The thirty second Tygaraja utsavam organized by the Classical Arts Society was celebrated in the Meenakshi Temple in Pearland over the three day period from April 24th to 26th. The festival was under the guidance of Mrdangam virtuoso Prof. Trichy Sankaran as artistic director. The following were the salient features of the utsavam.
· April 24th
o Inaugural vocal concert by Nisha Rajagopal and party which came in for much praise.
· April 25th
o Unchavrithi around the temple with visiting artist Trichy Ramesh as Tyagaraja. Prof. Sankaran remarked that this was one of the few utsavams featuring the traditional unchavrithi and applauded the organizers for maintaining the tradition.
o Grand rendering of Pancharatnams with about 45 participants including visiting vidwans Shri Madurai Sundar and Shri Trichy Ramesh along with local musicians.
o Nalini Mukhopadhyay and Prabha Bala gave the founder’s welcome. They detailed the history of the Utsavam and its future directions and introduced Shri Vatsa Kumar, the Chairman of the interim board.
o Prof. Sankaran inaugurated the utsavam and spoke about the importance of laya in music and how Tyagaraja gave importance to laya.
o The website of the society www. Classicalartssociety.org was formally inaugurated and blessed by Shri Trichy Sankaran.
o A lecture demonstration by Shri Madurai Sundar on the compositions of the musical trinity. It was a very erudite presentation and informative to all of the audience.
o Group presentations
§ Tyagaraja’s Narada’s compositions co-ordinated by Smt. Anuradha Subramaniam
§ “ Raja Margam” co-ordinated by Smt. Asha Bhakthavatsalam
o Individual singing by Houston based singers. This was spread across two locations in order to accommodate a overwhelming registration of over 130 participants. The co-ordinaters Mahesh Iyer and Nalini Sadagopan came in for praise for the meticulous planning and scheduling.
o A mini-concert by Trichy Ramesh which was well received.
o A grand violin duet by Prof. VV Subramaniam and VVS Murai along with Tiruvarur Bhakthavatsalam. It was display of melody and techniques and the audience was thoroughly regaled with great music. The tani was a high octane performance.
· April 26th
o Day started with the Rasikapriya orchestra rendering Tyagaraja Krithis
o Prof. Rex Koontz of University of Houston gave a talk on rhythm from a world music perspective.
o Prof. Trichy Sankaran then gave lecdem on importance of rhythm and demonstrated the salient aspects of the Pudukottai school of percussion. This lecdem was highly interactive one with the audience asking several questions and Prof. Sankaran patiently answering all of them
o The lecdem as followed by a thalavadya kutcheri by Prof. Sankaran on the Mrdangam, Dr. Ravi Balasubramaniam on the ghatam and Desi Narayanan on the Kanjira. This was a highly explosive display of percussive artistry as its best. A fitting standing ovation followed.
o Chitra Dharmarajan and her group presented Eka Krithi Raga compositions of Tyagaraja. They made to involve the audience by providing a powerpoint presentation simultaneously of their song selections and this was highly appreciated by the audience. Their handling of Deshadi talam came in for commendation by Prof. Trichy Sankaran.
o Vidushi Rajeshwary Bhat and her group presented some of the saint Tygaraja’s compositions under the theme” Sogasuga Mridanga Talamu”. It was heartning to note a very diverse group of involved singers from small children to enthusiastic seniors all singing together as a tribute to a Saint non paralleil.
o The individual singing for Sunday continued with two parallel sessions. Both the sessions were well attended.
o The grand finale of Madurai Sundar was thundering success. He regaled the audience with his soulful singing ably accompanied by Jayashankar Balan(Violin), Prof. Sankaran(Mrdangam), and Dr. Ravi Balasubramanian( Ghatam). The icing on the cake was the pallavi rendition, tanam accompanied by Mrdangam, and ragamalika swarams. Needless to say, the thani avarthanam was a high voltage performance.
o The program concluded with a formal vote of thanks by Vatsakumar, Chairman of Interim Board of Classical Arts Society of Houston. Prof. Sankaran made the concluding remarks and was very happy with the success of the utsavam. It was then curtains closed for the utsavam. Until next Spring, these memories will keep us certainly engaged and make us wait with eagerness of the next utsavam.
o Detailed reviews of the concerts will be posted separately. Most of the performances were indeed recording subject to artist’s approval. They have been very gracious in providing permission to share them with the larger musical fraternity on the internet. This will be done in the due course of time. Please stay tuned.
