Want to hear Dikshitar’s classic Vathapi Ganapathim Bhaje on Ganesh Chaturti, performed by a set of renowned Western musicians who would treat us to swara-kalpana sessions in Hamsadwani?
The concert to be held on Friday evening is a culmination of a two-week workshop conducted by celebrated violinist L. Subramaniam and presented by the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (SaPa) in association with the Foundation Royaumont in France.
Over the last fortnight, Dr. Subramaniam has been acclimatising professional Western classical musicians from France, Belgium, Italy, U.S., Morocco and Japan, teaching them elements of Indian music and the nuances of improvisations characteristic to the Carnatic genre in particular.
Foundation Royaumont annually selects 10 best professionals in western music for the annual workshop conducted in India and France by Dr. Subramaniam, fondly referred to as LS.
The violinist guides them into following the finer gradations inherent in the Indian classical system for “propagating Indian music and making musicians gain a wider perspective for world music presentations”.
LS has conducted several such workshops for Conservatoire de Paris, Moscow Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Western Music. The Indian-French exercise has already seen 10 global workshops each concluding with concerts with discerning features that are appreciative of the classical Indian genres.
In addition to the 72-melakarta scheme, scientifically devised by 16th century Venkatamakhi that speaks of parent scales in the Carnatic genre that these musicians are acquainted with an addition of 36 parent scales devised by LS have come in for wider understanding. The global team would take up compositions from world-renowned western composers too.
Along with LS and students of SaPa, the concert will feature Aymar Issaad (violin), Ajay Ranganathan (violinist from France and great-grandson of Kotiswara Iyer), Lionel Garcin (Sax), Alexandra Grimal (Sax), Jean Francois Durdu (Viola), Leonardo Papa (Viola), Pallavi Mahidhara (Piano), Sabine Bouthinon (Viola), and Yuki Kaneko on the violin.
(The concert will be held at SaPa, No. 3, 1st Main Road, Postal Colony Layout, Sanjay Nagar, on August 29 at 6 p.m. Call 23515622 for details)
