Ganesh Kumaresh - 50 years of Musical Journey

[PRCM]

Vid Ganesh & Vid Kumaresh - the violin duo are completing 50 years of playing together this year. They played their first concert in December 1972. Being in 50s and having 5 decades of concert experience is a tremendous achievement. Hearty Congratulations to the wonderful Duo

[Sachi_R]

I would say GK have shown the way for future violin duos
1. Master technique
2. Expand repertoire
3. Focus on the presentation
4. Create your own idiom
5. Energy... Always
6. Have the best percussion
7. Collaborate
8. Communicate with your audiences before, during, and after the concerts.
9. Be different.
10. Evolve. All the time.

They use Raga Pravaham as their byline. Suits very well. A flood of melody in the pure Carnatic idiom. Can't beat that!

[rajeshnat]

If I can add bit more then points stated by RSachi.

11. Learn the art of marketing from this duo .
12. How to fight when violin concert opportunities are limited and yet finding a way to uniquely keep them float.

13. They are way too strong in layam and they are quick to be creative.
14 . The knowledge of how to adjust the sound is very high. As sachi said they usually only have the best percussion , but i like in general how they balance sound setup.

15. How say Kumaresh helps in positioning Jayanthi with Veena is a great collaboration of a team of musical spouse.
16. I vaguely recollect may be the brothers grew up in Kanpur, then Delhi , then Chennai and now for most part settled in Bangalore . My memory recollects that his appa Rajagopal did a lot for them based on one Hindu writeup . All said The geography shift did not create any discontinuity in their violin learning and performance.

17. few months back I aw a movie directed by ace director late K Balachander called Oru veedu iru vaasal. Two standalone movies , it is brilliant script and these two brothers act in both the stand alone as the main hero. If you have time see that movie , GK were more than OK that too with KB as the directing task master

I am not a big fan of say Raaga Pravaham, it is good in parts, but is is all part of distinct marketing . All related to point #11, #12 and #9

On a side note whenever I have some family or friends accquintance of a upanayanam most likely I only hear these brothers. Infact I recollect hearing atleast 7 concerts in these functions(I did not review that) and i dont think i have heard them say 3 or 4 in kutcheri concerts (which I have written here).

Best wishes to the brothers to excel and remain in the hearts of all rasikas.

[Sachi_R]

I know about a long interview with the brothers that appeared in Lalitha Kala Tarangini that gives much information on the lines that Rajesh has touched upon.

Yes, they have perfected the audio bit. They were the first to use Macs for signal processing and pre-amplification.

Ganesh lives in USA. Kumaresh lives in Bengaluru.

[Sundara Rajan]

If they are in their Fifties and have Fifty years of concert experience, did they start playing together before the age of ten? Just curious.

[Sachi_R]

Sundara Rajan,
They gave their first public concert when they were 7 and 5.

[PRCM]

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjeY ... arWiLhPRQd

The above Playlist is a series about their musical journey. The duo release an episode every Sunday