Breeze of devotion....

Yesterday 7-May-2016, we enjoyed the concert of Aruna Sairam at the Ramanavami music festival at Sree ramaseva mandali Chamarajpet. She has been a regular here and is a favorite of the crowd. You could see a number of requests (through "chits") from the audience for specific songs and to most of them she obliged. She also explained the background of some of these compositions and why devotion is a very important part of carnatic music. She said well, audience make the artists feel humble and the humility of the artists go in a big way towards reaching music to the audience. Her performance was full of high energy and tempo. The accompanying artists struggled a bit to keep up. She sang a few "abhangs" and the audience followed her in those with the "thalam" and claps.

Here are some of the renditions from her:

• Srivighnaraajam bhaje - naatai
• Vandanamu raghunandana - Sahaana
• Rama lakshmana poorvajam - kalyaana raama (pallavi) - hamsa naadam
• Bandanodi govinda Krishna Banda nodi -Thodi
• Sree satya narayanam - Shubabanduvaraali
• Swetha padmaasana Sangeeta saamrajya sanjaarini - mohanam
• yenagu aane ranga ninagu aane - mukaari
• pandari nivasa sakya paanduranga - maandu - Abangh
• Vishamakaara Kannan - behaag

She brought the rain...

Sowmya's concert on 5-May-2016 at Sree Ramaseva Mandali Chamarajpet pleased the rain gods and it poured that evening. She was ably accompanied by Sudhindra, Charulatha Ramanujam, and Giridhar Udupa on the violin, mridangam, and ghatam respectively. She sang unaffected by the rain. Her songs and the rain cooled the air. At one point, the rain was so heavy that water started dripping onto the stage and the artists had to shift their seating a bit to avoid water falling on them. She explained her understanding of the second composition "Alagalalladagali ..." to the audience, showing how full of emotion that song was.

She sang the following:

1. Vanajaakshi - kalyaani
2. Alagalalladagali - madhyamavati
3. Maayoora naagam Anisham - dhanyasi
4. Manavyaala Kim chara - nalinakaanthi
5. Ambaneelalochani aashrita - sreeragam
6. Vandesadapadmanabham - navarasa kannada
7. Sreerama raghuvara - shanmughapriya (RTP and Thaniyaavarthanam)

Violin duo...

Yesterday (30-Apr-2016), we were at Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Chamarajpet, enjoying the violin concert of Mysore Manjunath and Mysore Nagaraj who were accompanied by Umayaalpuram Sivaraman on mridangam. They played to the crowd. What a coordination between the Mysore brothers all through the concert! They themselves were thoroughly enjoying the performance along with the audience. On the mridangam, it was an explosive performance by Umayaalpuram Sivaraman who energized everyone. He said it well, "This is a competition (healthy) between youth and experience". It was my privilege to be there to enjoy the show. The entire audience gave a standing ovation to the artists after the rendition with the thaniyaavarthanam got over.

Here are the ragams covered...

• Reethigowla
• Kannada
• Saraswathi manohari
• Kalyani
• Aandholika
• Aabheri
• Janaranjini (thaniyaavarthanam)