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.

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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)

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Here are some snaps: