There are many in the City who like to learn Carnatic music but don’t get time to go for classes. For such enthusiasts, the Bangalore International Centre recently organised an appreciation programme by Vidya Subramanian, in which she demonstrated the ragas and explained how they are performed.

Presided over by Vidya, herself a well-known Carnatic vocalist, the event largely revolved around raga identification, improvisation on stage, tala and rhythmic aspects. She discussed compositional format and styles of Carnatic music. Vidya also explained to the audience how artistes approach creative aspects such as alpana, neraval, kalpanaswarams, viruttam and ragam tanam pallavi. She was accompanied by A Rajkumar on mridangam and Meera Rajkumar on violin.

This event drew a good crowd, mostly comprising elderly folk. The evening was an informative one and the audience members actively took part in the question-and-answer session.

Keeping the interaction with the audience casual, Vidya gave some important tips which helped the audience understand classical music better.

Throughout the event, Vidya stressed the difficulties of learning raga. She says, “If people perform only notes, the raga won’t sound good. They have to get themselves well-versed with the ragas as well.” She carefully demonstrated each raga and told the audience about it’s importance.

With the growing inclination towards Western music, this Carnatic music appreciation was an event which will hopefully instigate a sense of liking towards traditional Indian music. A few members of the audience were also seen singing along with Vidya. Complementing her skillful performance was the beautiful combination of mridangam and violin by Meera and A Rajkumar.

Both of them seemed to be ease with their instruments during the event. The event was indeed an enlightening one for those present. Vidya currently co-hosts a pioneering Carnatic music audio podcast, called Raagrasika, which has gained immense popularity among the fans of the genre.