An Annual Festival to Remember

Music and Dance at San Diego

Shankar Ramachandran

Combine bright San Diego weather, a vibrant Indian community, and a dedicated board committed to promoting Indian classical music and you get the third annual Spring Music Festival at IFAASD. During its course, more than forty artists perform more than a dozen music and dance concerts. A hundred and fifty local Carnatic music students share their song. Several thousand meals are cooked and served by the local community. San Diego has hosted another music and dance festival that will leave seeds of a cultural memory in the minds, hearts and brains of all who attend and participate. Pride and joy are visible everywhere.

Following mangala isai by Injikkudi Subramaniam and party, the kuthu vilakku is lit. Revathi Subramanian, music teacher and IFAASD board member, sings a GNB song in invocation. Then it is time for the inaugural concert. Some 300 listeners are treated to an excellent recital by the San Diego sitar virtuoso Kartik Seshadri, accompanied by Arup Chattopadhyay on the tabla. Kartik presents Hamsadhwani and Simhendramadhyamam with perfect sruti alignment and poise. “There are stylistic differences between Carnatic music and Hindustani music”, he explains in a brief introduction, “but the divisions are not as clear as sometimes we think they are.”

Kartik Seshadri (sitar) accompanied by Arup Chattopadhyay (tabla)

A student of Pandit Ravi Shankar, an accomplished artist and teacher, head of the Indian Classical Music Program at UCSD, Kartik Seshadri sets a distinctive tone for the festival with his concert. After playing his own composition – a bandish in Simhendramadhyamam – Kartik concludes the concert with a soulful rendering of raga Pahadi Jhinjhoti. Guests sample the home-made Hyderabadi dinner and garam chai in the tranquil architectural outdoor setting of the auditorium at the world renowned Academy of the Neurosciences.

The Board members of the Indian Fine Arts Association are a diverse group marked by the energy and drive to make this infant festival, now in its third year, more than successful. They seem to share a collective vision to make this a festival of world renown while serving the San Diego Indian community. Their names are a who’s who of the Indian community in San Diego County. Headed by President Raj Sundaresan and Secretary Dr. Sekar Viswanathan, the board includes Dr. C.M. Venkatachalam, Meera Venkatesh, Revathi Subramanian, Dr. Vachaspathi Palakodeti, Lakshminarayana Peesapati, Divya Devaguptapu, Dr. Yenamandra S. Rao and Srinivasan Prabha. They worked tirelessly every day to make sure that all the multiple logistics were covered, helped by scores of enthusiastic volunteers. IFAASD was a sleepy little fine arts association until they teamed up with the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana each year. Working closely with CTA, V.V. Sundaram and Cleveland Balu, (San Diego Balu to the locals here), they had the idea of bringing a group of the artists headed for Cleveland to San Diego a week earlier.

Revathi Subramanian

C.M. Venkatachalam

“I give them the list of all the artists coming to Cleveland,” said Sundaram. “They make their choices from that.” He chats with me as we watch the mike system being adjusted for the over fifty strong ensemble of students of Dr. C.M. Venkatachalam. Sundaram says to me that it is all about the children. “If, as P.S. Narayanasawamy said,” he adds, “even half a dozen of these youngsters come up in the Carnatic music world, it will have been worth it.” Each year he is responsible for bringing to Cleveland and presenting to North American audiences, the young voices of Carnatic music as well as the seniors. Without him few in North America would know names like Vairamangalam Lakshminarayana, Parassala Ponnammal, and Kalpagam Swaminathan. Young musicians like Amritha Murali and Nisha Rajagopal are seen and heard in North America each year. Mridanga vidwans, tavil vidwans, instrumentalists, accompanists and lead artists all flock together for almost 15 days at Cleveland each year.

Friday evening’s programme is at the Jewish Cultural Center in La Jolla. Guests enjoy a “Tirupati” dinner sold by volunteers for a nominal $5. The food is home cooked by volunteers.

Another thing that makes a big difference is the presence of two dynamic music teachers on the IFAASD board. Both Dr. Venkatachalam and Revathi Subramanian are passionate about Carnatic music and having every one of their students attend kutcheri-s and participate in the festival. Their presence on the board and the unflagging canvassing by them and several other board members have helped swell the membership ranks to some 200 families.

Secretary and President are everywhere and talking to board members and volunteers by phone into the wee hours. No detail is too insignificant. They also host artists and get to the venue at the crack of dawn. On Saturday, Dr. Venkatachalam gets there at 6:30 am before his students so he can attend to the mike set-up for the participants. I see him leave only after the last event of the day. After the weeks and months of training and practice, the tireless teaching, the endless ferrying by parents, the moment of intense anticipation will soon be upon them.

But first, the ensemble of Friday evening, a brainchild of Sashikiran. A group of instrumentalists present an innovative programme starting with a mallari and a few kriti-s followed by the Bhairavi swarajati.

The programme also includes a ‘swara kriti’ in raga-s like Begada, Anandabhairavi and Nayaki. Billed as a “Carnatic Ensemble” with Sashikiran doing some konnakol, the instrumentalists including Guruvayur Dorai, Nagai Muralidharan, R. Thyagarajan, E.M. Subramaniam and Ganesh, provide an interesting presentation of items. The “English Note” composition popularised by Madurai Mani Iyer, followed by the Dhanasree tillana by Swati Tirunal, rounds off the concert.

The main event of Saturday is the early morning group singing by the children. Over fifty of Venkatachalam’s students assemble on the stage. They range in age from seven to forty and above. The Garland of Raga-s begins with Ganesa Pancharatnam. The sound is sweet; the group is well rehearsed and sings as one choir.

Raga-s follow one another in swift succession. The raga transitions are deft. Venkatachalam, music teacher, enthusiast, connoisseur, student of the late Chembai, sits on the floor in front of the stage and keeps tala for the group and “conducts” them with hand gestures. His students present eight ragamalika compositions. Modelled on the ‘Sustaining Sampradaya’ programme first presented at the Cleveland Aradhana a couple of years ago, the group format is both practical and effective. A “swaramalika” composed by Dr. Venkatachalam is followed by a Lalgudi jatiswaram and a padavarnam, both taken from the opera, Jaya Jaya Devi. The programme is a well thought out intertwining of the familiar and the unusual. Arabhimaanam, is followed by Ananda nilaya by ‘Chitravina’ Ravikiran. Sonnadai seithida follows in recognition of GNB who arranged the music. The programme concludes with Purandaradasa’s Ksheerabdhi kannike. Sensitive flute and mridanga accompaniment provided by local artists Radhakrishnan Ramachandran and Kalyan Vaidyanathan makes for a rich listening experience. Cleveland Balu joins them with the khanjira.

The next group is of younger children, the students of Revathi Subramanian. Some 35 of them sing in two sections, presenting a selection of kriti-s to celebrate the genius of Muthuswami Dikshitar. They begin with a delightful rendition by 4-6 year-old children of the group. They sing Dikshitar’s nottu swara kriti-s. Beginning with Sakti sahita Ganapatim, several of these distinctive kriti-s are belted out with robust voices in an unabashed manner unique to the very young.

Their practiced ease was evident as they sing in two octaves. The children are visibly enjoying themselves and singing with pleasure. The next set of youngsters sing Mahaganapatim, Anandamritakarshini, Sreelakshmi varaham, Sree Saraswati and Sivakameswarim. None of them uses notes or any written references. Finally Revathi invites everyone in the auditorium to join in to sing Gurumurtey. Again, the accompanists Radhakrishnan Ramachandran, Raamkumar Balamurti (mridanga) and Cleveland Balu add richness to the group singing. The youngsters are a big reason this festival is held. Will these seeds planted in them during this process, the learning and the exposure, stay with them and return in adulthood as they try to pass on these cultural memories to their children? This is the ardent hope of their parents, their teachers and all those who work so diligently to make this festival possible.

The time for Mysore breakfast with coffee melds into the Tanjavur lunch. Nagaswaram by Injikudi Subramaniam and party follows in the auditorium to an abbreviated audience of about 100 listeners. The delay from the morning eats into the time allotted for this concert. This is the first time since their recent marriage that Subramaniam and his wife Chitra are giving a concert together. A Dhenuka alapana followed by Teliyaleru rama and Nagumomu are notable as is the spirited tani avartanam by the two tavil vidwans S.M. Babu and S.G Abhiramasundaram. Subramaniam then plays an unhurried alapana in the Raga Desh. The slow and majestic cadences of the woodwind echo through the hall, and Tanjavur Sankara Iyer’s composition Rama namame tudi maname follows. Manasi Prasad’s concert titled “Seenappa Nayaka to Purandaradasa”, a thematic journey of the life of Purandaradasa, is a hit with the audience. The Kambhoji and Kalyani alapana-s are both powerful and evocative. She concludes her programme with the popular Jagadoddarana. She is ably supported by V.V.S. Murari (violin), R. Thyagarajan (flute), K. Sivakumar (mridanga) and Cleveland Balu (khanjira).

There are a number of talented artists who make San Diego their home and IFAASD is smart to take advantage of their presence in the community to enrich the festival offering and participation. Local artists also mean more local families in attendance.

Besides Kartik Seshadri, Radhakrishnan Ramachandran, Kalyan Vaidyanathan, Raamkumar Balamurthi, Shoba Sharma, and Divya Devaguptapu, a number of musicians and dancers enrich the local community. Two such dancers were featured in the festival this year.