A few of the immortal works of the Trinity reverberated in the conference hall of the Public library in Bloomington, Illinois, US, very recently. The three-hour programme, 'Samarpan' was organized by Aparna Sunder, Mythraeyee Mukundan and Sripriya Rajagopal.
After a detailed introduction to the Trinity, given by the trio, with a full-fledged demonstration of the rendering of eight krithis, the stage was made open to more than forty performers, young and old featuring vocal and instrumental.
While the renderings by all the performers were well received by the Bloomington audience, mention should be made of a few of them, who made a mark. The three organizers themselves won the appreciation of the audience. Aparna Sunder, a vainika herself, showed glimpses of the MLV school in her performance. Mythraeyee Mukundan, an AIR artiste gave a few classical pieces reminding one of the Semmangudi style.
Vidya Chandramouli, a product of the DK Pattammal School made a mark with the rendering of Shambo Mahadeva, a Thyagaraja krithi on Lord Shiva in the Raga Panthuvarali.
Aravind Hariharan a devotee of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar, rendered Ranganayakam, Dikshitar's piece de résistance in the melodious but tricky raga, Nayaki.
Chithra Sridhar's Dayaraani was well received. Anil brought out on the veena the immortal and popular piece of Thyagaraja in the raga Hamsanadam - the popular Bandureethi.
Several child artistes who got on the stage that day gave the audience the much-needed reassurance of the bright future of Carnatic music. A surprise accompaniment during the introduction was provided by Hruday Deepak on the clarionet (An AKC Natarajan in the offing!). A young violin artiste Hamsika Santanam made her debut at this programme. Master Anirudha Sekhara brought out the beauty of Bahudari through Thyagaraja's Brovabarama.
An interesting aspect of the session was the tabla accompaniment by Manpreet Singh Bedi for the introductory songs. KS Krishnamoorthy, a matured artiste and Hari Krishnan, the youngster provided mridangam accompaniment to a few vocalists.
Certificates for the participants were sponsored by the McLean county Indian Association (MCIA) for the well-attended programme.
Kannan can be contacted at bkanna@hotmail.com and Priya can be contacted at piyaramakrishnan@yahoo.co.in
