My Chennai debut!

I think I was fortunate to play my first Chennai concert at one of my favorite venues in the city - Raga Sudha Hall, Mylapore. When I started hearing concerts in the hall a few years back, I was amazed to see Shri SVK (the owner of the sabha) take so much care to give the audience a good concert experience. For instance, he would walk around the hall periodically to check if the amplification was proper at all places and would also enquire with a few people in the audience about the sound levels. I would be left wondering as to how good it would be to play under such a person's care. SVK mama is no more now but his daughter runs the sabha with a lot of dedication, the way he would have done had he been alive today. I must thank her from the bottom of my heart for reposing faith in me and giving me this opportunity. Coming to the concert, I was playing on stage after a gap of almost 4 years. I was able to feel considerable improvement in some areas since the last time but was also at the same time able to identify many areas that I need to work upon to improve further . Veteran mrudangam vidwan Sri Vellore Ramabhadran walked in some minutes before the tani started. It felt good to get his blessings and a few words of appreciation after the concert. I tried to collect as much feedback as possible from the people I could meet after the concert. In case you were present, please do send your feedback by email to ramsinbox@gmail.com . Please be very frank, especially while writing about areas you felt I could have done better in. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Details of the concert: Vocal: Vid Shruthi Subramaniam Violin: Vid Srividya R.S. Iyer Mrudangam: R. Ramkumar List of songs: 1) inta calamu (varNam) - bEgaDa - Adi - vINa kuppaiyer 2) bhaja mAnasa - bahudAri - Adi - tuLasIvanam (OS) 3) kanulu tAkani - kalyANavasantam - tisra Ekam - tyAgarAja (ANS) 4) parama pAvana - ranjani - Adi - mIsu krishna iyer 5) shrI mAtA - begaDa - Adi - muthuswAmi dIkSitar (ANST) 6) nInE anAtha bandhu - shubapantuvarALi - Adi - purandaradAsa (O) 7) avasiriyali nInu - darbAri kAnaDA - kanDa cApu - kanakadAsa (O) (Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Here are some snaps: [caption id="attachment_888" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Ram's concert @ Naada Inbam, Raga Sudha Hall, Mylapore - 1"][/caption]