Rasikas of New England were treated to an evening of enchanting Violin recital by Suhas Rao and party. on Sunday the 4th of Sept 2005. This was the “Rangapravesham” day for Suhas, formal solo debut
on the stage, even though he had already been performing along with his Guru Smt Tara Anand and assisting other vocal musicians in the area for the past couple of years. Dr. Pravin Sitaram accompanied Suhas on Mridangam and Ravi Blasubramanian from Pittsburgh on Ghatam.

The concert started with the Veena Kuppaiyer’s Tana Varnam in the Ragam Reethigowla “Vanajakshi”. Suhas soon warmed up in playing “ Gajananayutham” in Raga Chakravakam  and Thyagaraja’s “Vinarada naa manavi” in Deva Ghandhari.  Suhas demonstrated his superb skills in handling the violin

In Patnam Subramania Iyer’s krithi in Kiravani “Varamulosagi”. He did a masterful job in  alapana, neraval and kalapan swaras bringing the true beauty of the Kiravani Ragam. The pace of the concert was well managed with brisk krithis such as “ Idi nyayama” and “ Sarasa samadhana” well dispersed in between madhyama kala krithis.

Suhas excelled in rendering the famous Thyagaraja’s compositioin in raga Shankarabharanam “Swara raga sudha” amply demonstrating his manodharma. Raga Tanam Pallavi provided ample opportunity to demonstrate his raga and laya gnana. Noteworthy is the raga malika swarams towards the later part of the pallavi.

Special mention should be made about the choice of the krithis.  The composers ranged all the way from the pillars of carnatic music i.e Thyagaraja, Dikshitar, Veena Kuppaiyer, Patnam Suramania Iyer to contemporary composers such as T.R. Subramaniam, Lalgudi Jayaraman and Sivan. The ragas- majestic Shankarabharanam, Shanmukhapriya, Lathangi, Kiravani to melodious Vasantha, Karna ranjani, sindhu Bhairavi.

Dr. Pravin Sitaram and Ravi Blasubramanian, well known to music lovers in New England provided able support. There Tani Avarthanam was a superb demonstration of their skills. Yet during the rest of the whole concert they both provided appropriate but not dominating support, mark of true vidwans. 

It is no exaggeration to say that Suhas performed like a well seasoned violin vidwan. Congratulations to his guru Tara Anand for bringing out an artist of this caliber and to his parents in nurturing and supporting the talent.

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