Aishwarya at 12, was all set to present her maiden concert in Chennai when her mother zealously phoned up the legendary D.K. Pattammal to invite as the chief guest. The doyen refused to accept the offer, but she asked Aishwarya to visit her sometime.
“Lochana, Kamalalochana.....” the 12-year-old sang before the acclaimed maestro in raga Darbar. After her recital, Pattammal not just accepted her as a disciple but began to teach Karunai Seva in raga Hamsadhwani the very same day. “My association with Pattamama thus began fortuitously,” reminiscences Aishwarya Srinivas, a Carnatic vocalist who currently resides in Bangalore. A chartered accountant by training, Aishwarya has had a good academic background, but has chosen her passion -- Carnatic music -- as a vocation for life.
A ten-year-long association with Pattammal gave her the chance to learn grand compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar, Papanasam Sivan. “Learning from someone like her, an authority on these compositions, gave me the confidence to go on stage without any hindrance,” admits Aishwarya, who has been lucky to learn from many celebrated teachers of Carnatic music.
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Around the same time, she was taking lessons from Sulochana Pattabhiraman who taught her tillanas and varnams of some of the contemporary composers. How did she manage to learn from multiple gurus simultaneously? “That is what I loved in Sulochana mami. After her classes, she used to accompany me to Pattammal’s place where she not only sat through my sessions but gave her valuable comments. She even used to ask Pattammal to teach me the choicest kritis ,” responds Aishwarya, who feels it was because of the large heartedness of her teachers that she could learn from multiple schools. “They were for dissemination of knowledge, encouraging their students to learn from as many sources as possible,” she states. Aishwarya followed what her guru Pattammal used to advise: “Don’t confine yourself to one kind of music. Go, learn from all that is available but know what suits you.”
Aishwarya who has rendered a range of thematic concerts on various composers, went to Pattammal to learn rare compositions of a vaggeyakara. An octogenarian by then, she vaguely remembered them. “She asked one of her disciples, Vijay Siva to turn up immediately. He came without any delay and taught me six other kritis of Muthiah Bhagavatar.”
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Aishwarya performed at various sabhas in Chennai and earned the admiration of dignitaries in the music fraternity. “My horizons broadened when I got the opportunity to travel across the State on a junior scholarship granted by Iyal Isai Nataka Manram, Government of Tamilnadu at the age of 17.” Her renditions at Erode, Neyveli and other parts, she felt were totally different from those she had presented in Chennai. “I learnt how to cater to a variety of audience from these travels,” she acknowledges.
Over the years, however, it was R.K. Srikantan who brought the best in Aishwarya in making her realise what best suited her voice. A vocalist who was apprehensive to try prathi madhyama ragas, except Kalyani and Varali, began singing pieces that are set to Lathangi, Dharmavathi and the like. “Srikantan used to sit through my concerts when I was in this stage of self-exploration,” she remembers her mentor fondly.
Lately, Aishwarya has been making presentations on specific vaggeyakaras like Bharathiyar, Gopalakrishna Bharathi, Shyama Shastri and others. Presenting concerts on a single musician brings to light new or lesser known dimensions of the composer. “For instance, compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar are conceived to be slow-paced, whereas I sang a faster paced kriti, Parvata Rajkumari, in raga Sriranjani recently at Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Chamarajapet, Bangalore. Thematic concerts help comprehend the music styles of these classic composers which not just broaden the range of one’s collection but help chisel the perspective,” says the budding musician.