Symphony of varied notes

Budding Artiste

Young talent often leaves an impression. And 14-year-old Sudarshan Ajai Thirumalai did just that, when he amazed the crowd with his vocal concert at Ananya, Malleswaram recently.

The concert saw a full house and the audience had a great time, tapping their fingers to the notes that Sudarshan sang.

Sudarshan’s renditions were accompanied by Vittal Ragan on violin and Pravin Sitaram on mridangam, and each of the instruments added to the performance on the whole. The teenager, while displaying his vocal talents, kept the audience involved with his body language and the way he interacted with his accompanists.

He played some very popular pieces and the crowd was mesmerised by the different notes he rendered. The pieces that Sudarshan presented before the audience included Sidhi Vinayakam in shanugan priya raga, Manasa Yatulo in malaya maruta raga, Meenakshi Memudam in poorvi kalyani raga and Haritumo Haro in darbari kannada raga. The other pieces he performed included Tillana in basant bahaar raga, Manave

Manthralaya in shudha saranga raga and Varnam in shankar bharanam raga.

There were also parts of the renditions, performed on the veena and the mridangam, that left the audience spellbound. 

Raghavendra, the managing trustee of Ananya, who sees cultural programmes happen at the location often, comments, “He has all the ingredients that a performer needs to be a good artiste. He seems to be very elaborate on the ragas and the control
he has over laya is also impressive.”

Chandramouli B K, a veteran mridangam artiste who was at the concert, adds, “The way he interacts with his accompanists is noticeable. He doesn’t look at a book for the notes, which is very interesting and is one of the main things needed for bhava. Music is divine and shouldn’t be mixed with other things. A lot of dedication is required to keep a talent like that at the forefront.”   
    
Saraswathi S, a member of the audience, expresses, “To see such talent with so much clarity in the notes and the style — especially in a youngster — is a unique opportunity. Even though Sudarshan is a very young artiste, he seems to have the stage presence and the maturity of an artiste who’s been around for ages.”