Strumming melodies

veena 'vidushi'

Music at its deepest and most intense is essentially a divine experience; a journey towards the union with God that can resolve the disharmony and duality inherent in human condition, to unify the finite and infinite aspects. In that expanded awareness an artiste’s personal energy becomes boundless — be it in vocal or instrumental music.

Kasi Visalakshi, an exponent of Veena, is one such musician whose sadhana and rendition commune with divinity.

A top-grade artiste hailing from a family of musicians and trained under Sangeeta Kalanidhi Padma Bhushan Late Dr V Doraiswamy Iyengar and Vainika Vidwan Sri Mysore C Krishnamurthy, Visalakshi exhibits the sober tonal qualities of the rich Mysore Bani style and Vizianagaram school, with emphasis on sahitya and bhava in her performances.

Having performed in many well-known organisations and music festivals in South India and abroad, this Bengaluru-based artiste’s repository has quite a few awards and achievements: Dr Tenneti Viswanatham Birth Centenary Gold Medal, Outstanding Young Musician Award, CCRT Research Scholarship for advance training by Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, Best Raga Rendering award etc.

Visalakshi has trained more than 100 disciples at advanced level in veena and in vocals over the last 30 years. Her concerts always receive rave reviews; one of them said she has “an admirable concert-competence and a grip over her veena.” Others said that “she has a finesse and conviction that will take her places,” that “she always gives soft, mellifluous and solid recitals” and that her veena “sings.”

Learning curve

“I was under the tutelage of my mother Pappu Padmavathi for 10 years. An acclaimed veena artiste, she strongly believed in sadhana and imbibed the same in me. I began my training under Dr V Doraiswamy Iyengar after I moved to Bengaluru. I was impressed by his veena-playing techniques. Later, I continued my advanced training from his eminent disciple Mysore C Krishnamurthy, who appreciated the style I had developed by then. He took special interest in teaching me the intricacies of the Mysore Bani style and groomed me into a performer,” she explains.

Since she has been playing the instrument for four decades now, her musical influences have been many. “As a young trainee attending concerts with my mother, I had the opportunity to listen to veena maestros like Emani Sankara Sastry, Chittibabu, R K Suryanarayana... I was mesmerised.” Music for her is a “daily puja”, and it’s her way of “connecting with God”.

Talking about her constant effort to achieve a distinctive quality of playing the instrument, she comments, “Any composition when performed on an instrument relies completely on the tune it is set to. I try to bring out subtle nuances like sahitya (lyrics) and bhava (emotions) of the song in every composition. I try my best to make the listener feel the same. Music should always come from the soul.”

Through her concerts she “tries to create a journey of experiences for a listener by thoughtful selection of compositions either based on a theme or composer. I then add raga and tala to it.”

Pat on the back

Audience reaction and the encouragement to play more motivates her every time. This is an experience she cherishes till date: “I had the rare opportunity to perform for an invited audience at a church auditorium in Switzerland. Despite the fact that they did not know much about the instrument or the genre of music, the invitees were so receptive to my performance that they continued to sit for long and enjoy the melody of the instrument with much attention. Such is the power of this divine instrument.”

“Veena, or any instrument for that matter, requires immense co-ordination of all the senses. Since it is a plucked string instrument, it cannot be played with ease.”

She explains how the skillful use of variation in rendition is extremely important to Carnatic music: “With dedicated practice, it is important to understand the varied nuances of ragas and their notes. This is particularly different in the case of instruments because bringing out lyrics is a challenge. Care should be taken to ensure that the musical trio — raga, rasa and sahitya — should not be compromised during variations at any given time of rendition.”

Speaking about the importance of connecting with the audience, she maintains, “Manodharma sangeeta helps to reach out to them. An artiste also has a desire to explore a raga and the associated bhava. That should be decided based on the occasion, the context, and most importantly, the mood that the artiste is trying to convey.”