaranagar on Sunday, May 8 evening. This nagar and its neighbour, Rajajinagar are alive most parts of the day and night, rain or no rain.

Classical dancers, the Rajendras were to perform on the last day of the seasonal fest of Sri Vani Kala Kendra.

The large canopy of metal and cloth saved the show; though rain battered the quadrangle and rendered some seats wet, there were some 500 people under the canopy where the rain created its own music.

And yet, the rainy evening was a nice setting for a dance recital as Nirupama launched into a Bharatanatyam solo on a lord Krishna theme - performing on a stage bathed in blue and red lights, the rain now down to a drizzle.

Then came the second part of the recital - Kathak in Harikatha style by her and Rajendra in a show themed 'Ramaneeyakam'.

Among the musicians seated safely on the side, it was a study to watch the mridangist, a large man vibe with the dancer's movements, his facial contortions creating a movement of their own!

Story-telling by Vishaka Hari

Sunday's evening rain was steady but it did not discourage rasikas from attending the final show of Sree Ramaseva Mandali in Chamarajpet.

On stage was Chennai-based Vishaka Hari with her 'Ramayana' themed musical discourse.

Vishaka chose to deliver in English and in Thamizh and as is her wont, peppered her discourse with contemporary anecdotes.

"The rakshashas are said to be ones who work at night,"she said. "In Bangalore, lots of young people now work till 3 a.m…sleeping at daytime and working at night!"

Hundreds of stories; under, outside and away from the Chamarajpet Big Tent

With 78 years of music and hosting a festival, the records of Sree Ramaseva Mandali can offer you and me a huge volume of anecdotes and events that make cultural history.

On the sidelines, the Varadaraj father-son duo who manage the mandali can share a few as can some senior team members.

Of that occasion when flutist Mali conveniently failed to take the train to Bangalore for the Mandali concert and Varadaraj's father sent a taxi and an aide to Madras to bring the maestro to the venue; the arrival was very delayed, a stand-in artistes performed and when Mali finally took the stage it was 10 p.m. and Mali played till dawn and many rasikas stayed on.

Or of the time when pro-Kannada supporters opposed the concert of MS and the Kannada poets expressing their support for MS. A huge continent of police had to be called to the venue as tempers boiled. MS though performed quietly and there were no nasty incidents. Later, it was found that the issue was blown up merely due to personal egos that involved the mandali's head!

Or the time when Semmangudi Srinivasaiyer threw a tantrum when he was paid less than agreed and he walked away in a huff. The artiste is said to have had a voice problem thence and was told that it would be good to say sorry to the mandali hosts. He did and soon, he regained his voice!

Photo featured here is of a display at the Chamarajpet venue

Aruna Sairam's evening . . .

It was vocalist Aruna Sairam's evening at Sree Ramaseva Mandali on May 7, Saturday. She was decorated with an award that recognises senior artistes.

Later, in her elements Aruna presented her concert in her style - high pitched and energetic. There were about 2000 rasikas under the Big Tent at Chamarajpet

Nasty summer, surprise rain..and music continues

Only two mandalis in Bangalore have carried through their music/dance tests into May.

And though the city experienced the highest summer temperatures, the skies grew dark and is rained this week.

At Chamarajpet and at Basaweshwaranagar, the hosts had already hoisted their tents  at the start of the festivals in anticipation of the rains.

It rained steady on Sunday evening and though the waters left some parts of the school campus of Sri Vani Kala Kendra wet, there were about 1000 people to watch a dance recital of the Rajendras of Bangalore.

Two big artistes on Sat, May 7 evening

Two big artistes on stage this Saturday - Aruna Sairam at the Chamarajpet Mandali at 6.45 pm and Chitravina Ravi Kiran at Basaweshwaranagar four Sri Vani Kala Kendra at 6.30 p.m.

Award for Kadri Gopalnath

Chennai-based saxophone maestro Kadri Gopalnath who hails from Mangaluru was decorated with this year’s S.V. Narayanaswany Rao National Award by Sree Ramaseva Mandali on May 1.

The guests included union minister Ananth Kumar.
Later, he performed under the Big Tent.

The award celebrates the founder of the mandali and given every year at the music festival.

Jayanthi Kumaresh concert cancelled; instead Akkarai Subbulakshmi's violin solo

NOTICE FROM SREE RAMASEVA MANDALI, BANGALORE :

DUE TO HEALTH ISSUES SMT JAYANTHI KUMARESH WILL NOT BE PERFORMING 

TODAY (MAY 2).

VIOLIN SOLO CONCERT BY AKKARAI SUBBALAKSHMI HAS BEEN ARRANGED. TUMKUR RAVISHANKAR WILL ACCOMPANY HER ON THE MRUDUNGA & TRICHY KRISHNA ON GHATA.

REGRET THE INCONVENIENCE CAUSED.

THE MANDALI PRAYS FOR THE SPEEDY RECOVERY OF SMT.JAYANTHI KUMARESH

The big concerts at fag end of festival . . .Check them out

As the month-long season of music and dance this Sri Ramanavami festival slips into the final lap, a few top-rung artistes will perform at various venues.

Saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath performs on Sunday, May 1 at the Big Tent at Chamarajpet ( Fort High School campus).

On May 3, Bangalore Shankar is at Chamarajpet.

On May 4, M S Sheela performs at Chamarajpet and Nirmala Sundararajan at Vani kala Kendra, Basaweshwaranagar.

On May 5, S. Sowmya is at Chamarajpet and P. Unnikrishan sings here the next day ( May 6)

On May 7, Aruna Sairam performs at Chamarajpet ( 6.30 pm) while maestro Ravi Kiran plays on the chitravina at Vani Kala Kendra, Basaweshwaranagar. (6.30pm)

On May 8, Vishaka Hari gives a musical discourse at Chamarajpet on ' Thyagaraja Ramayana'.

Evening of music by T V Sankaranarayanan

On Friday, the underground section of the Metro Rail was being inaugurated at Vidhana Soudha and the road along the Majestic Circle and the City Railway Station was crowded. The vehicles crawled on the Race Course Road, but Hare Krishna Road on the other side leading to Seshadripuram College was peaceful. 

Senior vidwan T. V. Sankaranarayanan presented a vocal concert for Sree Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi at the college. 

Accompanying him were N.C. Madhav on the violin, Salem Srinivasan on the mridangam and Y.C.S. Madhubabu on the kanjira. 

His concert had the masterpieces of his uncle and guru Madurai Mani Iyer. While presenting the Devamanohari kriti of Mysore Vasudevachar, TVS informed the audience that his 'mama' used to sing the rare composition occasionally.

Another Madurai Mani Iyer special 'Maa Janaki; in Kambhodhi was the main kriti of the concert. The swarakalpana brought back the memories of typical sarva laghu patterns of Mani Iyer. Choosing the traditional ragas Purvi Kalyani, Todi and Kanbodhi, TVS presented a vibrant concert. 

The organisers of the Samithi sum up the renderings of each concert just after the Tani avartanam. Obviously, the member who spoke about the concert remembered Madurai Mani Iyer well and thanked TVS for the wonderful concert.

- Report and photo: R. Revathi

Bharat Sundar in concert . . .

Bharat Sundar in concert recently at the Seshadripuram college campus as part of the local mandali's Sri Ramanavami Music Festival.

Photo courtesy: Rajee

M S Sheela's sishya shares her emotions

Young Carnatic music vocalist Srimatha Ramanand is a sishya of M S Sheela of Bangalore. This past week, she accompanied her guru at her concert at the Seshadripuran Sri Ramanavami Mandali's concert at the Seshadripuram School/College campus.

Srimatha shared her thoughts and a photo of that concert. Her lines are featured below -

It was an amazing experience for me to sing with my guru, Sangeetha Kalarathna M S Sheela at Seshadripuram, for its where I grew up listening to all the stars of Carnatic music, even as I played in the mud and ran around! 

At this soncert, my guru was accompanied by Nalina Mohan (violin),  Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma (Mridanga) and G Guruprasanna (Khanari)

When politicians delay music tests . . .why wait?

Bangalore's far-flung neighborhoods are made distant now by the chocking traffic. It takes us close to an hour to get to Rajarajeswari Nagar, off the Mysore Road and in the BEML areas, from the city centre. 

The mandali here is launching its Sri Ramanavami festival of music and dance on Sunday ( April 17) and as is its practice, has erected a huge pandal in a public, open space.

The alcove created to house the images of the gods and goddesses inside the mantapam is the best we have seen in the city's mandalis 

It is close to an hour since the inauguration was due and the hosts are on tenterhooks - a local corporator and a legislative council member - both guests have still not turned up and the mandali team prefers to wait for their arrival while other guests and the artistes cool their heels. Some people prefer to move out.

When the guests do finally arrive and the event starts with well-known Hindustani vidwan Dr Shyamala G. Bhave as chief guest, the speeches take a good one hour.

Mambalam M. K. S. Siva an this seven-member troupe finally get on the stage for their nadaswaram-tavil concert.

Late-coming guests must be best ignored and artistes must not be made to twiddle their thumbs to accommodate insensitive guests. 

In the case of this mandali, the hosts seem to be beholden to local politicians for reasons beyond them.

Thief makes off with money paid to T. M.Krishna

After the low-profile launch and a small audience for the opening concert, a nadaswaram-tavil recital, the Seshadripuram college campus was a busy beehive on Sunday evening as rasikas doubled in for a concert by T. M. Krishna.

The artistes were late by some 25 minutes ( caught in the city's infamous traffic jam, said violinist H K Venkataram ) but the house of some 1000-plus people waited patiently as Krishna, as is his wont made sure the audio levels were right before launching off in his trademark style.

On Sunday, some city newspapers carried news on the unfortunate turn in Krishna's evening. Somebody had made off with the huge amount of cash that was paid to him as artistes' renumeration, at the venue even as he was chatting with well-wishers here.

The mandali here was in the news for a nasty note a thief had struck that Sunday night.

T. M. Krishna in concert in Seshadripuram

Dull stages, poor design at venues

Mandalis in Bangalore give much thought to curating their festivals; making sure they can host the best and talented.

But few give the same attention to the design and lighting of the venue and the stage.

At Seshadripuram ( photo above), the contractor's men had done a standard job - stringed dozens of small illuminations on the roof of the stage and focussed some glaring floodlights on the puja and artistes stage area.

With some thought and design, and a few additional lights, the stage zone can be made appealing and also highlight the artistes on stage.

At Koramangala, the concert space is depressing - the tube lights bathing the hall at Indian Heritage Centre in the 6th Block create a dull sight. The stage is simple but the artistes are in darkness.

Outside, a few strands of illumination hang from the walls. The world does not know a music fest is on here; there are no signboards at the gate.

Mandali hosts says funds crunch limit their ambitions. Design and intent and not just funds help to create attractive venues and stages for arts events.

And this is important.

Opening evening at Seshadripuram; nadaswaram as always!

We headed to Seshadripuram on April 15 evening - the day of Sri Ramanavami.

It was sultry and people said Bangalore was sizzling at 39 degrees and the temperature was bound to rise further.

At the school-college campus where the local mandali was to launch its music festival, three dozen people wore dull looks - there was hardly any breeze and the stillness was hard.

Thankfully, the formal inauguration of the fest - by  Dr. M R V Prasad, a well known physician and vocalist who also heads the Bangalore Gayana Samaj - was short and crisp.

Host Tarakaram said that though nadaswaram music drew a small audience it was his mandali's tradition to open every fest with a nadaswaram concert.

So this Friday evening, we had from Trichy, Tamil Nadu, senior vidwan S. Ramachandran ( nadaswaram), Kulithalai S. Subbarayan, M N R Chinnaraja (special Tavil) and J. Swaminathan.

The artistes took off minutes after they sat on stage and it was indeed a glorious recital town audience of about 300 plus people.

T. M. Krishna in Bangalore; two concerts this weekend

For fans of vocalist T. M. Krishna, there are back to back concerts this weekend in Bangalore.

Krishna, who is singing on Friday evening for a Ramanavami concert in Mylapore, Chennai will perform at the Seshadripuram mandali on Saturday evening ( 6.30 p.m.) and for the Sree Ramaseva Mandali at Chamarajpet on Sunday evening ( 6.30 p.m., ticketed recital).

Also a time for artistes to catch up . . .

The season of music in Bangalore and around is indeed a festival. It is a time when artistes get the opportunity to perform every other evening and with an array of talents.

And opens windows to catch up too.

On our way back from the Mysore soiree, we get to know two Bangalore-based artistes better. 

Violinist Ganesh Kumar has had two teaching stints in Singapore - with two arts organizations on the island nation. The one with SIFAS, says Kumar as we dine on 'set dosas' and roti-curry at a wayside diner, was good. The other with another arts body was hell. So he scurried back to Bangalore for good.

Kumar says he is now 'fifty-fifty' in his career - with teaching music and performing. "There are good concert opportunities so I prefer to be ready for them," he says.

Percussionist veteran Anoor and Halambi, ghatam artiste talk about the lessening invites from film studios for musicians today and hence, the loss of renumeration from one stream. "It's all digitized and tech-focussed so they don't need musicians," says Anoor.

Music in Mysore . . .

A bunch of artistes were to perform in Mysore. For Sri Ramanavami. And they invited us to join them one recent evening.

So we made the drive, a not-so-smooth one - it takes ages to get outside Bangalore, ages to bypass the new neighborhoods and then, a highway that runs through small towns that are growing - like Ramnagaram and Mandya - is not the best road for people who want to a quick and smooth ride.

Mysore is chaotic today. And is still expanding. In the old part of town, the Sri Ramaseva Mandali Charitable Trust of Mysore North has been hosting the seasonal music fest for 21 years. At a wedding hall next to a temple in V V Mohalla.

The fest opened with M S Sheela's concert on April 8. We were here when Papanasam Ashok Ramani was to sing. With him were Anoor Ananthakrishna Sarma ( mridangam), N N Ganesh Kumar on the violin and Bhargava Halambi on ghatam - the last three from Bangalore.

People stroll in and out, from the temple while some 80 to 100 people sit through concerts here - the venue may not offer a great ambience but provides rasikas some good music.

The fest ends on April 17 with the honoring of veteran artiste Neela Ramgopal and her concert.

The team led by president Sudha Ramprasad manages this fest and artistes from Chennai a regulars here.

Contact - 2510974.

Ramana on the veena . . .

At Sri Rama Seva Samithi, Sriramapuram, Bangalore on April 10 evening -Ramana Balachandhran on the veena, on the mridangam is B.S. Prashanth

and on the ghatam Phanindra Bhaskar.

A stage for Bangalore's young talent

N S Abhishek is singing on stage. Alongside him are musicians of his age - Anirudh Bharadwaj on violin, Nagendraprasad on mridangam and Ganesh Murthy on ghatam. (photo below)

We are at Vani Kala Kendra's festival venue, a school campus in Basaweshwaranagar.

Here, every evening the curator of this fest, Keshav allots 45minutes to a snappy concert by youngsters.

The recitals are attended by a handful of people, mostly family and friends of the artistes on stage. But for the artistes performing at the Vani stage, the recital adds weight to their biodata. It can make an impression on other festival hosts. And it can encourage the talents.

Keshav says he draws up his list for the Sri Ramanavami season over the year; most artistes are alumni of the Vani group of schools where the arts is given much space and time.

Others too apply and get a nod. 

25 years of Sri Ramanavami music at Basaweshwaranagar

It is the silver jubilee year of the Sri Ramanavami music celebration of Vani Kala Kendra in Basaweshwaranagar. The central image of the tambura on the brochures and backdrop on stage sports the silver foils.

Curator Keshav says that the jubilee is a low-profile milestone; the focus being on the mix of the concerts on offer across 30 years.

He recalls the first edition of this fest when the stage was small and there were three concerts.

Today, at least 750 people of the area attend the concerts regularly.

Days when concerts went on till midnight!

Chennai-based vocalist Papanasam Ashok Ramani sang at the Vyalikaval Mandali on Sunday evening.

He had three back to back concerts in Bangalore and Mysore.

Ramani says he has sung at Vyalikaval when the Mandali used to put-up a stage in front of the temple and people used to be seated in the street beyond it.

"Concerts used to go on till 10.30 p.m. and people would stay on till the end. The audience would be big," Ashok recalls.

Golden jubilee. At Vyalikaval.

The Vyalikaval community in Malleswaram zone is lending its hand to celebrate the Sri Ramaseva Mandali's golden jubilee this year.

Fireworks and high profile events were not on the mind of the Mandali team. But the concerts will run for 30 days.

The man who curates the fest is Bhashyam. He has his connections across south India and does not stop from inviting artistes from other states.

The Mandali's small but well-designed hall has good acoustics and though now, only 70/100 people sit through a concert, the music on offer is easy on the ears.

The main street here is illuminated.

The community though will be looking forward to the temple's kumbhabishekam in late April ( the auditorium stands alongside the temple).

M S Sheela in concert; Basaweshwaranagar

M. S. Sheela in concert at Vani Kala Kendra campus, Basaweshwaranagar, Bangalore on Sunday evening. Alongside her as accompanists - Nalina Mohan on the violin, H S Sudhindra on mridangam and G Omkar Rao on ghatam

Music in Sriramapuram . . .

There are many sides to Bangalore. The old areas which live in the very past still survive.

On Saturday evening, we drove through chaos and heavy traffic to get to Sriramapuram. A neighborhood that lies in darkness in most parts, tonight the temples of Sri Anjaneya and Sri Rama were bathed in strings of illumination.

The Sri Rama Temple is a small one and has been recently reconstructed by the Trust that manages it affairs. Another Trust hosts the Sri Ramanavami celebrations. Music is a part of it.

One admires the tenacity and dedication of the hosts - to host music in a small, old hall where the music is drowned by peak-hour traffic on its two sides and passers-by stop for a few minutes to peep in and watch the concert in progress.

This hall, still bearing the old design strong and well was raised and owned by a local patron. This year, a Trust member funded its repairs and white-wash - so it looked clean and neat this weekend.

Some 30/40 people sit through the concerts; this is a no-frills kind of celebration. Simple. Easy. Friendly.

Inside this small hall is the large stage erected, plus space marked out for the audio controls and chairs for seniors. Nobody complains. People listen to the artistes. It does not matter who the artistes are - famous, talented, young. The music makes the celebration of the season.

At the end of the concert, prasadam ( made by a neighborhood family) and sweets are distributed to all those present.

Donors can drop off their contributions in small boxes.

This evening, the well-known percussionist Anoor Ananthakrishna Sarma and his team of young musicians are on stage. Sweat bathes them all. But they seem to enjoy their session.

Full house for Sanjay's concert

These images capture the mood of vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan at his concert on Saturday evening at Chamarajpet for Sree Ramaseva Mandali.
The Big Tent was packed - at least 2000 people attended this concert on Day Two of the festival here.

Debate about music festivals and star artistes . .

Does it make sense to host long music festivals like the Sri Ramanavami ones in Bangalore? Must we host top-rung artistes, mostly from Chennai when opportunities must be given to local artistes on stage?

These are questions and issues that pop up again in the media as the 2016 edition of the music festival is about to take off.

'The Hindu' newspaper's Art & Culture section has a feature devoted to this theme and it it posts the opinions of many arts promoters in this city.

Ananya's Dr. Raghavendra is against the long-drawn festivals. And he favours concert space for local artistes than the famed ones. One mandali host says that people are keen to listen to top-rung artistes and want the mandali to host them in their locality.

This debate is not new. And it will rage for sometime. Though the schedules of many mandalis does list many Karnataka artistes.

Is there more to this debate then? An undercurrent that is evident?

Bombay Jayashri in concert / Chamarajpet

Campaign to raise funds for festival

Sree Ramaseva Mandali also launched its funds campaign on the opening evening. A web site - www.fundmandali.org - has been created for this purpose. It was formally launched this evening though a big screen hardly showed up the home page of the site and the exercise didn't work well.

Repeatedly, the hosts asked rasikas to be generous and contribute. There is a booth on this campus where volunteers accept donations.

Clearly, sponsors' donations are not enough now to run a big music festival that this mandali does.

Sudha Murthy inaugurates . . .

This year's inauguration of the music fest in Chamarajpet was simple and quick. Sudha Murthy, writer and philantrophist and wife of IT baron Narayanamurthy of Infosys was the chief guest.

The no-fuss lady came on time, chatted with well-wishers, made a short speech and sat through the concert. 

A banner on the Infosys Foundation that Sudha manages, promoting basic education was prominently displayed inside the Big Tent.

Opening Evening at Chamarajpet

The Big Tent in Chamarajpet came alive on Ugadi evening. The duo of Bangalore Lakshman and Ramesh Babu let the nadadaswaram notes float around Sree Ramaseva Mandali's makeshift auditorium though there were only a handful of rasikas inside then.

The evening was sultry ( it drizzled a bit later ). Tickets sold fast as the time for Bombay Jayashri's concert neared.  There are rasikas, a good number who pay Rs.500 here to get front row seats for concerts of their favorite artiste.

The box-office here was also selling season tickets; much preferred for the good deal it offers.

The box office team said they would be strained on Sunday when Yesudoss is scheduled to sing here; they expect 5000 people.

Bigtime artistes will perform early

This is also the season when the top end artistes tour Europe and USA. The famed Cleveland Aradhana festival has just got over and artistes who were there, will now be doing local tours.

Others are about to fly out.

That is why people like Bombay Jayashri, Sanjay Subrahmanyan and K. J. Yesudoss are keeping their dates in Bangalore in the first week of the season here, before flying out.

Move to raise funds online; will this work?

Over the last five years of the Sri Ramanavami season, we have kept hearing about the big challenge that organizers in Bangalore now face - raising funds.

Most mandalis have loyal supporters but their donations are not enough.

As expenses rise and artistes too seek better renumeration, mandali managers have to think of more ways to raise funds.

This year, Sree Ramaseva Mandali plans to launch an online funds raising space to get donations from across the world, from well-wishers and rasikas.

This Mandali has a big budget and is surely feeling the pinch.  

Will online fund-collection campaigns work?

Welcome to Season 2016!!

Svagatam! to yet another music festival at Sri Ramanavami time here in Bangalore.

We at KutcheriBuzz are happy to be back to doing what we enjoy - reporting this unique season of music ( and some dance) across the Garden City. 

We hop from one mandali tent to the next, over the evening and capture the moods and colors of the festival, meeting artistes and organizers, talking to rasikas and shooting pictures.

Our attempt is to bring this season closer to rasikas across the world. In the best way we can.

We do welcome contributions from you too - you can mail short notes on a concert you enjoyed this season. Add a nice photo too! Mail to - kutcheribuzz@gmail.com. But you must do this quick!

Together, the coverage may well be a great one.

Welcome!