Sri Thyagaraja Aradhana for this year was celebrated on the 17th April
2005.
NZCMS wishes
to thank all those who helped to make
this programme a grand success.
Special thanks goes to Mr.Sam Swaminathan for organizing the concert and Mrs.Rathna
Sithamparanathan for guiding us through another aradhana.
The website (http://www.nzcms.org)
has been updated with pictures of the Aradhana.
News from The Centre Of Learning
2005 Music
Exams were conducted smoothly and the
examiners were happy
with the progress.
Dr.Yogini
Rathnasabapathy extends her thanks to
all those who helped her complete the Music exam project for this year
successfully.
Chief
Examiner–Mrs.Rajalakshmi Thirunarayanan has
given her feed back and guidelines for students for
their future guidance.
For more details, please
log on to our website.
Membership Renewal:
NZCMS
sincerely wishes to thank those who have already renewed their membership for the year 2005-06.
A friendly reminder to all other members to renew
membership with the society at the earliest
Payment can be made through cash, cheque or by direct debit.
If
payment is by cheque, make it payable to
‘NEW ZEALAND
CARNATIC MUSIC SOCIETY’
and mail it to
:The Treasurer
PO Box 96-260
Balmoral ,Auckland.
Thanks for
your continued support
Membership Subscription rates are:
1. Individual - $60
2. Two people - $110
3 Three people - $150
4. More than 3 people - $40
per
additional family member
Classical Vocal Concert
by Malladi Brothers
Malladi
Brothers carved a niche for themselves as successful concert performers singing
with perfect unison of sruthi, presenting
melodious music, possessing rich voice and musical capabilities appreciated by
music lovers all over the world.
So
remember the date – Never miss it.
News flash from overseas:
String it Together
M.Narmadha
( Instrumental )
|
|
Chennai-based violinist M
Narmadha comfortably straddles both Hindustani and Carnatic music traditions.
Mumbai’s music lovers are welcoming
violinist Narmadha, as she’s one of the
few artistes equally proficient in Carnatic and Hindustani classical forms. In
fact, it has always been ‘Indian music’ for Narmadha, not Carnatic or Hindustani.
From the age of four, she
has been imbibing notes from both streams simultaneously.
The exposure to both
forms never confused her. So, armed with a doctorate from the University of
Delhi—for her thesis on ragas in Indian classical music—Narmadha has staged
several solos and jugalbandis in both Hindustani and Carnatic arenas.
She soon hopes to perform
with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and has even incorporated some of the sitar’s
fingering techniques to her violin recitals.
Narmadha feels the two
forms differ in tonal intonation, swara handling and presentation techniques.
Yet she has no qualms about blending ragas from the two streams, where
possible. “This improves the melodic quality of certain ragas like Behag, Desh
and Mohanam. But in some ragas like Todi, Devagandhari and Suruti, such
amalgamation isn’t suitable. The defined structure and particular combination
of notes don’t allow it,’’ explains the artiste, who has published a book on
this subject: Indian Music and Sancharas
in Ragas.
She’s now working on her
own fusion music project and fiercely denies that a merging could dilute the
purity of either stream. She points out, “If you always conform to tradition,
there is no room for creativity and development.”
Awards for Musicians
Awards
for two senior musicians have been announced . Renowned Carnatic musician
Dr.M Balamuralikrishna, was selected for the 2004 Swaralaya Puraskaram
for his contribution to the field of Indian classical music.
The annual
Swaralaya Puraskaram honours outstanding artists for their achievements in the
field of music.
Earlier recipients of the prestigious award,
instituted in 1992, include the likes of vocalist M S Subbalakshmi, Shehnai
maestro Bismillah Khan, and sitar player Ravi Shankar.
Born on July 6, 1930,
Mangalapalli Balamuralikrishna has composed around 300 kritis, varnams and
tillanas. He has also achieved the rare feat of composing songs in all 72
melas.
Besides
the Padma Vibhushan, the 74-year-old singer has been honoured with the Sangeet
Natak Akademi award and various other prizes.
Swathi Rathna Award
Swati Smriti, the
eighth Swati Tirunal Sangeetha Nrithotsavam began on April 14th at
Chennai.The Malayalee Club that organises this event has selected violin
maestro TN Krishnan for its annual Swati Ratna award.
The Upcoming Star
Sikkil C. Gurucharan has begun making waves in the Carnatic
music festival season.
He is drawing a good crowd wherever he is giving concerts.
As the number of concerts he is giving goes up (this season he is giving as
many as 14), so does the expectations from the audience.They are clamouring for
more.
This young
disciple(he is only 22) of Vaigai
Gnyanaskandan is a product of Lloyala College and has recently completed his
Masters in Financial Management course. He has currently taken up a part-time
assignment which has nothing to do with his professional MFM course.
He has
become a sort of Disc-Jokey for `Shruti’, the 24-hour carnatic music channel of
World Space Radio, a private international music-making channel.
He has also
cut a CD recently styled `Kaveripatinam’, including 10 ragas from the
compositions of Thyagaraja and Papanasam Sivan. This comes after the albums on
Thiruvembavai and Thirupavai released early 2004.
A Remarkable
Concert by 86 years old maestro, Dr. R. K. Srikantan.
NAADA, based in New Jersey, is an
organization formed to preserve and promote the Asian Indian Music, Arts and
performing arts in the tri-state area.
In its
maiden music concert program held on Saturday April 23rd 2005, NAADA Inc.
honored
Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr R.K. Srikantan ( of age 86), a highly acclaimed doyen of Karnatic music,
recognizing the contributions made by him
in these seven decades to the field of Carnatic Classical Music.
Dr R K Srikantan who is a traditionalist and belonging to
Thyagaraja Shishya parampare is spreading this divine music by himself and
through his students all over the world. His music is divine.
By sharing that music he has shown the path of spirituality to human beings.
Dr Srikantan
expressed thanks to the community and organizers and urged the community
members to continue the effort to spread the music and maintain it in its
traditional style.
He expressed
happiness to see the commitment of music lovers of Indian origin in North
America in preserving their heritage.
Dr R.K.
Srikantan rendered a grand music concert with the vocal support from his son
Sangeetha Kalaa Praveena Rudrapatnam Ramakanth accompanied by Dr K.V.S. Vinay
on Violin and Dr Suresh Ramachandran on Mridangam .The music was divine and
soul elevating.
Back To NZCMS- Auckland
Overseas Artiste Concert in August
Classical Instrumental –Violin Concert
by
Lalgudi
Mrs.Srimathi Brahmanandan & Anuradha
Shriram
Brahmanandan- Mridangam
Srimathi, the
violinist,popularly known to the world of carnatic music as Lalgudi Mrs.Srimathi Brahmanandan.
Lalgudi Mrs.Srimathi Brahmanandan hails from a family of musicians in South India devoted to professional music for four generations.
Her father
Shri Gopala Iyer was a versatile music teacher who taught vocal, veena, violin
and also mrudangam. In her childhood Srimathi learnt from her father vocal and
violin from the age of six.
An authority on rhythm he
imparted on young Srimathi a sound base of rhythm. And taught her vocal. Then he gave training in
bow-finger technique that would simulate the vocal rendering of the immortal
kruthis.
Earlier, the father had been the sole teacher of violin to
his son and brother of Srimathi, Lalgudi
Sri G.Jayaraman who was much
senior to her.
Sri
Jayaraman had already blazed forth a
meteoric rise in violin accompaniment to giants like G.N.Balasubramaniam, Ariyakudi Ramanuja
Iyengar,
Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Madurai Mani Iyer, to mention a few of the star performers of older generation.
A very great
opportunity opened up for Srimathi when her brother decided to train her for
his solo recitals .
It should be
said to the credit of the virtuoso that he taught his sister to play in tandem.
This called for extraordinary rendering from the second violin, as it was by no
means second fiddling. A Spartan
training by the maestro followed and in a short time Srimathi flourished into a
peerless violinist .
The first
solo of Jayaraman and Srimathi was launched in 1957 at T.nagar Arts Academy
when Srimathi was sixteen years old. For the next decade and half the solo
recitals of brother and sister were reverberating in the halls of all the music
associations spread across the country.
Under the
illustrious guidance of her brother Srimathi gained all India reputation as an
expert violinist. The All India Radio heralded the achievements of the duo by
broadcasting their recital in 1972 as their National Program of Music. The
leading papers like the Times of India reviewed this as the most outstanding
violin recital ever broadcast by the AIR.
Srimathi continued her
career as soloist without resorting to accompaniment .
She trained her daughter Anuradha form childhood in
violin in the same tradition of her father and brother, and the first duet of
Srimathi and Anuradha was held in 1975 at Balasubramania Sangeetha Sabha
Chennai when the daughter was twelve years old.
Ever since Srimathi and
Anuradha have been giving solo recitals in India and abroad. Their recitals are
performed in Singapore, Malaysia, UK, USA and Canada. She has given violin solo
performances in the leading sabhas in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
The Music Academy Chennai
recognized her as the “ Most Outstanding Artiste-Instrumental” in their December
2002 Series. Besides, Srimathi is a regular performer for decades in All India
Radio and Doordarshan. . She has been
placed in the TOP by AIR, a position reached by continued exemplary performance.
Anuradha Sridhar is the
daughter and disciple of Srimathi Brahmanandam. She began her training in
music at a young age of five and gave her maiden performance in Bangalore at
the age of ten. Her first duet with her
mother was at the age of twelve.
Since, then, Anuradha has teamed up with her
mother and given several concerts in various sabhas in India,Singapore, UK
and USA.
Anuradha also started accompanying leading artists on the
violin and in 1984 accompanied a music
troop as violinist to UK and USA.
During this tour she participated in the lecture demonstrations and
concerts in 22 Universities all over the U.K.
Since 1987 Anuradha has been rendering violin concerts with her mother
and on her own in all the cities in USA regularly.
As accompanist
Anuradha was awarded the best violinist awards by the Music Academy for her
performances in their December concerts during the years 1979, 1982 and 1984,
1999.
The concert of 2000 in the Music Academy by Anuradha and Srimathi got the best
instrumental musician award of the year for the duet.
In 1986 Anuradha
despite her busy music
career, became a Certified Public
Accountant. In 1987 she left for the US for higher studies. After doing
MBA She has been living in the US performing extensively as a soloist and an accompanist.
In June of 1999, she launched
Trinity Center for Music, a school to develop and mould good students of music
and to serve and promote Carnatic
music (www.trinitymusic.org) in the New World. She is also the founding member
of Solfa Creations (www.solfacreations.org). Anu along with a few members had
released the first animated CD-ROM on Thyagaraja which receieved rave reviews from the press and
the people.
Solfa’s goal is to produce innovative music titles using
latest technology to attract and educate more people to
appreciate carnatic music and its composers.
Shriram Brahmanandan-Mridhangist
Shriram has
learnt from the great Guru, Shri Kumbakonam Rajappa Iyer. He hails from a
family of great musicians. His mother Lalgudi Shrimathi Brahmanandan is
violinist of international acclaim. His fine musical instincts are imbibed from
a great family lineage and from the traditions of his Guru parampara.
Shriram started learning
to play the mridangam from a very tender age and had his debut when he was
twelve years old. Since then he has played in innumerable concerts. He has
performed in most of the major venues throughout India. He has also teamed up
with many senior musicians including, his uncle, Shri Lalgudi. G. Jayaraman.
Shriram
is a graded artist with All India Radio (AIR) and has performed regularly in
national broadcasts in AIR and in Indian Television.
He has won
awards for "Best Mridangist" during the music concert series held in
Indian Fine Arts and in Youth Association for classical music. Shriram has also
visited United States on a concert, and Lecture/Demonstration tour. He has
performed in Melbourne, Australia, and has given presentations in the major
multinational music festivals held in Australia.
Shriram's
style of accompaniment is vibrant and energetic, but it never ceases to support
the main artiste. Shriram specializes in supportive accompaniment, and in
bringing out the tonal excellence of his instrument. Shriram also teamed up
with his sister to form Solfa Creations and contributed extensively to their first product which is an animated CD-ROM on Saint
Thyagaraja. He currently resides in the
bay area, where he works as a Software Engineer.