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What marked their debut?
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Some took the concert platform confidently; some were anxious about the audience reaction, yet some were too young to feel nervous. Read on to know what some of our leading Carnatic musicians have to say about their maiden performance.
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WHATEVER BE the number of years one has been performing or the number of awards one has won, the first appearance is something one can't forget. Some leading musicians share here their memories of their debut.
T.V. Sankaranarayanan: "My first solo concert was held at the Anjaneya temple on Royapettah High Road, Mylapore, in front of the shrine of Sri Rama on February 2, 1968," recalls Carnatic vocalist T.V. Sankaranarayanan. His uncle, mentor and guru Sangita Kalanidhi Madurai Mani Iyer all on a sudden decided one day that his young nephew was ready to take the concert platform and organised the concert. Sankaranarayanan had very senior instrumentalists accompanying him — T. N. Krishnan (violin), Vellore Ramabhadran (mridangam) and Alangudi Ramachandran (ghatam), who were all accompanying his uncle for many years.
"It was my fortune that those veterans agreed to accompany me not only on that day but for several concerts during the next couple of years. Though the concert was arranged at a short notice, there was a good crowd; devotees who stayed on to listen to the music turned out to be appreciative. After that event, I could lend vocal support to my uncle in his concerts only twice, because the same year in June, Madurai Mani Iyer passed away."
Sankaranarayanan, in fact, studied law and worked as a junior under T.T. Srinivasan and A.N. Rangaswamy for just two weeks. For, on observing that he found no time to sing during that time, his uncle suggested that he chose music as his profession. And the youngster without any second thought gave up law and became a full-time musician.
"Madurai Mani Iyer was not just a great musician, but a fantastic human being; I am lucky to have been born as his nephew; I was soaked in his music since as long as I could remember," says Sankaranarayanan, whose cheerful demeanour on stage and full-throated singing style have endeared him to many music fans.
Karaikudi Mani: This mridanga vidwan was just eight, when he first played on stage for a bhajan performance of Pithukuli Murugadas during the Kumbhabishekam of a Siva temple in Karaikudi. His first Carnatic concert was as accompaniment to Pudukottai Krishnamurthi Iyer and his disciple in their veena concert at the Koppudai Amman Koil in Karaikudi, when his guru Rangu Iyengar played the ganjira. "I was shorter than even the mirdangam that my guru used to lift me up after the concert to show the audience that I was the artiste behind the percussion instrument," recalls Mani. After the first concert, Mani was presented with a gold medal.
Mani's first concert in Chennai was in 1960 for the anniversary programme of Jayaganesh Talavadyalaya where he accompanied one of the senior vidwans of those days, T.K. Rangachari. He later gave Mani the chance to accompany him in many of his concerts. After shifting to Chennai, Mani continued his tutelage under Harihara Sarma (father of T. H. Vinayakaram) and K. M. Vaidyanathan. K. Rajagopalan of Madras Refineries and one of the founders of Nadopasana was instrumental in getting Mani the opportunities to accompany several leading artistes such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M. D. Ramanathan, T. K. Rangachari, Lalgudi Jayaraman and T. N. Krishnan. "In those days, there were not as many concerts taking place as now; we used to go to the main artiste weeks ahead and find out what they might be planning to sing and then practise in real earnest before taking the concert platform," recalls Mani.
Today, Karaikudi Mani is not just an admired artiste, he has also founded the Sruthilaya Kendra, under whose auspices systematic training in mridangam is imparted not just in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chalakudi but also in countries such as England and Australia. He also publishes a magazine on music and conducts an annual music festival in December when a purse of Rs. 10,000 is presented to a senior artiste; a similar presentation is done in Andhra Pradesh too. He has also developed the concept of mridangam being not just an accompaniment but also an instrument in its own right, performing solo avarthanams; he has also made a foray into the Bharatanatyam arena by composing intricate tala patterns and combinations in rare varnams.
Ravi Kiran: His first stage appearance was not as a concert artiste but as a wonder kid, who could identify several ragas even at the age of 2, at the Music Academy, in 1969. Naturally, his memories of that day are vague. In 1972, he presented a full-fledged vocal concert in Coimbatore and the next one at Madurai at the Satguru Sangeetha Samajam where people like Vidwan Seshagopalan were among the audience. Then he performed at the Music Academy hall for Brahma Gana Sabha with accompaniment provided by Dwaram Mangatayaru (violin), Krishna Iyengar (mridangam) and Vinayakaram (ghatam). Till 10, he was engaged in giving only vocal concerts.
When Ravi Kiran turned 11, he gave his first Chitraveena or Gottuvadyam concert at Tirupathi. The next one that is fresh in his memory is the afternoon concert in the first slot at Music Academy in 1978, when Balamuralikrishna presided over the conference. Recalls Ravi Kiran, "Balamuralikrishna was at the concert for about 45 minutes and then suddenly left; I was upset wondering if he didn't like my music; but he returned after a while and at the end of the concert, he presented me with a silver medal, which he had received after his first concert at the age of 8; I was just overwhelmed." Ravi Kiran still performs vocal music and has taken pains to learn a number of rare kritis; he feels, the beauty of the lyrics of great composers can be enjoyed to the maximum in vocal music.
U. Srinivas: Another child prodigy like Ravi Kiran is U. Srinivas. At the age of nine, he made his debut at Gudiwada in the Tyagaraja festival. "At the beginning, there were about 12-15 people only and I became quite anxious of the outcome of the concert; but the gathering grew gradually and towards the end of the programme, there were nearly 4000-5000," recalls Srinivas, who has managed to master a western musical instrument adapting it to Carnatic style, which has aptly earned him the name Mandolin Srinivas.
His father Sathyanarayana was his first guru and then he learnt under K. Subburaju. Film music director S. Vasu Rao taught him to play the western technique on the mandolin. Srinivas used to play in the cine orchestra till he was 9-10, but after that, he began to concentrate on classical music. This training, says Srinivas, has helped him not only in trying different ideas for his classical music pursuit, but also while accompanying musicians from other countries.
In 1980, the Indian Fine Arts Society offered him the opportunity to perform. The following year, when he played there again, veena maestro S. Balachandar, a master of several instruments himself, highly appreciated the talent of the boy; Subbudu and Seshagopalan too were there and the latter presented him a ring. What happened since then is common knowledge; Srinivas has become a legend in his lifetime. He attributes everything to God's grace.
Kanyakumari: She had her first opportunity to lend violin accompaniment at a vocal concert at Vijayanagar in 1968 when she was 16 or 17. She learnt to play the violin from I. Vijayeswara Rao in her native Vijayanagar, but moved to Chennai in 1969 and joined the Queen Mary's College, where she provided accompaniment to Charumathi Ramachandran, who was a year senior to her. In 1970, she took part in the competition held by the Music Academy, when senior violin vidwan Parur Sundaram Iyer was present. "I played Saveri Varnam, Bhairavi Ragam and `Upacharamulanu' and he commented that he liked my `Suddhamana vaasippu'," recalls Kanyakumari. Her first solo violin concert took place at the Annamalaipuram Pillayar temple, in 1969.
Kanyakumari also trained under M. Chandrasekaran as a scholarship student. She recalls with pride, "I had applied to the Music Academy for a slot in the junior level but was given the sub-senior slot straight away to accompany Mani Krishnaswamy. Subbudu commended my talent." Then she began accompanying Bombay Sisters, and in 1971, for the first time she played for M. L. Vasanthakumari in a wedding concert; and "from 1972, I became a regular accompanist for her; she was everything to me — a mother, guide, mentor and friend." Thirty years ago, there were not many women violinists. Through the years, Kanyakumari has gained the confidence of artistes performing on other instruments such as Kadri Gopalnath and Mandolin Srinivas. She says, "Music is God's blessing for me."
Bombay Ranjani and Gayatri: They began as violinists in Mumbai, learning under Sangeetha Bhushanam T. S. Krishnaswamy, who now lives in Chennai. He also taught them to sing, and in fact, he has been more than just a guru. In 1986, it was he who made them present a violin duet concert in the Youth Festival conducted by the Indian Music Group, Mumbai. Ranjani was 13 and Gayatri 10, too young to feel nervous about their first appearance; "In fact, our parents were more tense." It turned out to be a successful debut and also earned them a good review in the local press. Says Gayatri, "We began our career by playing `Sri Ganapathi' in Sourashtram and the main item was `Pakkalanilabadi' in Karaharapriya."
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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