Spring is a season of celebraation, where religious festivals such as 'Pongal' in South Indian and 'Holi' in North India are commemorrated to give thanks for the season's bountiful harvest. This month, SIFAS Alumni together with SIFAS, presented Seasons of Music - Spring. This was a two-day music concert series celebrating Carnatic, Hindustani, Vocal and Instrumental music, performed by senior sudents and alumni of SIFAS. Some of the artistes who performed in this concert series share their experience in this article.
“I was invited to perform a Sitar solo at the Spring Concert Series organised by SIFAS Alumni. At the beginning, I felt a little nervous, as I had not been used to performing in front of such big number of audience. But, the nervousness was washed away when I started playing. In all, this concert was of good exposure to me as it built up my confidence in performing in front of an audience.” - G Solai Valli
“Performing in the Spring Concert Series was an immensely fulfilling experience for me. I am grateful to SIFAS and SIFAS Alumni for providing the platform to perform a concert-length solo violin recital. In keeping with the festive theme of this series, I chose to present joyous and upbeat compositions in my concert including Sri Vatapi in Ragam Sahana, Marivere in Ragam Latangi and Mohanakalyani thillana, in addition to my main piece Sri Kanthimathim in Ragam Hemavati. Overall, this was an enjoyable, rewarding and humbling learning journey for me, and I look forward to more such opportunities in the future to grow as a musician. I would like to thank the accompanying artistes, Krishnan Subramanian on the mridangam and Tony Makarome on the morsing for their stellar support, as well as Akilesh, Vignesh and Shreya for their talam support and musical guidance.” – Vikram Manian
“Taking part in the spring concert series was an enthralling experience. Having done very few concerts, i was excited to have an opportunity to hone my skills at that platform. When I was notified of this performance opportunity, I wanted to use it well. I chose my songs meticulously. Coincidentally, it fell in place according to a thematic Rama concert. On the day of the concert, I was nervous. But SIFAS Alumni's support was tremendously encouraging. During my concert span of that 1 hour, I had learnt a lot. Music is such a vast ocean where I am just a drop of water trying to absorb as much as I can. I am on the path. But there is a long journey ahead of me. That path is also filled with obstacles, practice, hard work, and sore throat issues! Overall through this memorable experience I wished to develop my repotoire in this field so that I could become a better artisite.” – Rachana Murali Narayanan
"I'm really glad to be part of the SIFAS Alumni and its heart warming to note the opportunities that the Alumni provides which showcase SIFAS's own homegrown talents. As for my performance itself, this was the first time I rendered Varali (a vivadhi janya ragam) as the main piece and it was definitely a challenge for me to sing this ragam in an elaborate fashion. While I am far from achieving a real solid grip over my singing abilities, it's the efforts that I can put in and the continual thoughts of how to improve my own singing, that keeps me happy at the end of the day." - Sudarshan Narasimhan
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 Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sifasalumni) or our blog (http://sifasalumni.blogspot.sg/).
