Classical carnival on foreign shores

Cleveland Tyagaraja Fest is synonymous with V. V. Sundaram.

July 25, 2014 04:21 pm | Updated 04:21 pm IST - Chennai

Cleveland Sundaram. Photo: Gopi Sundaram

Cleveland Sundaram. Photo: Gopi Sundaram

For 36 years, the Cleveland Tyagaraja Fest in the U.S., has been an important calendar event for classical artists. The international extravaganza that’s been held annually across the Atlantic since 1978, had a humble beginning before becoming a melodic carnival where the stars of Indian classical music and dance converge and vie to perform.

One man takes credit for this. V.V. Sundaram or ‘Cleveland’ Sundaram, as he is better known today. He ignited his dream way back in the late 1960s, when he felt the need for classical arts to gather steam ‘across the seas’ where he had arrived as a 21-year-old student.

Sundaram’s endeavour was backed with other patrons in the U.S. who later came together as a team. They included V.K. Viswanathan, ‘Toronto’ Venkataraman, K. Ananthanarayan, ‘Cleveland’ Balu, Sekhar Vishwanathan of the Fine Arts Academy of San Diego and mridangam artist Ramnad Raghavan. Together, they worked to further the cause of fine arts. Two festivals evolved out of this – the Tyagaraja Fest in April and one in September for artist tours.

Born to Venkata Subramony and Rajalakshmi in Tirunelveli in 1945, young Sundaram’s rendezvous with music began as a toddler. Although he absorbed the nuances when music classes were held at home for his brothers and sisters, he says, “Listening to AIR’s Carnatic programmes interested me as a child. I did try my hand at the mridangam for four years.”

The spiritual Pittsburgh platform was the starting point for a cultural take off, music followed gradually. From just one Tyagaraja aradhana programme in 1978, with four artists singing the Pancharatna kritis, to Sundaram arranging Visas, travel, stay and honorarium for 85 artists from India in 2014, the journey is full of remarkable tales.

Born out of a man’s dream and taken up by an equally passionate team, Sundaram (who retired a decade ago as MD CEO of Covansys) reminisces those initial years and much else. Excerpts from an interaction:

Can you recall your initial days in the U.S?

I landed in the U.S. in 1969 to do my Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. About 300 Indian families lived there of which about 30 to 40 were from South India. Among those were 3 or 4 families interested in music. My longing to visit a temple and watch people gather for music grew by the day. In October during Diwali, when four of us Indians got together and discussed our ‘life shorn of temple and music,’ we vowed to build a temple.

We hardly earned much, but yearned for our culture. So we hired the basement of a church in Pittsburgh, got pictures of deities from Mount Road, Chennai, and placed them in our ‘temple.’ In 1970, as part of our Pittsburgh University Students Association, we organised a recital by Vyjayanthimala, who was touring the U.S. I still remember… communication was a challenge those days. We had to book a call to India that took 24 hours to come through! By 1972, we had collected two lakh dollars from public support and Sri Venkateswara Temple of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, took shape.

What about the music aspect?

We were constantly thinking about how to bring South Indian music to the U.S. In 1971, I met Pt Ravi Shankar who assured us, “Get in Hindustani musicians to perform and I will help you get the artists.” Viswanathan arranged a New York tour for violin whiz Lalgudi Jayaraman and flute maestro N. Ramani. For the first time, a 25-concert tour stretching to two-and-a-half-months was put together with the two doyens making their U.S. debut. It proved an instant hit. From nagaswaram vidwan Sheikh Chinna Maulana in 1972 to T.V. Shankaranarayanan in 1973, we brought one artist a year for extended concert schedules across the U.S.

What was the turning point for the Cleveland Tyagaraja Fest?

It was the arrival of mridangam vidwan Ramnad Raghavan. After teaching some of us the first four Pancharatna kritis, Raghavan goaded us into having a Tyagaraja Fest, after the Varali one was rendered by vocalist Anuradha from Toronto. Thus, the first Cleveland Tyagaraja Fest was born in a church basement. Finally, our dream was taking shape. In 1978, the Pittsburgh temple with a basement auditorium became functional and a a cultural committee of the temple was formed. Gradually, Indian organisations across Canada and America became more proactive and concert tours became a regular calendar event.

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