The violin legend T.N Krishnan took the audience back in time with two hours of blissful music. The 80 year old veteran was in his elements accompanied by his son Sriram Krishnan on the violin, Rohan Krishnamurthy on the mridangam and Aditya Kalyanpur on the table. The concert started with a rare Ata tala varnam  "Mageva Ninne"  a composition of Vennai Kuppaiyyar in the ragam Naraynagowla.  This was followed by the popular composition of Dikshitar "Vatapi ganapatim" in the ragam Hamsadwani. The violin duo thrilled the audience with some great swara kalpna at the end of the composition. T.N Krishnan then presented a grand Mukari which was the highlight of the concert. The alapana was woven with bhavam and all the intricacies the ragam rightfully demands. The composition was Thyaraja's Ksheenamai. After the song Prof Krishnan remarked that this was an old raga and indeed it was exquisitely presented. Krishnan breezed through Nalinakanthi (thyagaraja's mana  Vyalakim) before the RTP  in the ragam Simendhramadhyamam.  Simendhramadhyamam was a great choice for the violin and MITHAS was denied this raga for the last few years as vocalist generally prefer Keeravani. The alapana was feast ,the tanam was even better, followed by a pallavi and mind boggling swarams with ragams including Bilahari, Kapi and others. Both Krishnan and Sriram displayed their command over the instrument, their rich imagination with the melody and presented some intricate calculations. The tani avarthanam by Rohan and Aditya was the icing on the cake. Rohan, who till then was softly accompanying Prof Krishnan displayed some pyrotechnics and challenged Aditya who responded equally with his tabla. It was exchange between the tow was a treat to watch and it culminated in a great mohara and korvai performed to unison. The RTP was followed by Goplakrishna Barathi's epo varuvaro in the ragam Jonpuri and Muthiah Bhagavatar's English Note (Shankarabaranam) which brought back memories of Madurai Mani Iyer. The concert concluded with a grand thiruppugazh in Sindhubhairavi and mangalam. It was memorable evening from maestro and  young accompanists.

Earlier on Saturday Rohan Krishnamurthy enlightened the audience with his lecture demonstration on rhythm. 

The event was organized by the newly formed student group MIT-Swara and MITHAS.

Appreciation and understanding of the rhythmic component of carnatic music eludes most listeners and it was a valiant effort by Rohan to fill this gap. Rohan started his lecture with a quiz and went on to explain the fundamentals involved in rhythmic dimension of carnatic music. Rohan elucidated the 175 tala scheme and the combinatorics behind it.  He also dissected the instruments (in-silico) and analyzed every component and explained the uniqueness in each one of them. He introduced his revolutionary new design of a strap less mridangam with several key advantages. It was remarkable the way Rohan kept the audience involved throughout the lecture. He concluded his presentation with a 15 min thani avarthanam (in Adi talam) on the mridangam and kanjira.

(Rohan's work on modifying the Mridangam and his virtuosity on the Mridangam intrigued the former President of India , Abdul Kalam. He invited Rohan to India to learn more about his work. During the 30 minutes one on one meeting, the President listened to the various activities –Carnatic, Western and outreach activities-Rohan is carrying out, shared his experiences with the legendary M.S.Subalaksmi and asked Rohan’s own feelings when he played in front of her ten years ago. Dr Kalam complimented Rohan for his out reach efforts in the US and India, referring in particular to the concert he and Prasant Radhakrishnan gave for the residents of The Banyan in Chennai. The President keenly looked at the new mridangam  Rohan has designed and asked him to demonstrate the new mridangam and  commented very positively on its tonality. He advised Rohan to obtain an international patent for the design. At the end Dr Kalam presented a souvenir given to official visitors of the Rashtrapathy Bhavan, his inspiring book, “The indomitable Spirit”, signed Rohan’s CDs and remarked “ I can see that you have a bright future”. “ All in all”, Rohan says “ it was a very humbling experience to sit with such a towering personality who was all modesty and  simplicity personified”)

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