Chennai-based violinist M. Lalitha who holds a doctorate in music and is a Fulbright Fellow plays Carnatic music at concerts, with violinist sister M. Nandini, runs a fusion music group and teaches music.

Recently, in Chennai, she joined another young western classical violinist Preetha Narayanan who is also touring on a Fullbright scholarship, for a concert. It was called Samvaadam - A Violin Dialogue.
In this column, Dr Lalitha shares her experience of this coming together.

I have been on a Fulbright program at the University of Pittsburgh, USA for `Composition writing in fusion music’. My sister M. Nandini was awarded the Charles Wallace Trusts Fellowship in Performing Arts in the UK during the same time and she did her course in Ethnomusicology at the University of London.

Recently we performed at the prestigious University of London and we were acclaimed as the pioneers to introduce and perform the Carnatic Music in the University of London. During the Fulbright program in the US, I had a wide exposure to the different traditions of world music like African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Indonesian and Chinese.

I also attended the African drumming sessions and jazz sessions, apart from writing compositions in fusion music.

Back in Chennai, USEFI (US Educational Foundation in India) wanted a special program for the Fulbright Foundation Day on Feb 2, 2007. Preetha Narayanan, who is a western classical violinist and a Fulbright Fellow in India and I had worked on plans for this one several months ago.

Preetha Narayanan, currently a student researcher from the Vanderbelt University, is affiliated to the Kalakshetra Foundation. Her area of work here is on Carnatic violin for a western trained violinist. Preetha had the opportunity to give a western classical performance for our President, Dr. Abdul Kalam in Aug 2005. She is now studying under guru T. N. Krishnan in Carnatic violin and under Seetha Rajan in vocal music.

We planned the concert in such a way that we first wanted to showcase each tradition separately, before bringing them together. Each day we came up new ideas and were constantly thinking and living with all these ideas. The next step was to bring the Carnatic and Western sounds together through the common scale yet keep their individual aesthetics alive using the compositions of great masters from both the traditions.

We also chose Tyagaraja's `Manavyalakin’ in the Raga Nalinakanti and experimented with the harmony of the West. Then both of us played a Western duet, Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor for two violins thus bringing both violinists into one tradition. The finale was the rendering of Santinilava Vendum in Raga Tilang where we highlighted the different interpretations based on the varying technical approaches to the instrument.

We had a very good audience at this concert, including the Consulate General of America in India, David Hopper and his wife, the Principal of Queen Marys College, Chennai, Narayana Viswanath,former Chairmen of RITES, New Delhi, and Sabaretnam, Director of Chettinad Cements, Chennai. They appreciated our concert and many wanted a repeat of it.
Preetha and I thoroughly enjoyed this concert.
Let us see if we can play again. Together!

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