A Star Studded Carnatic Artist Line Up at This Year’s LQ Music Conference

This year’s LearnQuest Music Conference features six Carnatic Concerts – three vocal and three instrumental – by stalwarts in their respective genre. In vocal category, there are the renowned Malladi Brothers, Abshishek Raghuram and Sowmya Srinivasan whereas in the instrumental category there are Kadri Gopalnath on saxophone and Shashank Subramanyam on Flute.  A noteworthy musical item that will be featured in the conference is a percussion ensemble called Laya Vinyasa, consisting of talented and accomplished young musicians from the US – from the Boston area Amit Kavthekar on tabla, Pravin Sitaram and Tarun Bangalore on mridangam, Shiva Ramakrishnan on flute, and from Washington DC area Sowmia Narayanan on ghatam, and Kamala Kiran on violin. It will be a matter of pride for our community to see these young musicians charm the audience with their music.

Abhishek Raghuram, a child prodigy who hails from a family that brims with legendary musicians, has flowered into a high caliber artist with rare talent. Through the unique guidance of his grandfather, the mridangam legend, Palghat Raghu and as a disciple of Vidwan P.S. Narayanaswamy, Abhishek has gained a deep insight into the intricacies of music. Since early age Abhishek has been receiving awards and recognition all over the world and he has given many international tours.

Abhishek has created a new genre in the field of vocal music, combining virtuosity, aesthetics and intellect in equal proportion. His music has been called 'food for the intellect, mind, heart and soul’. The specialty and uniqueness of his style emerges from his efforts taken to not mime any pre-existing gharanas. Since he comes from a great musical family, he could very well be on his way to creating a new Gharana, something that could have a big impact in the Indian music world.

Abshishek will be accompanied by Akkarai Subbalakshmi on viloin and Anantha R. Krishnan on mridangam.

The Malladi Brothers, Malladi Sreeramaprasad and Malladi Ravikumar, are a Carnatic music vocalist duo. Both excel in presenting Thyagaraja kritis. They have traveled extensively in India and abroad. A large repertoire of Carnatic compositions and possession of vibrant and powerful voices have made the brothers the most sought after young maestros. Their musical intellect, melody & aesthetics provide for a most scintillating concert. They have traveled extensively all over India and abroad (including several tours of Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia) promoting and preserving the rich traditional music they represent.

Malladi brothers will be accompanied by Embar Kannan on violin Neyveli Narayanan on mridangam.

Embar S. Kannan is highly accomplished as a violinist and is in the forefront of violinists of the younger generation. His bowing technique is of high quality, marked by sweetness and clarity. Kannan is a disciple of A. Kanyakumari.

Neyveli Narayanan received his intensive training under the Maestro Late Thanjavur Sri Upendran and the Mrudangam Legend Padmabushan Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. Narayanan has performed in all the leading sabhas in India and has traveled abroad extensively on concert tours. Narayanan has accompanied almost all the veterans and present day stars of Carnatic music.

Dr Sowmya Srinivasan – a vocalist of repute - had her initial tutelage in music from her father Dr. Srinivasan. Later she trained under Sangita Kalanidhi Dr. S. Ramanathan - exemplary musician, esteemed musicologist and extraordinary human being. She received further training from Smt. T. Muktha, of the legendary Brinda-Muktha duo. She attributes her success and achievements till today to these individuals. The desire to propagate the traditions of South Indian music worldwide led her to establish Carnatica, an institution dedicated to music & dance instruction, archival, talent search and other related activities. Sowmya is a widely traveled, popular vocalist who strives to adhere to the strict classical values imbibed from her gurus Dr. Ramanathan and Smt. Mukta.

Sowmya will be accompanied by Embar Kannan on violin Neyveli Narayanan on mridangam.

Kadri Gopalnath, a native of Dakshina Kannada,  began training in Nadaswaram at an early age, but destiny had a different story for him. He saw the saxophone being played at the Mysore palace band set. Thrilled on hearing the vibrant tone of saxophone, he decided to master it. It took twenty years for Kadri to conquer the complex wind instrument and he was eventually crowned as “Saxophone Chakravarthy”!  He has been performing for more than 30 years and has given concerts all over the world.

Gopalnath learnt playing Carnatic music on the saxophone under Gopalkrishna Iyer of Kalaniketana, Mangalore. His dedication and tireless efforts enabled him to imbibe all the nuances of Carnatic music and the sax. When he came in contact with the versatile T.V. Gopalkrishnan in Madras, the latter identified the youngster's potential and chist­­­­­led him into an internationally famed artist. Gopalnath has the distinction of being the first Carnatic musician to be invited to perform in the BBC Promenade concert in 1994 at London. Gopalnath has toured abroad extensively. He has participated in a number of music festivals such as the Jazz Festival in Prague, Berlin Jazz Festival, International Cervantino Festival in Mexico, Music Halle Festival, Paris.

Accompanying Kadri will be violinist A. Kanyakumari, mridangam artist Trichy Harikumar and tabla artist Rajendra Nakod.

Avasavala Kanyakumari is one of the few Carnatic violin stalwarts and she has played violin to many legends of yesteryears as well as contemporary maestors. Recently she has been honored with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Music Academy with a dedication of film titled ‘Kanyakumari - Wedded to the Violin’.

Maestro Shashank stormed into the music world at the age of seven in 1985. He was the youngest musician to have been invited by The Music Academy, Chennai to perform in the senior most slot of The Music Academy, (often performed by Legends of Indian Classical Music), at the age of 12 - a record yet to be broken in the history of South Indian Music. Now with over 25 years of a successful career in the field of Indian Classical Music, Shashank has performed at numerous prestigious institutions across the world. Trained by father Subramanyam and vocal maestros R.K. Srikantan and Palghat K.V. Narayanaswami, he is presently considered to be one of the best Bamboo Flute artists.

|