Rohan has been here for eleven 'seasons'

Young Rohan Krishnamurthy, who is in Chennai for his ninth consecutive year of performances during the season, says he has made "satisfying beginnings" to combine the mridangam in a Western classical genre.

He is being helped by noted composer Dr. Elizabeth Start, a Yale University trained classical composer and cellist to fit the mridangam in Western classical music. The duo composed two pieces for the mridangam: 'Echoes' - a mridangam concerto with string orchestra, and 'Migration' for mridangam, violin, and piano.

Both were well-received by the rasikas and they are being performed at major venues across the US. "We wanted to highlight the improvisational characteristic and complex syncopations and cross-rhythms of Carnatic music in the context of precomposed, notated Western classical music," explains Rohan.

"This allowed all the performers to equally contribute their musical traditions."

Echoes premiered, interestingly, at a local juvenile correctional facility and featured earlier this year as part of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra's Youth Concert Series, which was attended by over 13,000 audience members from across Michigan.

What has been his experience in Chennai, during the 'season'? Says Rohan, "I have been performing here for the past nine years since I was eleven and every year springs new surprises. The fact that this city is able to sustain one of the largest music festivals in the world is obviously very commendable but there is a general feeling that quality is often sacrificed for quantity."

Rohan also suggests a way out! "One option might be for leading organisations to form a single organisation so musicians aren't overworked and meritorious musicians from around the globe get an equitable platform to share their talents."

Rohan accompanied flute maestro N. Ramani on Friday evening at Sastri Hall, in a concert organised by G. K. Foundation

The guitarist swings . . .

This could easily have been one of the 'cool' kutcheris of the season.

One which the three artistes on stage seemed to have enjoyed thoroughy.

It was a Saturday, first in the morning kutcheri. And on stage were guitarist Prasanna, mirdangist Mannargudi Easwaran and khanjira artiste, B. S. Purushothaman.

Performing for Brahma Gana Sabha at the Sivagami Petchachi Auditorium in Luz, Prasanna floated through his selection of kritis and encouraged his co-artistes to swing the kutcheri.

The synergy worked. For, the 200 strong audience burst into applause quite often, appreciatively.

The guitarist who has had a busy season (he was to perform later that evening for Kapali Fine Arts) chatted up between songs.

After playing 'Alaipayuthey', Prasanna said, rather plainly, "It will be shame if I have to name the song because everybody knows it. Music by A. R. Rahman and the idea of Mani Ratnam!".

Everybody broke into laughter.

"I hope there aren't any relatives of Mani or of Oothukkadu Venkatasubbaiyer around, "Prasanna added. "Rahman anyway is a good friend".

He went on to play a song from his recent album - Electric Ganesha land - and wove the 'Silent Night' Christmas carol' into it, much to the amusement of a few rasikas.

A warm concert where the rasikas repeatedly applauded the accompanists. And enjoyed the guitarist's skills.

Brothers from Australia

If artistes like Aruna Sairam and Sudha Ragunathan draw full houses, there are only a handful of people at certain concerts. And this is a shame when you realise that the artistes on stage are well accomplished people.

The scene was discouraging when we dropped in for the veena recital of the Iyer Brothers - Gopinath and Ramnath - at Ramarao Kala Mantap on Dec. 27.

The performance included Subburaya's masterpiece Sankari Neeve in Begada and Samaname Varu in Karahapriya by Tyagaraja.

Margaret, from Sweden who has been attending concerts during the 'season' for the past two decades was upset with the poor turnout among rasikas.

She said "Its sad that the instrument that guides every musician does not attract crowd. The concert was good. The sight of an empty hall must be tough on the artistes."

The brothers felt the same.

Said Ramnath, "There were times during the 80s when people used to throng to Emani's or Balachander's concert. We hope things will change. But we will continue performing."

Gopinath chips in, "We perform our best. We don't need to tell anyone about the beauty of this instrument. The sabhas are giving us opportunities. We just hope rasikas do turn out in bigger numbers."

There will be a veena festival on Dec. 30 and 31 in the city at Tattvaloka, Eldams Road, (just off the Alwarpet junction)

Dance drama Vartial: homage to a storyteller

Bharata Kalanjali of the Dhananjayans and Kala Bhaaskara, based in Reunion- France, will present a dance drama titled 'Vartial' (storyteller) at Jan.3 at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha at 7.30 pm and at Bharat Kalachar at 6 pm on Jan.5.

The story revolves round a storyteller (Vartial), who was once an artiste and a storywriter for dance dramas and how he finds solace in his solitude watching artistes performing to perfection. The story is based in Reunion's art heritage.

Logambal Souprayen Cavery, disciple of the Dhananjayans has produced the dance drama and conceived the story with lyrics by Revathy Sankaran.

Jyothishmathi Sheejith has scored the music with choreography by Sheejith Krishna. Sandhya Murali has provided nattuvangam with vocal support by Jyothismathi Sheejith. The accompanists are S. Kirupaparanan on the violin, K. J. Vijay on the flute and R. Karthikeyan on the mridangam. The dancers are L. S Cavery, Ajeesh, Manjula Murali, C. N. Unnikrishnan, Umesh, Venkatakrishnan, Gopu, Madhusudhanan, Keerthi, Sherin Bernad, Jisha Raghavan, Thevaki, Sulogini and Rincy.

Passes for the show are available at Bharata Kalanjali. Ph: 24911125.