Ears and Eyes, the Fall Music Season

This is a recap of the music season this fall. Having volunteered for SIFA //www.southindiafinearts.orgin Spring and being backup photographer for many events, this season got to be the primary photographer for most of the season. The primary “aasthana photographer” was tied up on multiple days. Fortunately the one time I was hiking Angels Landing, he was back.

It was an interesting experience playing photographer for music events given arangetrams and dance programs are my forte. One can only capture moments and moods in the concert. Add to that weird lighting, requests from artists to cut back lighting, it makes up for some challenges with high ISO photography. Translation, you end up spending hours editing. Enough of photography.. lets talk music.

Except for a Sonu Nigam concert which we attended last weekend to celebrate Jr’s birthday, all the other concerts I attended were thanks to SIFA. Attended every concert, except Malladi brothers.

it was a lovely lineup of artists new and seasoned, and included a dance program to start the season. Using this as a cover for this post…

This group works really hard to bring good music to our doorsteps. Have been fortunate to be a part of this group this year. Had a lot of fanboy moments with the artists.

Given I keep wandering around the auditorium, behind the stage, left to right, my phone showed that I walked anywhere from 2-3 miles in each concert!! talk of combining three favorite activities..

Took 2000+ photos this year in all the concerts and had fun sharing them with the group and the artists. Here are a few of those to remember the season..

The season opened with a visual treat. Dance by Priyadarshini Govind and her dance group.

There was a music competition the following week and I was planning to go take pictures. Fell sick and had to stay home.

This was followed by a double header. Two back to back concerts. A music overload of sorts. The first vocal concert was by Vid. Aishwarya Shankar. Vid. R.K. Shriramkumar and Vid. K. Arun Prakash, two seasoned pro's gave her support that would make any parent proud when it comes to supporting the younger generation. These senior performers showed the meaning of the word "accompaniment". Was happy to see smiling faces everywhere.. the artists, the audience, the camaraderie with the artists supporting each other.

The second concert of the double header was an outstanding performance by Vid. Ashwath Narayanan, accompanied by Vid. Trichy Sankaran, Vid. V.V.S. Murari and Vid. Anirudh Athreya. Just superb.. My mom was thrilled to hear that I got the chance to listen to and take pictures of Vid. Trichy Sankaran. He was her favorite from a long time ago! This is the second time listening to Ashwath and his music is reminding me of my grandmas naarthangai oorugai that tastes better as the years go by!

After this I got to attend and photograph “songs of my heart” by San’s guru Jaya Vidyasagar. She did this for the Amma foundation and she dazzled everyone with her voice! It was a mix of Hindustani, Carnatic, Jazz, fusion and Cine music. There was something for everyone!

Then we hiked Angels landing the week after and that meant missing the Malladi brothers. Hopefully I get to listen to them live next year!

Then the Trichur Brothers performed, accompanied by Vid. Janardhan Srinath and Vid. Vijay Natesan. The entire concert was "vibrant" from start to finish. The brothers are unique in the way they do harmonies, engage the audience and of course make us smile.. They included Beethovanapriya created by Ramesh Vinayagam as part of the RTP! A concert that will stay in our minds for a long time.

The next concert was "Jannal Oram" Vid. Sikkil. C. Gurucharan. Have been a big fan of his carnatic music, but an even bigger fan of his Youtube series where he bridges the gap between film music and Carnatic music. He was accompanied by brilliant artists Vid. Sanjeev Venkataraman on Violin, Vid. N. C. Bharadwaj on mridangam, and Vid. Sriram Ramesh on kanjira. Have not heard a thaniavarthanam on the mridangam like this in a long time. As a photographer who is optimizing for low light conditions, high speed movement is challenging to capture. His fingers were flying. Stopped looking through the view finder and just enjoyed the rhythm. The ganjira and violin were equally amazing.

At the end of the concert, the winners of the SIFA Sangeetha Sreshta competition got awards from the artists. Very glad that SIFA is now hosting competitions for kids to encourage them to learn this art form.

Vid. Kalyanapuram S Aravind, wrapped up the SIFA fall season with a fantastic concert accompanied by Vid. H.N. Bhaskar and Vid. Delhi Sairam. They mesmerized us with the thematic concert on Rama Bhakti. Photographing a dance performance is one thing. Trying to save memories of a music concert is another thing. The smiles, the expressions, are all we can capture. The music just stays in your head.. Using photography to capture a music concert is like trying to capture the essence of the smell from a vaththakuzhambu my mom makes in words. One endearing thing about this concert was the supporting vocals and the encouragement of the next generation. The way the student got an applause during Shankarabharanam and the pride on the teachers face, priceless! My carnatic music idols are GNB and TNS. Sometimes I feel folks who know nothing of carnatic music will still be moved just listening to these two guys.

Vid Aravind reminds me of TNS. The vocal clarity when singing at that speed is something that you hear yourself to believe!

Right when we thought that was all the music we were going to get for the year, Jr. wanted to go to Sonu Nigam’s concert on her birthday. So off we went along with half the desis in the bay area. A full stadium, Sonu singing duets with an AI generated Mohammad Rafi, singing all our favorites old and new.. it was fun.

Came home thinking how come carnatic concerts where the artists need similar or higher level of mastery don’t get this crowd.

The answer came during a hike over the last weekend where I ended up just walking with San’s music teacher. There was a discussion of musical styles, flexibility, Hindustani vs. Carnatic and the impatience of the audience to have a gradual buildup .. cine music appeals to folks because you do one line plain and repeat the line with the most fancy highlight of the same line in that raga and the audience appreciates the contrast.. a gradual buildup needs an appreciation of the journey as much as the destination. Not everyones cup of tea or coffee.. or coconut water!

I did take a few video clips while walking around.. have pieced them together in this video..

Many video clips have disappeared during my effort to offload photos from iPhone to laptop. Missed a bunch of clips from Aishwarya, Ashwath, Jaya…

Hoping that work travel schedules will allow me to keep attending concerts next year!

My apologies if I have misspelt any names here or have missed some folks in pictures..

A heartfelt thanks to bay area South India Fine Arts for another amazing season!

Springing to life with music

This spring started with attending the local Thyagaraja aradhana at our community center in Cupertino. Can sing only the first two as of now. Joined in and enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

Then came the SIFA spring series of concerts. This year, had volunteered with SIFA. It was a great experience being the official photographer for some of the events as well supporting Anand with his elaborate and meticulous sound setup..

Attended all concerts except the last one yesterday. Was still trying to recover and just dozed off in the afternoon and evening.

The season opener with Saketaraman who celebrated Rama Navami with his theme of songs on Rama and also starting all the songs with the anupallavi’s or charanams.

The next event was three concerts back to back in an all day event. Managed to attend the first two by Dr. Suryaprakash (who brought me visions of Madurai Mani Iyer) and soulful singing by Sankari Krishnan. A voice that transports you in time to and brings back images of eating murukku from your grandma’s hands. Had to leave before the third concert to play photographer at Jaya Vidhyasagar’s bhitek event. Again, the theme was Rama and every song was amazingly rendered.

Then there was Amrutha Venkatesh! Having listened to her Charukesi pada varnam (my guru asked me to use it as the reference video) a few hundred times over the last year, it was a fanboy moment for me. Have been to her concert two years ago. This time I got to listen to her from the side of the stage..

Then we attended was Ranjani Gayathri’s concert. This is outside of the SIFA membership but we had tickets booked well in advance. Going to a concert like this as a large group is always fun. They kept us mesmerized!

This was followed by a violin duo concert by Naagai Muralidharan and Dr. Badri Narayanan. Experts bring class with effortless ease. This is a concert I will remember for a long time.

The next concert was a home Bhitek by Jaya (San’s music teacher). The theme was Adi Shankara. She made it interactive with the audience.

Then came the find of the year! If last years find was NJ Nandhini, this years find was Ramana Balachandran with his Saraswathi veena and occasional vocal. He brought the house down, rocking the veena. Two hindustani songs he sang are still with me.. Naam Japan Kyon chod diya in Charukesi and Tejo nidhi loh gol in Lalit. Going to try and learn both. Ramana is going to be a superstar if he already isn’t one!

The supporting artists in every concert made every concert an amazing experience. The smiles, the embellishments, the knowledge and experience to support the main artists.. just exemplary!

This year the SIFA membership came with an added bonus. A packed box dinner after every concert from Mylapore express. In some concerts I grabbed the box. Sometimes I had to rush out to edit photos and missed it. This is a great initiative and we love it!

Last weekend my health was already not that great with Claritin not doing much and nasal spray giving me a sinus infection and fever. San thought it would be a good idea to visit temples to cheer me up. So we went to the newly kumbabishegamd’d Concord Murugan temple, then the Livermore temple where our friends family was going a concert . We got to listen to the dad, son and daughter take the lead in turns and sing songs penned by Basavanna. Ambu just aced it. It was a treat to watch her sing. Her brother and dad were equally amazing. Had no idea of Basavanna and after reading about his life and teachings was suprised to see the event in a temple. The music was divine! I I can always find divinity in music and art, or naturual landscapes .. or even better in my wife and kids smiles.

Missed Abhishek Raghuram’s concert yesterday. It was the grand finale for SIFA spring season. My friends who attended gave him rave reviews. Next time.. given the crowd he pulls locally, I am sure he will be back soon.

There are no more planned concerts between now and fall. Enough life events to keep us busy!

It has been a great spring season. A big thanks to SIFA for bringing amazing music to our doorsteps!

Looking forward to the music in the second half of the year!

Indha kazhudai ketta Manja sevuru

Have not posted anything about music this year and it is May. That doesn't mean there was no music this year.

The year started with learning classical music heavy movie songs and semi-classical songs for the entire January with Paadarivom Padipparivom, and I loved singing every one of those songs. 

We were busy traveling in Brazil and Argentina and I kept listening to "Vedam Anuvilum oru nadham" on repeat even while walking along the beaches in Copa Cabana. Knew I had to sing it as soon as we came back. Had hummed it silently so many times that when it came time to sing it, there was a confidence that the notes were close to where they needed to be! The rest of the songs in the genre were also appealing and challenging but loved it.

Also got a chance to be mentee again after two years and jumped at it. There were high expectations this time from my teachers and hopefully I didn't let them down. Have never tried singing Jathi ever and had to memorize the Jathi portions for a song and sing it. It was a great experience and my teachers were very happy with my enthusiasm. Will write about this mentee experience on a separate post. 

Then we went to India and work caught up and singing took a backseat for a good month. Every now and then, would banish myself to the unheated guest room with the yellow accent wall (hence the title for the post) and try to sing the song of the week from 10-11:30 PM. Given the kids are not here and my wife is busy watching some Korean serial till midnight, can practice till my throat protests. 

One fabulous thing that happened last month was the first US members meeting of Paadarivom Padipparivom in Dallas. Why Dallas? Because two of the teachers are now in Dallas and there are also three members there. One of them is an extremely passionate event co-ordinator and he pulled off what the three members in bay area could only talk about for the last two years. 

Students flew in from all parts of the US to meet and sing with the teachers and the other students. (some are not in the picture as they had to leave early to reach their destinations. there was bad weather and flight delays that weekend to add to our adventures)

The big bonus for us was a crash course on "how to get the most of a dynamic microphone" by the two teachers. Many of us who sing on Smule with our teachers use the mic that comes with earplugs which we hold with our hand (the earpods typically don't work well as they have a lag). When handed a mic in front of a live group the voice simply doesn't sound the same and one has to work too hard.. if you don't know how to use the mic!

Me happily demonstrating how not to hold a mic.. too low and not tilted up enough to suit my throat and mouth!

The teachers helped fix my problem in that one session. Turns out everyone is different and the angle you hold the mic and how close you hold it is something you can figure out easily. One has to practice it though.. kind of like holding the flute at the angle that suits your whistle. 

At the end of it, was able to hit high notes without straining my throat. Given the gain in the amplifiers, we don't even have to be loud. We can sing at a lower volume and sound way better. That was the big takeaway for me. All this time I was "seerghazhi govindarajan'-ing in front of a live audience. Holding the mic but using my real voice to reach.. bummer!

There was also great food and excellent conversation. Met some of these folks in person for the first time but feels like I have known them all my life. These folks are going to be friends for the rest of my life. 

It was great that San joined me for the trip. Within a day and a half, we managed to also visit 3 temples, eat at four places and catch up with friends and see the local area. Traveling with San is always fun for me as I just enjoy watching her be happy! Her face lights up when she is with friends and food.

Will cherish this trip for a long time to come! San also thinks my singing has actually improved. My first song was iffy beacuse I had practiced to a Smule track and was so used to seeing the gray and blue bars move to prompt me to sing and we ended up with a different track in Dallas.

There were two lessons there. First, just sing to the music and avoid the visual aid. Should have actually done that given the song was memorized already. Second lesson is to go before the start and get a feel for the sound of the room. Sometimes it is not easy to hear your voice when singing through a microphone because the amplified voice takes a second to hit your ear and if you are not used to it, you will be late on the beat. Guess this is why people use ear monitor in the mics. However that is not required. Just getting used to it before actually singing the songs does the trick!

San said I did fine after the first song. She even said it to our friends and that made me really happy. She sets the bar very high and we fight every now and then on the topic of "just repeating the same thing is not going to fix it. you have to understand what you are doing wrong and fix it and then sing it".. the repeats for me are to get to a basic level before even attempting fixes. We are clearly at different levels when it comes to singing! 

Now I am back to the manja sevuru every now and then trying to sing. Paadarivom Padipparivom has been a true blessing. The 4th year anniversary was celebrated last weekend. In two months it will be my 3rd anniversary with this wonderful group of people. 

My enthusiasm is still alive, but finding time with changed travel schedules and things at home is making it challenging to do more than just singing one song a week and practising Carnatic music for few hours a week.

Happy to be able to do at least that!