US-based Rishabh Kaushik excels at playing the piano, keyboard and singing Carnatic vocal. He is just 13 and has been learning music for the past nine years. This Saturday evening, Rishabh will present a vocal concert followed by one on the keyboard from 3.30 p.m. at the Dakshinamurthi Auditorium, RK Mutt Road, Mylapore.
These concerts are special since he has dedicated them to raise funds for Vidya Sagar, an organisation that has been working with persons with different disabilities. In the keyboard concert, he will be accompanied by artists Nerkunam Manigandan on morsing and Valangaiman Thyagarajan on the mridangam, who are both visually challenged and by Mullaivasal Chandramouli on violin, Nerkunam Sankar on Khanjira, Sri Varalaxmi Maya Abhishek on talam, who is Rishabh’s keys guru.
The event is being organised by non-profit organisation SciArtsRUs as part of its Artabilities 4 All initiative. Ranjini Kaushik of Los Angeles, California, who has founded SciArtsRUs, said that during the pandemic she noticed that persons with disabilities were not being provided opportunities to perform like the able-bodied artists . “I always wanted to make arts and science accessible to all and when you say accessibility, persons with disabilities come to the mind,” she said.
Rishabh says he is also being inspired by his vocal guru K.N.Shashikiran to do some sort of service to the society.