Deepavali celebrates with great joy and festivity
the triumph of good over evil as Lord Krishna vanquished the demon Narakasura.
This year, the SIFAS Alumni organised a series of six concerts during the
weekend of November 15-16 in praise of Lord Krishna. While the artistes were
blessed to have a supportive audience, the crowd in turn enjoyed experiencing
the Krishnanubhava that weekend.
The concert series opened with the vocal recital of
Smt. Mythili Rajaraman, who has learnt from Sri NR Prashanth in SIFAS and from
Sri OS Thyagarajan in India. She started her concert impressively, with the
ever-pleasant Vasantha varnam and a hearty rendition of Gaanamoorthe. She
continued with another Thyagaraja composition, Brindavana Lola in Hanumatodi,
which she adorned with a soulful alapana and fluent kalpanaswaras. Her main
piece, Pankaja Lochana in Kalyani, was brilliantly rendered and her creative
variations were uplifting to the late afternoon audience. Kum. Shreya Gopi provided
outstanding support throughout on the violin and Sri Krishnan Subramanian
accompanied heartily too, with a memorable thani avarthanam.
The next performance was by the talented Kum. Aarthi
Devarajan who displayed her aptitude in rendering both soothing and complex
pieces such as Jagadhodharana and a marvellous RTP in Mohanam and Ranjani. Kum.
Aarthi sang the intricate pallavi, set to Kanda Chapu, effortlessly and
admirably as she switched between the two ragas smoothly. The accompanying
artistes, Sri Sharadh Rajaraman on the violin and Sri Devarajan Varadarajan on
the mridangam gave enthusiastic support
and handled the difficult pallavi well.
Sri Nishanth Thiagarajan, who was awarded the
prestigious “Best Vocal Artiste (Male)” award following his Spirit of Youth
2014 concert, wrapped up the series of performances for the evening. His
rendition of Pankaja Lochana in Kalyani was well embellished with a captivating
alapana that kept the audience spell bound. He explored the beauty of the ragam
with enormous inspiration, traversing the mantra and tara sthayis effortlessly
to enchant the audience. Guru Sri Nellai N Ravindran and Sri Mahesh
Parameswaran provided excellent support on the violin and mridangam
respectively. On the whole, the repertoire that Sri Nishanth rolled out for the
night was well-appreciated by the audience.
Kum. Vaishnavi Vasudevan commenced the second day’s
events with a rare varnam in Mandhari. Accompanying her were Kum. Sowndarya
Kalyanaraman on the violin and Sri Narayanan Balasubramanian on the mridangam.
Kum. Vaishnavi also performed the Thygaraja keertanam Vasudevayani, in Kalyani,
during which Sri Narayanan Balasubramanian played an enthralling and dynamic
thani avarthanam. Kum. Vaishnavi mentioned that she prepared for the performance
by training intensively and by listening to manodharma sangeetham. Kum. Rachana
Murali, a member of the audience, added that Vaishnavi’s soulful singing was
very pleasing to the ears.
Sri Sharadh Rajaraman, who clinched top prize in the
recent NAC Indian Music competition, was the second vocalist of the day and
began with a unique Swathi Thirunal composition, Gopalaka Pahimam set to
Revagupti. A spate of intermittent power cuts plagued Sri Sharadh’s
performance, but despite these technical issues, he persevered and continued on
with gusto to put up a riveting “unplugged” show. Sri Sharadh later mentioned
that he was very thankful to have received energetic accompaniment from Sri
Surup Sowmitri Thathachar on the violin and Sri Sudarshan Narasimhan on the
mridangam, both of whom took the technical difficulties in their stride as
well.
The concert series culminated in a recital by one of
the founding members of the SIFAS Alumni Orchestra, Sri Sai Vigneshwar VM, who
was accompanied by Guru Sri Nellai N Ravindran on the violin and Sri Sai
Akileshwar on the mridangam. The centre-piece of his repertoire, Sri Krishnam
Bhaja Manasa in Thodi, was furnished with intricate sangathis and elaborate
kalpanaswaras that were executed skilfully. Sri Vigneshwar ended his
resplendent repertoire with an uplifting rendition of Krishna Kaho, a Meera
Bhajan in Madhukauns and a Sindhubhairavi thillana which moved the audience
very much.
The SIFAS Alumni will be holding concert series such
as this on a regular basis. Keep a look
out for event details and updates on our blog (http://sifasalumni.blogspot.sg/)
or on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sifasalumni).
