August 9 will be a special day for singer Priya Pai. Almost 130 of her students will come together at Melpathoor Auditorium in Guruvayoor to present her fusion interpretation of the Vishnu Sahasranamam .
Around five years ago she had brought out this version as an album. Training 130 students whose ages range from four years to 80 plus was no mean task, she says, especially since the students were in two different cities – Kochi and Bengaluru. She travels to Bengaluru in order to conduct classes.
The process of teaching and ensuring that each student is pitch perfect took a year and a half. The group will come together for the first time and perform together on stage, on August 9 for the 46-minute rendition. The process was tough but it has paid off, she says. The challenge was teaching the correct pronunciation and singing to the ragas.
“This is the first time anyone in Kerala has attempted a fusion of Vishnu Sahasranamam but I am confident about my effort. The students are singing to the track, the synchronicity will not be affected. The group has home-makers, working women, kids, teenagers – the group is a wonderful mix of talents. Initially I was apprehensive about how this would turn out but everything worked out,” she says. Her daughters’ response to the audio recording of her rendition got her thinking of doing something on this scale. “They were singing along and that got me thinking about doing something like this,” she says.
A Carnatic musician, Priya has brought out several CDs of devotional music not just singing, composing as well. Apart from concerts, she hosts a television show and has sung in a few films as well.
Of her interpretation, she says, “The verses have been set to tune to eight ragas. I have used guitars, congo drums, the violin, jazz guitar – instruments that will give the rendering a contemporary, fusion feel.”
