Prince Rama Varma-May2010




Shri. Prince Rama Varma and his accompanying artists, treated the Richmond area rasikas to a bhavam laden, soul filling vocal carnatic concert. His frequent and apt usage of the swaraksharams provided an aural treat to the audience. The prince was very engaging with the audience, providing them with nice anecdotes from his experiences with his Guru Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna. He also extolled the virtues of the lyrics to many of the songs he presented, that helped the audience in appreciating the bhavam of his rendition.

Shri S. Varadarajan provided impeccable support with his soft and crisp handling of the violin and complimenting the vocalist with his deft strokes. Shri Patri Satish Kumar's playing needs special mention here. Apart from his brilliant touches through out the concert, he brought down the house with his thani avarthanam. To quote Prince Rama Varma "We went to see the Niagara falls yesterday. It looked impressive, but it didn't sound as impressive as he did", referring to the thani avarthanam.

The absence of a neraval or ragamalika swaram, viruththam, shlokam etc, was a small void.

The following pieces were presented.

01. ninnu kori - Mohanam Varnam - Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar
02. siddhi vinayakam -chamaram - Muthuswami Dikshitar
03. manavyala kinchara - Nalinakanthi - Thyagaraja
04. Pavana thanaya - Rasikapriya - Dr. Balamuralikrishna
05. Janani ninnuvina - Reethigowla - Subbaraya Shastri
06. Parama purusham - Lalitha Panchamam - Swathi Thirunal
07. gAngeya vasanadhara - hamir kalyani - Swathi Thirunal (T)
08. yemira rama navalla- Undefined/folk - Badrachala Ramadas
09. naaneke badevanu - Behag - Purandara Dasar.
10. Jalaja bandhuvum - Surutti - Swathi Thirunal
11. Thillana - Kunthalavarali - Dr. Balamuralikrishna
12. bhujaga sayanam - Yadhukulakambodhi - Mangalam

Rasikas in attendance are kindly requested to leave your comments and feedback about this concert. Please click here for the form.

Carnatic vocal concert by Prince Rama Varma and party



When:
May 08th, 2010.
7:00p.m (sharp)
Where:
Deep Run High School
4801 Twin Hickory Road
Glen Allen, VA 23059

Details:
Click here to view/print the flyer.

Richmond Rasikas is proud to announce the Carnatic vocal concert of Prince Rama Varma, as part of their Spring Concert Series. He will be accompanied by S. Varadarajan on the Violin and Patri Sathish Kumar on the Mridangam.

If you would like more information about Prince Rama Varma, please visit :

Food/Snacks and beverages will be sold before and during a portion of the concert.

Richmond Rasikas

2010 Thyagaraja Aradhana report




We, at Richmond Rasikas, wish to thank the many participants, both children and adults, who made our Thyagaraja Aradhana (8th annual celebrations) such a dashing success on May 1st, 2010. This years event was well supported by performers in and around town as well as from neighboring townships. Some of our performing guests came from D.C metro area, Charlottesville and Raleigh.

This year’s Thyagaraja Aradhana started off, as planned, with a group rendition of the Pancharatna Krithis followed by the Utsava Sampradhaya Krithis. This was followed by a day-long session of individual and group renditions of many more beautiful compositions. The day was devoted mostly to Thyagaraja kritis. A whole crew of percussionists supported the event, on the mridangam, ghatam and kanjira.

With around 80 plus participants pouring in with family and friends, including parents of a few visiting from India, the Twin Hickory community hall reminded many of a small Indian wedding in progress.

It was heartwarming to see so many young children from our own communities taking their first steps in the long and culture-rich journey of learning Carnatic music. We wish to convey a very special ‘thank you’ to all these children for coming forward to showcase their talents at our Aradhana. Also worth mentioning, was the increasing trend in adult participation for performance and the number of first time performers who took to the stage with comfort.

While the weather made it feel at par with the heat of Thiruvaiyaaru (the saint's village in Tamilnadu), our food vendor matched it up with a wonderful display of traditional items in line with the theme of the event.

To sum it up, this was yet another event in North America that reinforced the wealth of the carnatic classical system of music, using the compositions of the bard saint Sri. Thyagaraja. One downside was that as the event progressed the timeline was surely and steadily slipping. We will make every effort to make improvements on this issue.

We hope to see you all again at our ‘Great Composers Day’ event this Fall when we will be celebrating, as the name suggests, all the other great composers of carnatic music. Stay tuned to this website for the announcements related to this event.

Richmond Rasikas.