Four aspiring young musicians from Bengaluru are in the city for the Season, each having bagged an appreciable number of concerts worth mentioning.
“It has never been easy for musicians to get a slot during the December Season, but its their passion and focus that has helped these youngsters find concert space,” says senior mridangam artist H.S. Sudhindra, who publishes a directory of Karnataka’s musicians and dancers.
The beginnings of a continued participation in the Music Season came from the veteran violinist T. Chowdiah and later by the doyen R.K. Srikantan, and the Mysore Brothers, Nagaraj and Manjunath.
“Even for senior musicians from Karnataka, it was an uphill task to retain their slots owing to the competitive setting,” says Sudhindra.
In such a scenario, vocalist Priyanka Prakash, violinists Apoorva Krishna and Vittal Rangan and mridangam player Akshay Anand have several concerts in their kitty, including The Music Academy.
Eighteen-year-old Apoorva Krishna, who is studying Business Administration, has 15 concerts, with two solos. She has been performing during the Season for the past five years.
A student of Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam, she also participated in ‘Guru Vandanam,’ to pay homage to the legend of violin, Lalgudi Jayaraman.
Vocalist Priyanka Prakash, 23, a student of vidushi Neela Ramgopal, has nine concerts. “Listening to yesteryear greats is paramount to one’s daily practice, it widens one’s perspective and understanding of the fundamentals,” insists her guru.
The confident Chartered Accountant working for an IT company, was ready a month ago with her repertoire comprising an array of ragas, talas and composers to bring in variety.
Mridangam artist Akshay Anand, the 17-year-old who has to rush back after his half-a-dozen concerts to give his Second PU exams, says, “My guru K.S. Kalidas follows the Palani Subramanya Pillai style.” With 160 concerts to his credit in the past four years, Akshay was one of the youngest to perform at The Music Academy. The 20-year-old Vittal Rangan has been training under A. Kanyakumari for the past 11 years.
The young violinist who is also pursuing CA, says his eight concerts in the Season are a opportunity to learn more “as the vocalised formatting brought about in the Kanyakumari schooling helps me adapt easily to other styles on stage.”
