Information about different events in arts, culture and related fields are displayed here.
With one click you can get details of the concluded and current events in the performing arts genre and their venues.
If you, as an individual or an institution, want to be feature your events here, please mail to events@eambalam.org
Learning - Around the world
eAmbalam's vision of "Creating Artists Everywhere" is continuously given shape by its founders T.V.Ramprasadh & Indira Kadambi.
Between August & November 2013, they embarked on an USA tour conducting workshops & lec-dems, most of them free, across many cities. Two such are featured in this write up.
Dance workshop at Punaroor Viswanatha Swamy temple
Amidst the paddy fields and small hillocks is a beautiful temple in the Malnad region – the Punaroor Viswanatha Swamy temple in Mulki near Udupi. It is a calm and serene place resonating with sound of the temple bells and chanting of the manthras. It was here in this beautiful atmosphere that Indira Kadambi got to conduct an Abhinaya workshop for four days during monsoon.
Subash Thyagarajan works as a Senior Business Analyst in Cognizant and is a hobbies freak. His varied hobbies include Origami, collecting stamps, coins , First Day covers and foreign currencies. He loves long distance cycling and has particpated in the Tour of Tamilnadu 2010 and 2011 editions. He has now taken up running and finished a half marathon in The Wipro Chennai Marathon.
Subash Thyagarajan works as a Senior Business Analyst in Cognizant and is a hobbies freak. His varied hobbies include Origami, collecting stamps, coins , First Day covers and foreign currencies. He loves long distance cycling and has particpated in the Tour of Tamilnadu 2010 and 2011 editions. He has now taken up running and finished a half marathon in The Wipro Chennai Marathon.
Karthik Raghavendra Vignesh works for the R& D division of Hyundai Motors Private ltd. Karthik has deep passion for music and is a wonder on the piano. He loves origami just like his dad and mom and is a very good cyclist. Karthiks other interests include wild life photography, bird watching :) and cars.
Origami Society of Madras was founded 2 yrs back as a Facebook group by Karthik and Subash. It was a quiet day in Karthik's R A Puram residence that this idea struck them and thus OSM was born, It’s only intent is to spread the art on a wider scale among school children and other arts enthusiasts of the city. OSM has conducted workshops in various city colleges including IIT Madras. They have been associated with Deepam NGO and have taken classes to lesser privileged kids in all their centers. The society has interesting plans in 2013 and is gathering momentum.
Pictures of Melody, the first-ever pictorial series on Karnātic music legends by Lakshmi Devnath, a well-known researcher and writer in Karnatic music.
A little story on how a couple discovered it was possible to take traditional music and dance across borders
At a building nestled in a tranquil residential area of Besant Nagar, far removed from the boisterous beach-going crowd and with streets curiously named after rivers such as the Ganga, Cauvery and Yamuna, lies an inspiring story — on following one’s heart. “I was introduced to music at the age of nine and gave my first concert at 11. My parents would sing bhajans in the house and those influences were indelible,” says T. V. Ramprasadh, a trained Classical singer. “I went on to graduate in Cost Accountancy. I started my career in merchant banking, and after three years, I realised the world of stock market, primary issues, and price-earning ratio was not for me. I continued to give concerts and teach music, but the work pressure was too much. That was the moment of truth: I was 26 and married, but I had to follow my heart. I quit my job.”
A little story on how a couple discovered it was possible to take traditional music and dance across borders
At a building nestled in a tranquil residential area of Besant Nagar, far removed from the boisterous beach-going crowd and with streets curiously named after rivers such as the Ganga, Cauvery and Yamuna, lies an inspiring story — on following one’s heart. “I was introduced to music at the age of nine and gave my first concert at 11. My parents would sing bhajans in the house and those influences were indelible,” says T. V. Ramprasadh, a trained Classical singer. “I went on to graduate in Cost Accountancy. I started my career in merchant banking, and after three years, I realised the world of stock market, primary issues, and price-earning ratio was not for me. I continued to give concerts and teach music, but the work pressure was too much. That was the moment of truth: I was 26 and married, but I had to follow my heart. I quit my job.”
THE E-ROUTE
So in 1998, the singer and his wife Bharatanatyam dancer Indira Kadambi set up Ambalam, a centre for teaching Classical arts. “By 2008, the power of the Internet was so much that we embraced it. Ambalam became eAmbalam,” says the 43-year-old. “I was teaching Carnatic vocals and Indira, dance. From one-to-one tutoring, we moved over to Skype to teach students in Europe and the U.S. And, that’s how we found that music, dance, and yoga could be taught online through structured courses.”
The e-learning portal offers basic and advanced diploma courses on Carnatic vocal and Bharatanatyam with yoga, through hundreds of videos built on a customised platform. It also has learning sections covering languages, festivals, yoga sutra, temple architecture, Ayurveda, and legends in arts and dance.
“The Internet gave us a platform to form the vibrant community SaMaaGaMaa, and we branched into lectures, workshop, yoga, Kalari, Tai chi, meditation, and even origami. For the two-day SaMaaGaMaa annual festival in Nageswara Rao Park, experts from different disciplines interacted with our students and exposed them to these new currents. The viewership was over 30,000.”
What did music teach him? “Everything I have learnt is from music. My gurus (the late) S. Rajam and P.S. Narayanaswamy were great artistes and more-than-great human beings. They were down-to-earth; fees was never a consideration.”
BACK TO BASICS
But can Classical music stem the tide of the last 20 years’ cultural degradation? “I can’t reverse consumerism, but I offer an avenue for one to get acquainted with one’s tradition. I was in Bangalore on a newspaper project trying to teach school boys the rudiments of Carnatic music. They were not even aware of M.S. Subbulakshmi and Balamurali Krishna; I then sang a nursery rhyme (‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’) in a Carnatic raga and they were captivated.”
Ramprasadh concludes, “This initiative has been a life-long passion. First I was confused whether I was a teacher or a performer, but now such distinctions don’t matter. We see ourselves as custodians of an ancient culture bequeathed to us; we want to spread this to the next generation without diluting it.”
Vidwan S Shankar is a popular Karnatic vocalist is a performer for more than four decades. He is a top grade artist of A.I.R & Doordarshan. He is endowed with a sturdy voice & his rendering of raga is mellifluous & enthralling. Shankar has directed music for musical features, documentaries & dramas on A.I.R and DD. Among his many awards is the Karnataka Kalaashri, an honorary award of the Karnataka Sangeetha Nrithya Academy for 2008-2009.
Parthi Yathra was conducted second time this year where thousand devotees from the Sai organizations in and around Chennai district went to Puttaparthi on this Yathra. The highlight of the Yathra was the musical ensemble from Chennai comprising of fifty four vocalists and twenty instrumentalists consisting of Violin, Mridangam, Flute, Veena and Ghatam. They rendered Pancharathna Kritis of Saint Thyagaraja as part of their Parthi Yathra.
Thyagaraja Aradhana programme by the devotees from Tamil Nadu direct from Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi at 5 p.m. (IST), on 2 Feb 2013
Parthi Yathra was conducted second time this year where thousand devotees from the Sai organizations in and around Chennai district went to Puttaparthi on this Yathra. The highlight of the Yathra was the musical ensemble from Chennai comprising of fifty four vocalists and twenty instrumentalists consisting of Violin, Mridangam, Flute, Veena and Ghatam. They rendered Pancharathna Kritis of Saint Thyagaraja as part of their Parthi Yathra. This event was timed almost to coincide with the 166th Thyagaraja Aradhana being conducted at Thiruvaiyaru in Tamilnadu.
The group of eminent musicians, who assembled there to demonstrate their immense devotion to Sathya Sai Baba, consisted of eAmbalam’s panellist Padma Bhushan P.S.Narayanswamy, Padma Bhushan Trichur Ramachandran and several Sangeetha Kalanidhi awardees. eAmbalam’s promoter T.V.Ramprasadh and many other Asthana Vidwan title holders sang in this musical Parthi Yathra.
Bhajan session of the Sundaram Bhajan group was another musical feature in this yathra . The other activities during the Yathra included a lecture by M.S.Venkateswaran (UNDP) and a visit to the Sri Sathya Sai Mirpuri Music College where senior musicians interacted with the students. The fascinating aspect of this Yathra was the participation of people from Magaral village (in Villupuram, Tamilnadu) as the village has been adopted and rehabilitated by the Sathya Sai trust. The SEVA nilayam school started by a Sai devotee which began with 4 students and now has a 1500 pupil strength was also a participant in the Parthi Yathra.
MADHURADHWANI 2013, SINGAPORE
The 3-day Music Festival, Madhuradhwani 2013 was conducted by Music Circle, Singapore between 1-3rd February. Prominent Musicians like Dr.M.Balamauralikrishna, Dr.Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Hyderabad Brothers, S.Soumya, Unnikrishnan and V.Shankaranarayanan were featured.
The 3-day Music Festival, Madhuradhwani 2013 was conducted by Music Circle, Singapore between 1 - 3rd February. Prominent Musicians like Dr.M.Balamauralikrishna, Dr.Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Hyderabad Brothers, S.Soumya, Unnikrishnan and V.Shankaranarayanan were featured.
On the first day, Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna regaled the audience with some effortless singing accompanied by another veteran Dr.Umayalpuram Sivaraman. The following day featured Hyderabad Brothers who were in great from especially their rendition of Thodi. This was followed by a scholarly recital by S. Soumya, who not only excels in lakshya built also lakshana. Unnikrishan and Shankaranarayanan were the two male artists of the last day. The more known Unnikrishnan was his usual melodious best. V. Shankaranarayanan’s recital stood out for intensity, shuddha shruthi and paadaantharam. He was accompanied by Nagai Sriram and Dr.Umayalpuram Sivaraman. The other accompanying artists in the festival Delhi P Sunderarajan on violin; Neyveli Narayananan & Thanjavur Murugabhupathy on Mrudhangam gave commendable performances.
Dr.M.Balamuralikrishna@Madhuradhwani 2013
Music Circle, Singapore (Regd.) was formed in 2007 by a group of musicians and music lovers. The core objective of the group is to propagate the finer, classical values of the carnatic music tradition by presenting theme based concerts. So far the concerts have covered a wide range of themes around composers, festivals, deities as well as the structural aspects such as exclusive RTP concerts. Apart from organizing professional level performances, the circle also promotes and nurtures talents of competent and promising youngsters.
One of the core organizers of Music Circle, Karnatic vocalist V.Shankaranarayanan sang on 3 rd February, 2013.
