Young talent at its classical best Three different artistes showcase their impressive prowess in Indian music and dance

BY CHITRA SUDARSHAN

InConcert Music, an arm of the Laya Vidya Centre, presented a full-fledged Carnatic vocal concert by Abhishek Raghuram on March 16 at the Wellington Secondary College.

Raghuram, still in his 20s, has already carved a niche for himself at the highest echelons of Carnatic music in India. That such a young artiste could deliver such a polished performance was amazing. He selected several popular kritis and ragas – such as Tyagaraja’s Nagumomu in aberi, Marupalka in ananda bhairavi, Dikshitar’s Vatapi in hamsadhvani, to name a few, and rendered them with an ease, mastery and freshness that took everyone’s breath away. His ability to present and arrange classical kritis in a creative way, stamped with his own unique style, is perhaps what distinguishes Raghuram from the throng of other young vocalists on the Carnatic scene today.

Accompanists Vittal Ramamoorthy on the violin and Neyveli Narayanan on the mrudangam were both lustily applauded by the audience for their virtuoso performances.

The Tamil Trinity Festival was celebrated successfully for the fourth year, held over March 10 and 11 at the Hindu Cultural Centre in the Shiva Vishnu temple, and the Performing Arts Centre, Rowville Secondary College respectively. The festival celebrated the contributions made to Carnatic music by three great Tamil composers who lived probably between the 16th and 18th centuries, viz Arunachala Kavi, Muthuthandavar and Marimutha Pillai.

The festival was the brainchild of Yogaraja Kandasamy of the Indian Arts Academy, Melbourne, and provided yet another platform for local artistes to strut their stuff, as well as an opportunity to see and hear some of the best overseas dancers and musicians.

The local ‘emerging artiste’ section featured a vocal recital by Shakthi Ravitharan, a sishya of Smt Shobha Sekhar. Shakthi had her vocal arangetram a couple of years ago, and has regularly performed in various events – so she is no novice to the stage. She began with a viruttam in praise of Ganapathy in a commanding voice, followed by a kriti immediately caught everyone’s attention. Indeed, her sonorous voice simply wafted through the auditorium and the audience which had been restless until then, fell silent.

Shakthi took up the raga aberi for a ragamtanam-pallavi (RTP) rendition – including ragas Basant and Brindavana saranga for elaboration. The lyrics were an ode to the great Tamil Trinity, very aptly composed and arranged by Smt Shobha Sekhar for the occasion. Shakthi’s presentation was nuanced and pleasing to the ear, and she navigated the transition from one raga to the next with consummate ease, without hitting a wrong note.

This was followed by a Murugan kriti, and she wrapped it up with the tongue-twister of a Tiruppugazh, ‘muththaithiru’ in raga senchurutti.

On the violin was Shri Suresh Babu, a visiting artiste from India, and on the mrudangam, Melbourne’s own Shri M Ravichandhira.

Farah Iyer’s arangetram was held on February 2 at the Darebin Arts and varnam addresses Lord Vishnu/Krishna as enshrined in Srirangam. Farah and

– Oothakadu’s Mohanam is a challenging piece with footwork well with the demands joyousness of this composition, the celebration of Krishna’s Leelas and one could see that Farah

Chandrabhanu’s

Sivanandan Ahilan’s sonorous and melodious voice was supported by two mrudangists, Balasri Rasiah and his son Hariharan providing nattuvangam, with Pallavi Susarla times, V V S Murari on the violin, Jalakshmi Sekhar on the veena.