Celebrating Guru Purnima 2014

Guru Purnima refers to the Pournami day in the month of July, on which Hindus pay tribute to their spiritual and academic Gurus. This year, it fell on the 12^th of July.

This auspicious day was successfully celebrated in SIFAS via the hosting of a Ragam Taanam Pallavi (RTP) series of six concerts over the Guru Purnima weekend. The event was organised by SIFAS alumnus, Ganesh Jayabal, and was supported by the SIFAS Alumni. Special mention must be given to Sai Vigneshwar, Shreya Gopi, Deneshwari Singam, Priya Murali from SIFAS Alumni and Thirunavukkarasu (SIFAS Helper) for their extensive contribution to the success of this event. 

While an RTP concert is in itself a challenge, performers were encouraged to exercise their creativity further by adhering to one of three concert themes.

After discussion with SIFAS violin tutor, Sri Nellai N Ravindran, the three themes were fixed as:

1. The Pallavi should be composed in praise of a Guru

1. The Pallavi and ragamalika swarams should be sung in ragams from the same parent word (e.g. the family of ‘priyas’ – karaharapriya, shanmugapriya, etc)

1. The whole concert should be rendered based on ragams from the same parent word.

There can be no question that the main artistes lived up to the excitement generated, with engaging, enjoyable and interesting performances that had the packed room brimming with energy.

The series started off on July12th with 2014 NAC competition Vocal Open Category winner Sri Nishanth Thiagarajan, who sang a Guru-themed pallavi. He was given enthusiastic support on the violin by Kumari Priyadharshini Ramesh and mridangam by Sri Viknash Balakirshnan.

Following that, the lead vocalist for Pravaha (SIFAS Dance Production 2013),

Kumari Nandhitha Hari performed a Kalyani ragam-based RTP with the strong support of Srimathi Srividya Sriram on the violin and Sri Mahesh Parameswaran on the mridangam. She also performed a Hindustani composition with tabla accompaniment by

Sri Lakshmanan Senthil.

The third performance was by one of the founding members of the SIFAS Alumni Orchestra, Sri Sai Vigneshwar VM. He adopted the Guru theme for his pallavi, composed in Dwi Gathi (Thisra Jati Ata Thalam with Lagu in Thisra Gathi and Druthams in Kanda Gathi). Violinist Kumari Shreya Gopi and mridangist Sri Radhakrishnan Subramaniam handled the difficult pallavi well.

Starting the series on the second day were Sri Ganesh and Sri Sriram Balasubramanian. Their concert used ragams from the Priya family and they performed an engaging pallavi in Thisra Jampai Thalam Kanda Gathi with strong accompaniment from Sri Sharadh Rajaraman on the violin and Sri Narayanan Balasubramanian on the mridangam.

Sangeetha Visharad Sri Sudarshan Narasimhan performed the next concert in which he sang a song each for the five Gurus that he has learned from. He adopted the Guru theme for the pallavi which was composed based on his late mother’s name. The violinist, Sri Srinath Iyer and mridangist, Sri Sai Akileshwar VM boosted the energy of the overall performance, giving the audience a very engaging experience.

The concert series concluded with invited artiste, Sri Rajaraman Iyer who sang the entire concert based on the bhairavi family of ragams. The violin accompaniment by Sri Srinath Iyer and mridangam accompaniment by Sri Muthu Subramaniam were excellent.

If you missed the concert series during Guru Purnima, you can still catch it online by searching for ‘Guru Purnima RTP Concert Series’ on YouTube.

The SIFAS Alumni is planning another Carnatic concert series this November. Interested Alumni members kindly send an email to sifasalumni@gmail.com and we will get back to you shortly!