The KHMC Fall Concert was commended at the beautiful residence of music admirers, Sumeet Diddee and Vandana Rao in Westborough, MA,  in the baithak style that was a filled with joyous  aura and was perfect for the musical evening to take off.  KHMC is a non profit organization that has been tirelessly working towards bringing the community together to appreciate  the Hindustani and Carnatic Music traditions in Boston area. Such in-house concerts are hosted by the music lovers voluntarily and the audience not only experience the day full of music in air but also the hospitable environment shared among them .

Hindustani Segment
In the Hindustani segment, the students of Smt. Neelima Chaturvedi enthralled the audience of music lovers with their vocal recital of melodious Raags of Kafi Thaat at Karnatic and Hindustani Concert in Westborough on September 19.

Neelimaji is an accomplished Hindustani Classical Music and is a well-known teacher of Gwalior and Jaipur-Atroli style of music. The concert started with the presentation of Chhota Khayal and Tarana in Bahar Raag by a group of students. This 'vakra' raag has peculiar twists that bring out the joy in the beauty of nature.

This was followed by a rendition of Chhota Khayal and Radha-Krishna Bhajan in 'Vrindavani Sarang' Raag by second group of students. This flagship raag of 'Sarang Ang' employs 'Shuddha Nishad' in ascent and 'Komal Nishad' in descent.

Then, Mr. Nikhil Khot  gave a solo recital of a popular Chhota Khayal in Bhimpalasi raag. This raag is the basis of many popular film songs. Ku. Priyasha Chaturvedi, daughter and senior disciple of of Smt. Neelimaji, concluded the concert with a thoughtful and harmonious presentation of Raag 'Nayaki Kanada'. The mesmerizing Aalaps and Saragams in slow-paced 'Bada Khayal' and the fluent  'Taans' in medium paced Chhota Khayal and fast-paced Tarana demonstrated her mastery over this Raag. This melodious concert concluded after Priyasha's 'Dadara' attained pinnacle.

The accompaniment of Smt. Preeti Chakravarty and Smt. Neelima Chaturvedi on harmonium and Shri Rajesh Pai on Tabla gave an excellent support to the singers.

Karnatic Segment
In Junior segment, Nishant Raj entertained the audience with his performance, beginning with an exhilarating rendering of a varnam composed by the inimitable Balmurali Krishna. “Amma Anandadayini” in Gambeeranaatai is an astounding varnam marked by the genius of BMK and Nishant did justice to the composition. This was followed by Dikshitar’s composition “Siddhi vinayakam” in the raga Shanmukhapriya and the delivery was crisp and succinct. Tanjavur Sankara Iyer’s Raagamalika, in Ranjani, Sriranjani, Megharanjani and Janaranjani is a crowd-pleaser and again, Nishant sang the song in a very pleasing way. The delineation of Kalyani raga demonstrated Nishant’s skill in alapana singing and Tyagaraja’s “Nidhi sala sukhama” was an apt choice. The neraval and kalpana swaras  embellished the rendering of the kriti. Nishant concluded this energy-filled and highly enjoyable concert with Lalgudi’s thillana in Mohanakalyani and Purandaradasa’s Jagadodharana. He deserves an A+ for his varied song selection! It was not a complete surprise that Nishant performed so well as he has been learning Carnatic music since the age of 4. He was first mentored by Smt. Tara Anand, Anubhava School of Music and later by Smt. Uma Sankar, Sruthilayaa School of Carnatic music. He continues to learn from Smt. Uma Sankar, even though he is a sophomore at UConn. Despite his rigorous academic schedule, he finds time to sing and play the violin and is the president and co-founder of the Carnatic Club in his college. Kudos to this young man for his dedication and perseverance.

Nishant was accompanied on the violin by Yash Ravish, a student of Tara Anand at the Anubhava school of music, where he learns Carnatic vocal and violin. Before he came under the tutelage of Tara Anand, he learned music from Sandhya Ganesh and Aparna Balaji. Yash played the violin with a maturity beguiling his age – he will be starting middle school this fall! He followed the vocalist closely but also displayed his individual brilliance during the alapana and kalpana swaram piece. A young lad with a bright, musical career ahead of him.

Saaket Jayanthi provided excellent support on the mridangam. His thani avartanam inspired the audience to join in enthusiastically by counting the beats. Saketh started learning the mridangam at age 11 under the guidance of Dr. Pravin Sitaram. He received advanced training for two summers from Sri Vidyasagar Palliveli and now is continuing with Sri K.U. Jayachandra Rao. He follows the great lineage of legendary mridangam vidwan Palghat Mani Iyer through the teachings of his three gurus.

I would like to commend the efforts of the parents and teachers of these three young musicians for the inspiration, encouragement and support they have provided them.

In Senior Segment, Smt. Uma Sankar is endowed with a very melodious voice and the fact that she had a cold on the day of her performance did not dampen her enthusiasm nor did it affect the quality of her singing. She started the concert with Purandara dasa’s kriti in Naatai, “Jaya jaya Jaya Janaki kantha” in Khanda Chapu talam, which set the tone for the rest of the evening. She provided a lot of variety in her choice of songs by various composers in different languages. Tyagaraja’s kriti, “Manaviyalakim” in Nalinakanti raga kept the momentum going. This was followed by alapana in Amritavarshini and Dikshitar’s “Anandamrita karshini”. The sangithis in the pallavi accentuated the beauty of the song and the chittaswaram and kalpana swaram were rendered in an adroit manner. Smt. Uma and her accompanists Sri K.V.S. Vinay on the violin and Sri Siva Ponnudurai on the mridangam enjoyed a great rapport and their enjoyment of the music was evident to the audience and, in turn, affected the audience’s appreciation of the concert.

The raga Dhwajavanti could be detected at the first note, when Uma began the raga alapana and she sang Dikshitar’s kriti “Akhilandeswari” beautifully. This song resonated with me very well and I thought that this was how Dikshitar would have intended for the song to be sung! The bhakti bhava was clear in her singing the praise of Lord Muruga in a viruttam in Shubhabantuvarali leading to a composition of Calcutta Sankar in Charukesi and, later, Papanasam Sivan’s kriti in Vasantha.

The main raga was Madhyamavati and Uma delivered the essence of the raga in her alapana. She chose a rare kriti by Tyagaraja, “Devashree Tapastheertha pura vasa”, part of the Lalgudi Pancharatna in Viloma Chapu talam. The neraval and kalpana swaram by Uma and Sri Vinay were enchanting and the thani avarthanam by Sri Siva was an aural treat. Uma concluded the concert with a Javali in Paras raga. Sri Vinay and Sri Siva displayed excellent skills to make the concert a tremendously enjoyable experience.

The performance of the three artistes was in keeping with their experience and knowledge. Smt. Uma began her formal music education from Smt. Shanta Balasubramanian (Mumbai) and then did her advanced training from a very accomplished Guru (Late) Smt. T R Balamani  (Mumbai). At present, she continues to receive guidance from Vidushi. Smt. Vasundra Rajagopalan from Chennai. She has performed extensively in India and the US and teaches at the Shrutilayaa School of Music in Shrewsbury, MA.

Sri. Vinay is the grandson of Sangeetha Kalanidhi late Sri T.K. Jayarama Iyer, eminent violinist  and father of orchestration of Indian music. Born and raised in Delhi, Vinay had his initial training from Mrs. Vanaja Aravamuthan and subsequently trained under late Sri V. Janakiraman and his uncle Late Sri Kovai B. Dakshinamurthy. Vinay has had the opportunity to perform with eminent India and US based artistes in leading sabhas across the country. He has also had the opportunity to collaborate with Boston based World Jazz groups, Nataraj and Bangalore.
Sri. Siva Ponnudurai is from Jaffna (Yaalpaanam) Sri Lanka. Siva received initial tutelage under Yaalpaanam Santhanakrishnan who hails from the family of Thavil maestro Valaingaman Shanmugasundraram Pilliai. Siva later received advanced training under Guru Karaikudi R. Mani Sruthi Laya Seva in Chennai and continues to train under his bani. Siva has accompanied and collaborated with various artists in both classical and fusion ensembles.

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