SIFA celebrated its 25^th anniversary in downtown San Jose

May 28 - May 31, 2004

 

Day 1 SIFA 25, Friday, May 28, 2004

 

What makes for a fitting South Indian event opener?

The South India Fine Arts Association wouldn’t have anything but the Nadaswaram for an auspicious kick-off and Subhani Mahaboob and Kalishabhi Mahaboob (Vembu Muthukumar and Manickam Sankar on the thavils) ushered in a festive wedding mood on Friday evening with invocations in ragas Sree, Kharaharapriya and Maand.

And, by the way, what’s a wedding mood without celebrities?

It helped to have stars like T. M. Krishna, N. Ramani, Shashank, Aruna Sayeeram, Guruvayur Dorai, U. Srinivas, and M. Manjunath, among others, glitter in the first few rows of the audience.

Sri Natarajan, senior most musician in the bay area was appropriately asked to light the lamp to start the proceedings.

Indian Consul General H. H. S. Viswanathan, guest of honor, released SIFA's first ever souvenir and thanked SIFA for its service in propagating Carnatic music in the United States.

Chief guest, Dr. Robert Brown, an ethno-musicologist who has specialized in Carnatic music and has been hailed as the first force in disseminating Carnatic music in the United States, recalled his forays into the world of South Indian Classical Art and talked about Chennai when ‘it had one stoplight’. “I remember a time in the United States when no one had heard of South Indian or North Indian classical music,” said Dr. Brown. In the mid-sixties, Dr. Robert Brown went to Chennai to learn Carnatic music and to understand the intricacies of the mridangam. Soon he sought the services of top musicians to teach Carnatic music at the Connecticut-based Wesleyan University. A personal goal for Dr. Brown soon became a bridge for US based Indo Americans. The rest is twenty-five years of SIFA history.

The founders of SIFA were appreciated for their far-reaching efforts in creating a forum for the South Indian arts.

The focus of Indo-American events is the celebration of Indian culture. But along with that, community members are beginning to celebrate the integration and assimilation into the new, adopted society. Young Raja Prabhala - who serves in the US army and just returned after a year in Iraq - was called to the stage and honored with a plaque and a standing ovation from the audience for serving the United States.

 

8:30 P.M.: T. V. Sankaranarayanan

Popular SIFA performer, Sangeetha Kalanidhi T.V. Sankaranarayanan began the four-day feast of music with SIFA 25’s most heard opener raga, Hamsadhwani. His crisp presentation of Kharaharapriya was followed by his scintillating pallavi "Parimala rangapathe" in Kambhoji where T.V.S. (as he is affectionately called) rendered full justice to his raga switches. His rendering of Raga Hamsanandi was haunting followed by ever popular Tamil kriti "Srinivasa Thiru Venkatamudaiyan" Mysore Manjunath on the violin and Mannargudi Easwaran on the mridangam gave ample and appropriate support. Few stirred from the audience until TVS finished the concert past midnight.

 

Day 2 SIFA 25, Saturday, May 29, 2004

 

8:30 A.M.: Vadya Vrinda

At 8.30am on Saturday, a bleary-eyed audience rose to a delightful Bhoopalam by the quintessential classical force of the Bay Area Indian community. Masterminded and led by reputed violinist and teacher, Anuradha Sridhar, and coordinated by A.Mahadevan who also played the Mohrsing, Vadya Vrinda included Mahidhar Tirumala on the veena, Ragavan Manian on the flute, Shriram Brahmanandan on the mridangam, Vadiraj Bhat on the mridangam, Murali Krishna on the ghatam and Ravi Gutala on the tabla. This instrumental medley ferried us into haunting melodies from the past in a five-part tribute to SIFA’s 25 years, packaged with crisp narration for all five parts by Sridhar Sundaram and set a dynamic pace for the new day. Anuradha - who composed the opening segment that explored ragas by time of day - fine-tuned the melodic pieces across the presentation. Following a look at how ragas can portray the time of day, Vadya Vrinda led us to works of top Carnatic composers and showed how ragas evoke rasas. The challenging thani avarthanam - with korvais in eleven nadais - was planned by Shriram Brahmanandam and executed masterfully by the crew.

 

9: 45 A.M.: Dr. Mysore Manjunath

Dr. Mysore Manjunath dived into his performance with the ever-popular choice of Hamsadhwani. Ask any South Indian and he’ll tell you that Kalyani is like Curd rice. It sustains life, feeds the soul and fills the heart. Manjunath whetted our appetite with a Ragam Thanam Pallavi in Kalyani and artistes Guruvayur Dorai and Cleveland Balu – ah, the day has come when Cleveland sounds like Malgudi – played a wise, mellow accompaniment to Manjunath.

 

1:30 P.M.: Asha Ramesh

Asha Ramesh, a popular teacher and musician in the Bay Area, was accompanied by Satish Kumar and Mullaivasal Chandramouli. In Hemavathi, (Sri Kanthimathim), Ramesh showed her command over bhava and presentation. The dynamic thillana in Veenavadhini was a creation of the artiste, one of several dance songs she has composed and tuned in the last few years.

 

3:15 P.M.: Youth Program

SIFA’s goal to promote and motivate the talented youth of the bay area was well served in the performance by sixteen young musicians from the Bay Area. The bios of these children are so impressive they’re already over-qualified for most jobs they’ll apply for. When they were not crooning ragas, they were caught with SAT preparation books backstage. These young men and women in their teens and early twenties have been shaped by years of attending SIFA programs and competitions. Proud parents cheered their children with a sabhash here and a bale there while these aspiring vocalists and instrumentalists showed their control over bhava, alaapana, kalpanaswaram and diction. If they decide to focus on much-needed practice, some of these youngsters will be the next generation of stars in the Carnatic Music firmament.

 

6:45 P.M.: Aruna Sairam

By Saturday evening, the storm clouds (and long wait lines) hovered around CET for a much-awaited first time performer at SIFA. Seconds after Aruna Sairam launched the Viriboni varnam, she jolted the audience - somewhat indolent after a full day of music - with her deep commanding voice. In ‘Thamatham En Swami’, Sairam’s passionate Thodi was exquisitely embellished by Anuradha Sridhar on the violin and Satish Kumar on the mridangam. An 8 raga epic Ashtalakshmi RTP in Madhyamavathi was followed by Sairam's signature pieces like the Gambiranattai Thillana which never fail to delight the audience.

 

Day 3 SIFA 25, Sunday, May 30, 2004

 

9:00 A.M.: T. M. Krishna

When T. M. Krishna began, one diehard Semmangudi fan in the audience shut his eyes and swore he heard Semmangudi perform in portions during the entire concert. Accompanied by S. Varadarajan on the violin and Guruvayoor Dorai on the mridangam, Krishna’s repertoire included ‘Dinamani vamsa’ (Harikamboji) and ‘Giripai’ (Sahana) and a Sankarabaranam Ragam Thanam Pallavi. This 28-year old star gave fully of his rich manodharma throughout the concert much to the delight of the audience.

 

1:30 P.M.: Jayashree Varadarajan

Long term Bay Area teacher Jayashree Varadarajan, accompanied gracefully by Anuradha Sridhar on the violin, put heart and soul into ‘Nannuvidarchi’ in Rithigowlai. Jayashree’s team, which also included the zestful Shriram Brahmanandam on the mridangam, performed ‘Himagiri’ in raga Suddha danyasi and ‘Raghuvara’ in Panthuvarali.

 

3:30 P.M.: Dance program by Bay Area Dancs Schools 'Shringara – The Supreme Emotion' with live orchestra provided by Asha Ramesh, Shanthi Narayanan, Narayanan Natarajan, Raja Sivamani, Ragavan Manian, A. Mahadevan, Priya Ramadoss and Prema Sriram.

From lores about Devi Stuti and Meenakshi Kalyananam to stories about Nala Damayanthi and Kutrala Kuravanji, the audience at the Center for the Performing Arts had a peek into how sringaram forms the basis of most divine and human relationships, the force that makes the world go around.

Shringara was a dance collaboration from dance schools in the Bay Area featuring many well-known teachers in the area. The featured dance schools included that of Indumathy Ganesh, Mythili Kumar, Jyothi Lakkaraju, Samyuktha Narayan, Sharadha Moorthy-Sripadam, Savitha Sastry, Radhika Sankar, Jayanthi Sridharan, Gayatri Srikanth, Vidhya Subramanian, Shreelatha Suresh, Sangita Vasudevan and Katherine Kunnhiraman.

Individual segments were well choreographed and presented. The general audience feedback was that while exciting to see so many dance schools and teachers dance under one banner, their next challenge would be to bring forth a fusion of ideas, styles and approach that might produce one connected effort throughout the whole production.

 

7:15 P.M.: Flute Jugalbandhi by Dr. N. Ramani and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasya

The day closed with a much talked of, sell-out flute Jugalbandhi by old timers/stalwarts- Dr. N. Ramani and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasya, accompanied by Trichy Sankaran on the mridangam and Swapan Chaudhry on the tabla. The 1500+ audience thronged to the state-of-the-art Center for performing Arts, with eager anticipation. Included on the menu, were ragas Mohanam and Kapi interspersed with fiery moments between Chaudry and Sankaran. In spite of great respect and mutual admiration among the artistes, lack of adequate planning and preparation took a toll on the overall impact of the concert.

 

Day 4 SIFA 25, Monday, May 31, 2004

 

9:00 A.M.: Sudha Raghunathan

From the varnam in Panthuvarali to Nagumomu (Abheri) and the RTP in Hemavathi, Mohanam and Hindolam, Sudha delivered, as always, the ultimate package that an audience craves: a bit of challenge, a modicum of suspense, a good dose of familiarity and a smattering of languages. Adding punch to Sudha’s execution, was highly-skilled Satish Kumar on the mridangam and H. N. Bhaskar on the violin. Much to everyone’s delight, Sudha even took a few moments to congratulate and honor the SIFA 25 organizers with flowers, a rare reciprocity of appreciation.

 

1:30 P.M.: Srikanth Chary

Accompanied by Poongulam Subramaniam on the mridangam and Ravi Balasubramanian on the ghatam, Srikanth treated us to a pleasant, thorough concert post-lunch. After listening to Srikanth’s crisp and exciting execution of ‘Kaligiyunde’ (Kiravani) and ‘Bhavayami Gopala’ (Yamunkalyani), one could not but feel sorry for those who yielded to the temptation of a midafternoon siesta and chose to skip this concert.

 

3:30 P.M.: Revathi Ramachandran - Dance

‘Om Sharavanabhava’ by Revathi Ramachandran and her dance crew from Chennai’s Kala Sadhanalaya was a charming rendition of the life of Muruga in the traditional Melattur style of Bharathanatyam. The highlight of the clean performance was the stamina of 9-year-old Manasvini Ramachandran, Revathi’s daughter, who played Muruga with the gusto of a seasoned dancer. Filling in for a live orchestra was an elaborate instrumental and narrative packed CD, which sadly fell short of the ambiance of a live one that we in the bay area are so accustomed to.

 

6:15 P.M.: U. Srinivas

If you’ve heard ‘Viriboni’ (Bhairavi) on instruments like the violin or the veena, it takes a few minutes to digest it from a glaringly non-traditional instrument like the mandolin. But U. Srinivas has so much control over this instrument that he has redefined tradition and won over the most adamant skeptics. Srinivas (with brother U. Rajesh on the mandolin, Delhi Sundararajan on the violin, Trichy Sankaran and Poovalur Srinivasan on the mridangam) treated us to several of his popular renditions including ‘Vathapi’ (Hamsadhwani), ‘Marupalka’ (Sriranjani) and Charukeshi alapanai. Flawless execution, synchronization and relentless tempo kept the audience riveted throughout. ‘Thani Avarthanam’ by Trichy Sankaran and Ace student Poovalur Srinivasan with their masterful mixing of their percussion sounds enhanced the overall concert experience.

 

The concerts were interspersed with mini ceremonies honoring founders, past presidents, national sponsors, etc. All speeches were kept brief and to the point and hence did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the festival. The food committee ensured that food was catered on time and served with a smile throughout the 4-day event.

 

The SIFA 25 committee thanked donors of the festival, the sponsors, the many volunteers who worked tirelessly since last fall to present this festival to the community, the artistes from India & the US who participated in the festival and finally, the audience, who for 4 days thronged to all the events and made the event an inordinately grand success!