The 5th workshop , was asusual a very memorable one for us the music forum team. It started with a beautiful , namasankeerthanam , by students of shruthi layam school , which showed how young children showed so much of an interest into devotion , and the entire rani seethai hall was packed with positive vibration and divinity.Namasankreethanam , is nothing but , a musical prayer , to all the dieties.After a very captivating namasankeethanam , we had a formal inaguration of the workshop , and the release of the book on FAQS in carnatic music , written by Dr.Sunder.This book was very well recieved by the children and all the musicians who participated in the workshop , really appreciated the book .I will continue soon.....

Mega Workshops

Iam again writing probably after a month ! but the instinct to write comes when something really makes u feel happy or sad . During this span of a month lot of changes have occured in my life both Good and bad.I will write about those a little later , but my latest happiness has been our successful mega workshop titled "Demystifying classical carnatic music", on sept 1 at rani seethai hall.Two years back , in 2005 , Feb this idea of conducting mega workshop occured to Mrs .Usha Bharadwaj and Dr.Sunder and we conducted one such mega workshop which was a begining of a great series !I worked with them as volunteer , and the next few wkshops i started marketing in the schools and also compereing the programmes,music forum has become the most important aspect of my life , it gave me a chance to interact with all musicians , also play a role in taking forward our music to the students.I wouls say i have become a totally different person after i have got into music forum , and it is a pleasure to work with Dr.Sunder and Mrs Usha Bharadwaj , my music teacher.

The first workshop was held on 26th Feb 2005 , where several stars like N.Vijay Siva , K.N.ShashiKiran , R.K.ShriramKumar , Dr.Sunder, J.Balaji and Subashree thanikachalam , spoke on different topics in music and from then we have conducted 4 successful workshops.

Iam extremely happy to share with all of u , that the 5th mega workshop , demystifying classical carnaticmusic was a big success.We had 680 registration , almost a week before the programme! The hall was filled with enthusiastic youngsters and they enjoyed all the sessions . Evry time we conduct a workshop we have an overwhelming response for it .I will soon write about the diff sessions.

Unnikrishnan concert - 25.07.07

Going to a concert , is something which gives me immense pleasure and excitement. so when i look into the entertainment column , i only look at the concerts , listings , so far i have attended more than 200 concerts ,mostly i go with my father ,december is our favourite month where we schedule our listening session by the first week of december itself!!!I have many favourites , infact i cannot hate any musician as i see God in our music. But i definetly have my favourites i like one factor in each of my favourites. To list a few ,
UnniKrishnan - (my father's top favourite too...) - bhavam , voice and his commitment to a audience
Vijay Siva - Bhani , repotoire
Sowmya - voice , style of singing
Sanjay subramanium- creativity personified
T.M.Krishna - singing style , swarams
the list goes on...............................

Yesterday was one such very pleasant evening when we went to unnikrishnan's concert , at shastri hall . we sat dowm with a bag of expcetations , as a started off with a thodi varnam , which was rendered more to slower paces , we could see that his melifluous voice was a little strained, then he went on to intha para in mayamalavagowla ,where he gained a little grip over the voice and the kalpana swaram in this was short and crisp . next was a kriti in purnachandrika , which was free flowing and small chitta swarams decorated it . this was followed by an alapana of purvikalyani , which was good , and very well continued by shri R.K.Shriramkumar sir , the kriti was satre vilagirum pillai , he renered it very slowly and beautifully filling the rendition with bhavam. this was followed by a wonderful bahudari , very lilting and fresh, song choice was again for the popular brova baramma , the audience sang with him !!!! This was definetly a wonderful piece followed by the crown of the concert - Bhairavi , every second of the raga alapana was as though a juice of bhairavi was given out from a fruit , and the violin was simply brilliant . He sang upacharamu , with neraval at kapata nataka sundari-both neraval and kalpana swaram were soothing , and captivating. The concert was in memory of a mrindaga vidwan the tani was a perfect tribute to him , only this can be said for the thani we heard sterday . though the tukkadas section was short , it was very sweet , a new song vittala raho was a beautiful melody , a padam in dhijavanthi took us to another world , ending pieces were a kavadi chindu and a thillana in hamsanandhi , which give a beuatiful unni signature finish to this lovely concert . a very happy and an enjoyable evening !!!!!!!!!!

Going to concerts !!!!!!!!

For me going to a carnatic concert gives me eternal happiness and joy , i have already written a post on growing as a rasika , where i am in a stage where every concert i go , iam able to feel the art of enjoying music grow in me . Basically I love listening to Unnikrishnan , Vijay Siva , Sanjay Subramanium , T.V.Sankaranarayanan , Sowmya , O.S.Thyagarajan , and in instruments T.N.Krishnan and ofcourse the divine voice of Smt M.S.Subbulakshmi . I havent been fortunate enough to attend a live concert of M.S amma . I always got o concerts with my father who is also a great music lover , infact iam so blessed that he takes me to all the concerts , picks me up and we really enjoy a concert better when we go together .According to me every concert is a prayer for me and I see God in the voices or music of all my favourite musicians . I love the thrill of identifying ragams , which sometimes may be wrong too!!!!! , but still , it is a joy when we hear the begining of a kriti and we get to know the ragams . We make it a pont to stay thro the concert and at the end give the performer a standing ovation ,I look forward for music season , when if my father is in town , i attend concerts right thro the month make a note of songs , thodis , bhairavis and khambhojis just stay deep rooted in our soul along with some intresting tiffin from the delicious canteen!I will keep writing on my experinces with different concerts.

Profession -my asset

Profession , generally is career for which we study for so many years sometimes focussing on a particular career , but for many career comes in as a forced choice , luckily i chose to do my studies in a pure science subject , and today iam a lecturer in a very reputed college in chennai .Iam extremly happy and proud of my profession , in teaching u r constantly learning and u r in touch with the subject , at the same time , u always feel young when ur amidst students . I have always loved teaching , and being with students , I teach chemistry to my students . I always believe that we need to make the subject very interesting and interactive with practical examples , which makes the students get involved with us and with our subject. Genarally when they like a teacher they automatically like the subject too .I hope my students will agree to this!!!,In teaching another very important thing is that the student should take u as a friend must feel the closeness with u , which will also make her get involved in the subject , this is the brief intro about myself being a lecturer !!!!!!

Growing as a RASIKA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Music forum , forum is a platform where people of same idea come together for discussions , music forum , is a place where musicians , lovers of music come together to discuss on promoting classical music among youth .Why iam with music forum ????? i have been listening to classical music from 1997 , though in my family all of them have an ear to music , nobody is technically qualified . now this is trhe most important doubt many of them have in their minds do u have to know everything in the true technical aspect , before attending the concerts ... will people look down at me , if i dont find out ragas , or keep saying sabash ......, or bale......or critisise some artist. this has become a fashion now to criticise some artist...., the only answer to this is , is a big NO..... , to go to a carnatic concert , u have to just have an ear for this music , ofcourse classical music is just not entertainment , it is beyond that it has a lot of aesthetics , and is rich in tradition.But we can get the grip of it only by listening to it more and more .once we start hearing , slowly our ears get tuned , when i started hearing music all ragas sounded the same , some popular kritis sounded good to me , but i used wait for tukkadas , sometimes very long alapanas or virutams used to test my patience. Slowly I started enjoying the way different artists , present a concert i took a small note book wrote the kriti , came back and searched for ragams , started getting hold of it . Then i started identifying ragams like varali , sahana and the list started growing , today iam able to identify most of the common ragams,now i look forward to raga alapanas even the grahabedam , or sruti bedams in a concert , though i cannot hold it completly.I enjoy the swift change in the ragams , music is now an eternal part of my life , and carnatic music has thought me so much of values , as an youngster , i now want my friends and others uninitiated to carnatic music to listen to this wonderful art , according to me good music is a form of meditation.I want all of them to have this beautiful experince of Growing as a rasika!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

I would like to write about my personal favourites in music and things which have made an impact in my life.Dr.S.Sunder :I met Dr probably some eight years ago , just for consultation purposes , later he sang for my cousins's reception.After completing my schooling , i started learning music ,from Mrs.UshaBharadwaj , I will write about her too. While i interacted with Dr, i could really know what a multifacetet personality he is .He is a great doctar,musician , musicologist , author, teacher ,and above a exceptionally good human being. He runs a trust called the freedom trust , where he reaches out innumerable disabled children , and caters to their needs. Iam blessed that Iam so close to a person like him ,with him as our music forum convenor , we organize workshops to promote classical music among school children called "Demystifying , carnatic classical music " ,we have always had a house full audience ,and dr's talks in these programmes are the favourites among students. Dr. always dreams that good aesthetic music , should reach the audience and despite his very hectic professional schedule , he spends quality time for the music forum . One greatest character in him , he never expects anything in return from the services he is rendering to humanity or music.Dr , is totally dedicated to his profession and is a perfectionalist , which has bruoght him this success today . Iam so proud , that I am able to do some thing with him in music forum , I would say after interacting with a genius like him automatically there is a change in our outlook to the world....
Labels: Dr.Sunder - a rare find...........

Music - a way of life

For me music ,especially carnatic music , is very special . I would say it has brought a change in my life , both personally and career wise. I have been always learning music ,while I was in Mumbai , but then I was not able to realise the granduer of carnatic music . concert by , during 95-96 end , i was not performing that good , in studies , found chennai new , always used to be just watching hindi films, then I started going to tuitions where i met highly ambitious seniors , somewhere i deceided to start working hard also in 1997 begining i made it to first live concert by , Shri N.Vijay Siva in anantha padmanabhaswami temple . I was so impressed by his performance , and slowly started listening to different musicians and their cds and cassetes, I really dont know if it was a coincidence or blessing , i starded doing very well in studies , from then i have been doing good , and in my colleges i have always been a rank holder .listening to music is like meditation to me , We have carnatic music forum , headed by Dr.Sunder , where i coordinate the programmes along with my guru , Smt UshaBharadwaj.I beleive every musician has some good quality in his music , i am definetly illetrate when it comes to technical nuances , but i can feel the ragam , identify probably some of them . Today , i have attended more than 200 concerts , still most of the week ends i try to go to a concert , and learn whatever possible. I will post about my favourites soon........

I have always loved writing , about music , or things that move me , i think i must start blogging now. Normally forwarded mails irritate so many of us , but this beautiful poem , moves our heart. Cancer is a deadly disease , and it is so pathetic , when it strikes young children.I thought i will start my blogging with this poem . will definetly keep writing more......

writing after a very long time!!!!!

Slow Dance
This is a poem written by a teenager with cancer.
She wants to see how many people get her poem.
It is quite a poem. Please pass it on.




This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital.
It! was sent by a medical doctor - Make sure to read what is in the closing statement AFTER THE POEM.
SLOW DANCE
Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
!
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
Ever told your child,
We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,"Hi"
You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

My role model

My Grand father :

Iam a very lucky person , blessed with a very loving family. We are a large family and bound together by affection.My thatha has been my greatest inspiration , he was a very hard working person , who has been a role model for many people. He has struggled during his prime age to bring up his seven children and also to take care of his immediate kith.But even after years rolled down and he became a proud father of several executives in the family ha lead a very simple life and never expected any of us to help him. I have shared somany days with him , where he has told me so many stories , about his childhood and his life which I believe is my strongest drive to achieve something in my life. I always think of him , and believe it is only through his blessing I am so happy and contended .

Introduction

Hello , Iam padmini , entering into the blogosphere. My interests are in two core regions , chemistry my profession and music my passion.i have created my blog to share my thoughts on these two .