Brahmara Trust awardees rise to the occasion

The Bhramara Trust of Prof Y T and Madhuri Thathachari conducts music competition for young musicians every year.

The winner will  receive the prestigious Bharatharathna  M S Subbalakshmi award and a cash prize. The trust also gives an award in memory of Prof G T Narayana Rao to a young instrumentalist from Karnataka. This year, the recipients of M S Subbalakshmi award were two young musicians Archana and Priyanka C Prakash. A Radhesh received Prof G T N award. 

Archana is the disciple and daughter of Vid Koviladi Kala of Mysore. Priyanka is a disciple of Vid Neela Ramgopal of Bengaluru. Both are talented and gifted artistes. 

Radhesh learnt mridanga under late P G Lakshminarayan. These award winners, accompanied by Adithi Krishnaprakash on the violin gave a music concert at the Alwar Kala Bhavana. 

Two different schools of learning with different manodharma performing together was indeed an experience not only for the musicians, but also for the listeners. It must have taught them to co-operate, accommodate, co-ordinate and to adapt. It was a good effort for sure. They had to present their best in the allotted time which they did. 

The concert started with a Varna ‘Erana pai’ in todi raga, set to Adi tala. This varna afforded an opportunity to showcase their ability to sing in Tisra too. 

Priyanka took up Kalyani for individual presentation and sang ‘Unnaillan vere gathi illai amma’, a Tamil composition of Papanasam Shivan. A short alapa and a neraval at “Neene Meenakshi Kamakshi”was apt. Archana opted for Bahudhari and sang Tyagarajas ‘Brovabarama’. 

Both did justice to the raga by bringing bhava to it. They together sang raga thana pallavi in Simhendramadhyama.

 The sahitya was interestingly set to ‘Gopuccha yati’ “ Jagannatha sahithe natha sahithe sahithe hithe the” set to Tisra Jhampe in Misra gati. The two young ladies accomplished this task very satisfactorily. 

Added to this was ‘Swara bheda’ by both in ragas like Natakuranji - Neelambari, Revathi – Sunadavinodini, Karnaranjini and Varali. This clearly pointed at the virtuosity and creativity of the artistes. Adithi and Radhesh both were very supportive. 

Priyanka’s ‘Bhavayami Gopala’ (Yamunakalyani-Annamacharya) was emotionally charged. Archana’s ‘Shreenivasa Shri Venkatamudiyan’(Hamsanandi-Papanasam Shivan) was melodious. They both concluded the concert with a tillana of Lalgudi Jayaraman in Mond. Good singer, veena player Rajashri Josyar Srikanth sang under the aegis of Sri Prasanna Sundara Rama mandira of Jayanagar on April 18. K T Udaykiran(violin),Sudarshan(mridanga) and Manjunath(ghata) provided accompaniments to her. Rajashri is a good singer and a good veena player like her mother M K Saraswathi. 

She has to her credit a clear and soft voice that transforms her musical thoughts effortlessly. Her manodharma comes alive in kalpana swaras which portray the notes like the pearls in a necklace. The dignified style of singing makes it worth listening. 

She presented a few kruthis which exhibited her proficiency. After an invocatory ‘Namo namo Raghukulanayaka’ with crisp swaras, she sang a Puranadara dasa’s devaranama ‘Barayya Venkataramana’ in Charukeshi in a lively manner. ‘Seetamma maayamma’ of Tyagaraja in Vasantha was brisk. She chose ‘Vathaatmaja’ for kalpana swaras that were  clear and enhanced the beauty of the kruthi.  

A short and impressive alap of Udayaravichandrike was followed by ‘Enthanerchina’ of Tyagaraja. The main raga was Simhendramadhyama which was soulful in every phrase.

Mysore Vasudevacharya’s composition ‘Ninne nammithi’ was a right choice that satisfied the listeners. A Bhajan of Surdas ‘Haridarushan ki pyaasi’ in yaman was meaningfully appealing.