Chennai Music and Dance Festival Dec 2011

Oh Ohhhhh, that's a bad news for me I have little breather till the 2nd week of Jan..
Yes It is the social aspect which gives a totally new dimension.

I had been actively involved in these lines, in my hometown. Though, neither gifted with a singing voice nor having had the heart to learn an instrument, my circle includes many a friend who had been learning Carnatic music for over 15 years. Those are some of the best voices I ever heard. We've been friends since childhood. I still feel a few of them might have turned professionals - music as their career option, but chose not to. A few perform Solo Kutcheris in the hometown, but the highlight is the annual event which we organize - a medley performance which is typically around the month of September. As for me, I take care of the behind-the-screen work, working on BG visuals etc.. Our program has run into the fifth year. The events were well acknowledged by the audience and the word of mouth is pretty good. We've got a 'brand equity', albeit locally. This year, the performance moved to a bigger venue.

The singers do this 'pro bono'. We start the work two months prior and our team sits down every weekend during the two months.

Last month, we went a step further and did a studio recording (I wasn't a part of that). We got the funding for the recording

That's wonderful.

I really like the idea of those who are not professionals just coming together to make music. Of course, there are those who could be pro standard, but have other careers, or do not have an interest in a performing career --- then there are people like me who enjoy a chance to play with others even though I don't rate very highly in knowledge or ability (instrument, morsing; level, was first-year mridangam student for ten years; practice, nil ). We used to have occasional rasikas.org 'jam sessions' just playing with and for each other, but that hasn't happened for a while now.

10 years' learning Mridangam is awesome, I guess there's an element of modesty here Yeah, it's real fun playing/singing music with and for each other.

Could you please elaborate on the jam sessions?

No, I'm afraid there is no element of modesty. I never even reached play-on-stage level with mridangam, although I did with morsing. I was the junior (at 40) in a regular trio --- the mridangist and the ghatam player were both, then, 11!

I'm sure it must have been a very unique experience!

Oh yes, it was. Among the several aspects was that of being able to be a kid again!

Above all, my present life, living in India, would never have happened if I had never got involved with carnatic music; would never have happened if a drummer friend had not given me an old mridangam that I got repaired; would never have happened without a chance introduction to my mridangam guruji...

A Whole Life Changer!

But enough of that for now ... Let's keep this thread active so that fewer people pass through Chennai completely unaware of this vast festival.

People: you may love Southern Indian classical music, or you may hate it, but you can't find out if you don't try . It's happening right now.

Oh yes, would love to hear the whole story sometime!

I second Nick - anyone touring Chennai (or any other city in Tamil Nadu) should try out the Kutcheris.This might not be one's cup of tea, if one lives by 'Speed is Life'. One may either Like and appreciate it or be uninterested, but one can never hate it - this isn't that kind of music.

But you'd never know until your actually trying it out!

You'd be surprised! Raga-based music, to many western ears, just doesn't sound right. Even if it wasn't modal, and without all the gamaka, the basic scale is different (experiment: compare the scale on a sruti box with a western chromatic tuner) and people find it just sounds out of tune. What to me is a beautiful alapana, to them is some kind of wailing!

The one issue foreigners tend not to have is the language thing. Many western classical-music lovers are content to listen to German, French, Italian, etc, without knowing what it means, so Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit are just others to add to the list.

That was beautifully explained.....