There are many young talents who find it hard to gain a platform for performance and even when they do, the audience is very small. Yet, today’s unknown artistes are tomorrow’s great vidwans and vidushis. So, giving them a platform and audience appreciation while they are still unheard of, gives them a boost. Also, sabhas can identify potential artistes at such events and offer them opportunities later.
The recent programme by Neelamabari at Saptaparni, Hyderabad proved that point with their annual classical-music festival. Titled Swara Pallavam--2019, it had a series of short-duration concerts of Carnatic music by students and budding performers of their school.
The programme began with very young children and progressed to senior students. Similarly, the renditions progressed from swarajathis and simple kirtanas to lesser-known compositions and manodharma sangeetham. Some of the students showed much promise and the seniors exuded confidence. For many, it was their first major onstage performance.
Neelambari has been founded by the couple Subbalakshmi Alamuri ( grand-niece of Nedunuri Krishnamurthy) and Gopalakrishna Alamuri (Nedunuri’s grand nephew-in-law). Gopalakrishna has given solo performances on several occasions and also sang in Nada Neerajanam, twice in troupes led by Seshulatha Viswanath; and once in a group of Hyderabad Sabha organisers led by Daruri Raghavchary of the Hyderabad Brothers.
What began as a three-student, two- teacher academy has now grown to 50 students with four teachers, three of whom are graded artistes of AIR. Well-known musicians — Oruganti Rajashekhar, Rayaprolu Sudhakar and Chilumula Ramakrishna — teach here.
Subbalakshmi and Gopalakrishna say, “Neelambari started its journey as a Sangeeta Sabha in 2011 with a view to providing a stage to those that are just getting ready to sing manodharma sangeetam but have no platform to hone their on-stage skills. We believe it is important to expedite the process of artistes ascending to higher platforms right when they’re ready. We believe there is an advantage with mridangam, violin and vocal all being taught under one roof. Students do not play and sing independent of each other, but rather, they learn to work together, intuitive of each other’s skills during their tutelage and later on the stage.”
The programme began with renditions by vocalists Manaswini, Sarvepalli Srivatsa, Shravani, V Kavya, and V Nandita , Varshini Vishwanathamin solo and with Velvadapu Shriya for duet , Rama Priya, K Trinadh and Vemuri Virinchi, T Ananya, Chaganti Jyothirmayi, Chaluvagali Sivani.
Renditions by instrumental included Y. Ayush (violin), M Rithvik (violin) and P Suhas (mridangam), G Trilok and Yanamandra Aakarsh (mridangam duet), Rehaan Jain (mridangam), N C Anuraag and K Sridhanush (mridangam duet)S Srivatsa and T Sriraaga (violin duet), , Alamuri Abhiram (mridangam) , Malladi Abhiram (mridangam), P. Sarath Naresh (violin), Chaganti Manikanta and Tirumala Anand (mridangam duet), Pandravada Suhas (mridangam), Vemuri Sarmada and K Sai Srikar (violin duet)K Sai Srikar presented (violin)
A more mature performance came in the form of a group veena performance by P Lakshmi Kiranmayee, G Surekha, M Geeta, D Hima Bindu, N Madhavi all supported by their teacher Rayaprolu Sudhakar. They rendered Sri Gananatham Bhajamyaham (Kanakaangi); Ninu vina naamadendu (Navarasa Kannada) and a Tillana (Desh). The finale had all students of Neelambari come together to perform Jayamu manade (Hamswadhwani), an Annamacharya kirthana tuned by the late Sathiraju Venumadhav.
Also present at the event were Suri Venkateswarlu of Vignana Samithi, Voruganti Ananda Mohan of Sangeeta Ksheera Sagaram and Maheedhara Seetarama Sarma of Sujanaranjani. We would have liked to see a person on stage keeping talam throughout the programme for the benefit of the students in the audience.
