Cleveland Aradhana 2008

ramanathan · Post by **ramanathan** » 24 Mar 2008, 23:44

More pics posted: RKS, Kalpakam Mami, Sudharani Raghupathy, etc.

http://www.carnatica.net

vainika · Post by **vainika** » 24 Mar 2008, 23:53

A couple of additions to complete Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan's list, just conveyed by Srini Pichumani from Cleveland...
starting piece nATa-aTa tAla varNam of Swati Tirunal, and concluding piece praNatArtiharam of Mysore Vasudevachar in chenjuruTi.

Srini has promised to post a review on here, soon.

Ramanathan, many thanks for the pix!

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 25 Mar 2008, 01:11

Amazing pictures!
Thanks Ramanathan/Shishya

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 25 Mar 2008, 01:47

ramanathan wrote:More pics posted: RKS, Kalpakam Mami, Sudharani Raghupathy, etc.

http://www.carnatica.net

Who is the lady sitting behind Kalpagam mami, in couple of the photos?

rrao13 · Post by **rrao13** » 25 Mar 2008, 01:51

Mrs. Jayalakshmi Sekhar; she came over to teach the children - Sustaining Sampradaya concert.

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 25 Mar 2008, 06:33

I've started a new thread in the Kutcheri section for reviews/songlists from the Cleveland concerts.

I met fellow formumite Manakkal Sriram today. He is a wonderfully warm person and I think meeting the Manakkal family here has been one of he highlights of my trip.

VKV-sir, Rrao13, Srini and Shishya, I would like to touch base with you if possible. I was wearing a brown fleece sweater today and sitting in the third row behind Ravikiran and the Carnatica brothers.

I will also ask for Ramanathan's help to try to spot you...

shishya · Post by **shishya** » 25 Mar 2008, 17:32

Mahavishnu,
I am back home from Cleveland. I had to go on Thursday to attend the competitions on Friday and then got back by Sunday night. I got a chance to say hello to Sri Lakshman on Saturday.

rrao13 · Post by **rrao13** » 25 Mar 2008, 17:39

Shri Mahavishnu: I returned to Detroit on Sunday but may be back during the week-end. I am eager to see/hear Shri Manakkal Rangarajan. I too met Shri Manakkal Shriram - and I agree with your sentiment - meeting them was an experience that I will cherish forever.Shri Shriram is exactly like how you described - wonderful and warm and such an easy going gentleman with a perpetual smile on his face. I could not recognize Shri Rangarajan because he looked so different while sitting in the Comfort Inn lobby. I shamelessly blurted out to Shriram and Mrs. Rangarajan that he looked far younger when I saw him the previous day during the Pancharathna rendering. They told me that when he is in a concert mode and sitting on the stage, he transforms into a different person - there is a glow in his face which makes him younger and vibrant. Very interesting and very true. I felt the same way with Shri Srikantan. Ever Green Heroes of CM.

I am curious to know if any rasikas attended the Prahlada Bhakthi Vijayam (Saturday night) concert and the Kamalamba Navavarna concert (tonight) and their feedback. Many children and their teachers spent countless hours in preparing and practicing and your feedback comments will help the children to better themselves in the next Aradhana. Thanks in advance.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 25 Mar 2008, 18:23

Dear Mahavishnu,
I am unable to come to Cleveland this year due to a combination of weddings, birthdays etc of very close ones. I live in Los Alamos, NM but do get around usa during March-Dec & in Chennai from mid Dec to early March. Would very much like to meet you. My email is: vkv43034@yahoo.com. Lets correspond & make it happen......vkv

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 25 Mar 2008, 19:05

If Manakkkal looks great now one should have seen him during his younger days. He was elegance personified with a magnetic charm. Sriram has inherited the gene

mridangamkid · Post by **mridangamkid** » 25 Mar 2008, 22:53

Would anyone mind telling me how the SS concert on Monday went? I had to leave on Sunday and really would like to know how the Monday concert was.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 25 Mar 2008, 22:56

As suggested do please discuss controversial issues and those relating to arrangement and execution of the competitions etc at
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=75649#p75649

Thanks

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 25 Mar 2008, 23:27

rrao, shishya: sorry to have missed you both.
vkv-sir, I will be in touch after the next couple of days. Thanks for writing in.

Mridangamkid: there is a short review of the Kamalamba nava varnams in a different thread.....

Lakshman · Post by **Lakshman** » 26 Mar 2008, 03:49

mahavishnu:

Sorry we missed each other on sunday. I was there for Sreevalsan Menon's concert and left partway thorough evarunnaru of the vina concert. I had told both Ramanathan and Charu to direct you to the place where I was sitting (back end of the hall, on the right side, on single chairs. Hope we meet some other time maybe in Ottawa.

vidya · Post by **vidya** » 27 Mar 2008, 10:51

Uday_Shankar wrote:I took the initiative of standing up to clap and as intended the herd mentality kicked in and everyone stood up to give the maami the well-deserved standing ovation. Wonderful.

Uday,
For the record my daughter was already on her feet and applauding just a few minutes before you did

Just like the cliche about Brindamma and Padams I think a similar one prevails about Mami and Dikshitar kRtis.
Anyone who attended her concert and listened to that lovely Vara Shiki Vahana , the Ata Tala Varnam and the peppy bilahari and sprighly saveri would now know that Mami is much much more than Dikshitar kRti expositions!! Incidentally mami's repertoire of varnams and patnam Subrahmanya Iyer's compositions are quite large. For me more than anything else it is the musical aesthetics and the melodic musical detail in her playing that stands out every time. I simply loved the short raga sketch in Kanada. And then for the sheer beauty of the chittaswaras there was InkevvarunnAru.This composition seems to take Sahana to the 'top of a giri' and one wonders at the potency of the 'composing gene' in Shyama Shastry's family.And the Senjurutti simply sparkled, for some reason it reminded me of the only recording of Budalur playing Ganesha Kumara PahimAm. And finally, I am glad I went ahead against all my conventional wisom of not asking for requests and put in a word for the delectable 'Parimala Ranganatham' and I almost jumped with joy when I heard the first traces of HamIr Kalyani. It was refreshing to see that the violin accompanist was extremely sensitive.Finally I thank Srini who first posted about Mami on sangeetham in 1999 with the phone number of her Indira Nagar flat. It made atleast some of us go and look her up and know more about her music. So after 8 years of listening to her solely through recordings we finally got to listen to a live concert.

Aside :
As a listener I've always found that the violin's tonal quality rather intrusive , particularly when accompanying the veena and it seems to smother the veena's richness of texture. Are there any others here feel the same way? And do the artistes (veena or Citra Veena) players feel the same way or do violin accompaniment for these instriments help only for the sruti alignment feedback purposes? ie Does veena or Chitraveena and in general a plucking instrument really need a violin accompaniment?

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 27 Mar 2008, 12:49

Vidya, in the case of veena or flute concerts, I feel that a violin is unnecessary as an accompanying instrument. In vocal concerts, the vocalist emphasises the lyrical content while the violinist emphasises the musical content. In veena/ flute concerts, I find violin accompaniment somewhat out of the place. However, when the violinist and veena/ flute artiste play in tandem, as a duet, the concert can be very satisfying (i.e. LGJ-Ramani USA concerts of the '70's).

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 27 Mar 2008, 17:10

Very nice point. I have always found violin jarring with veena and even the sound of mridangam since veena has built in laya. Especially when you want to enjoy the pure clean classical music like that of Kalpakam mami one will find all accompaniments jarring except the occcasional sweet accompaniment vocally to emphasize the lyrics.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 27 Mar 2008, 19:54

http://www.youtube.com/user/USrasika

This rasika has uploaded snippets from this year's arAdhanA. I was particularly impressed with the sustaining sampradAya sections. For a complete ignoramus in the laya department, I found the tani particularly nice (of course, like rajeeram, I too am certainly bisaed, for one the children playing is the son of a good friend!)

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 27 Mar 2008, 20:07

I also think violin for veena is not ideal. Veena and mridangam alone can suffice. But if someone wants to enhance with the back-and-forth banter we see in neraval and swarams (quite nice right?), then perhaps a flute? A string+wind contrast may be better than string+string. I think for many dance programs, some artists prefer string+wind rather than say 2 string instruments.

Arun

cm_fan · Post by **cm_fan** » 28 Mar 2008, 07:23

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
4) I doubt that GJR has the time to learn exactly who is Anuradha Sridhar's students...but that's really sort of an inevitability. Mridangam students who compete have often taken lessons from Raja Rao sir, or Dorai sir, etc. Violin students who compete also may have taken lessons from some of the judges, but we must have faith that judges will base on music.

Let me give you an example.

Recently, GJR was the judge for a student in the senior violin category who had taken lessons for him. The student competed in Kriti, in which he got 3, ragam (in which he got third and the other participant got second, with no first) and pallavi (he was the only student, and he didn't win anything in that category). doesn't seem too biased to me...
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I would like to clarify some facts relating to above example cited. The student in the senior violin category is not a student of GJR. He learns from a teacher in the U.S. who was a student of Lalgudi Bani. I do agree that no bias should be inferred in the final results. We should also not forget GJR was not the only judge for this competition. VV Ravi was the other judge. In my thirteen years of Cleveland Aradhana participation, this is probably the first time I have seen that no first prize was awarded for Senior Violin Krithi and Ragam. I think GJR and VV Ravi set the bar very high for the youngsters which is OK. Quality matters.

I do agree that youngsters who offer concerts in Cleveland Aradhana should stay away from competitions so that other aspiring kids get a chance to glory.