From UK to Chennai, Yoga keeps his date with the ‘season’
Sri Lankan-born vocalist and composer Manickam Yogeswaran, or Yoga as he is more commonly known, was the first Tamil voice to hit Hollywood after singing on Jocelyn Pook’s haunting soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
Yoga is back in Chennai to keep his date with the December season.
From his room in Adyar he goes out to soak in the music and also perform - he will present a concert at Hamsadhwani.
A sishya of Prof. T. V. Gopalakrishnan of Adyar, Yoga has a colourful music career.
He worked with film director Spike Lee’s, ‘The 25th Hour’ and has just finished working on music for the controversial new movie adaptation of Monica Ali’s bestseller Brick Lane.
Despite the tragedy of losing his father and one of his sisters to the Sri Lankan conflict when they got caught in crossfire whilst trying to flee to safety in Jaffna in 1987 while he was studying in London, Yoga says he realised that enduring peace is the only way forward for his homeland.
He works in an eclectic range of styles and groups, from the more traditional south Indian classical music to the multi-cultural collaborations of his work with the band Dissidenten.
Yoga is also a member of the 16 voice band The Shout who serenaded the Royal Festival Hall’s reopening as part of a 48 hour music marathon in June 2007.
He has received acclaim for his appearances at festivals such as WOMAD, Glastonbury and Montreaux Jazz and last year’s BBC Proms, and has worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Spitalfields Festival.
Yoga continues to perform in a variety of contexts, whether musical, visual or dance.
He maintains a busy schedule of touring and recording work and hopes to embark on his first tour of Ireland, among other places, in 2008. He is also planning a special anniversary CD release in 2009 to celebrate the highlights of his varied 30 year musical career.
Malavika presents 'Kasi Yatra'
At the Music Academy's dance festival, senior dancer Malavika Sarukkai will present her new thematic Bharatanatyam 'Kasi Yatra' on Jan. 9.
"'Kasi Yatra', the journey of a courtesan of Varanasi, is a story of life, its surface movements as well as its deeper currents" says Malavika.
She has chosen the story of the courtesan, a woman of taste and refinement, who is beautiful and accomplished in the arts, from the pages of kuttanimatham, an eighth century poem by Damodara Gupta.
Malavika explains "Kasi Yatra opens out her life and her inner spaces as she begins another journey and joins the flow of the river of pilgrims."
Malavika's recital is at the Music Academy on Jan. 9 at 6 pm
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