Blue Planet Festival
$200.00
December 17, 2021 – March 27, 2022
21 Carnatic and Hindustani music concerts, original dance and music collaborations and a North-South Instrumental jugalbandi
Free for 2022 Annual Members
Description
December 17, 2021 – March 27, 2022
21 Carnatic and Hindustani music concerts, original dance and music collaborations and a North-South Instrumental jugalbandi
Blue Planet is a four-month-long digital festival of Indian Classical Music featuring 21 Carnatic and Hindustani musicians. The festival will consist of several concerts and events being made available on the Dhvani website each month. A $200 value, this set of programs and concerts will be included at no additional cost in the 2022 annual Dhvani membership. Some concerts will be released in December will also be available to those who have renewed their 2022 membership. Please renew your Dhvani membership today and don’t miss out on any of these very special programs.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Blue Planet is a four-month-long digital festival of Indian Classical Music featuring 21 Carnatic and Hindustani musicians. The festival will consist of several concerts and events being made available on the Dhvani website each month. A $200 value, this set of programs and concerts will be included at no additional cost in the 2022 annual Dhvani membership. Some concerts will be released in December will also be available to those who have renewed their 2022 membership. Please renew your Dhvani membership today and don’t miss out on any of these very special programs.
Concept
The festival seeks to invoke the Living Ecology of our Planet and its beautiful but fragile natural resources. It hopes to draw analogies between the Natural World and the Ecosystem of the Arts. It seeks to suggest that both ecosystems need to be cared for, understood and respected. In harming them we only harm ourselves.
Concerts under the Sky
Each concert and performance will be set in natural, outdoor settings in carefully chosen locations in the midst of mountains, sacred groves, mangroves, forests, river banks, beaches and in some of India’s endangered biodiversity zones. Guided by environmental groups and organisations working for social justice in different parts of the country, we hope to initiate preliminary conversations and meetings with artists and these groups to point at issues related to Climate Change, sustainability practices and Climate justice, which underpin the efforts of all peoples’ movements.
We have taken great care to ensure that we are not merely using Nature as a pretty backdrop; we are trying to include the spirit of local and regional conservation and sustainability practices and ideas so that they reflect in subtle ways in the films as we explore the links between Indian Classical Music and contemporary discourses on Ecology and Conservation.
UDAY BHAWALKAR
December 17, 6 PM EST
Uday Bhawalkar – Vocals
Pratap Awad – Pakhawaj
Meghana Sardar & Meghana Bhawalkar – Tampuras & Supporting Vocals
MOLLEM NATIONAL PARK, GOA
The two-hour vocal concert featuring Dhrupad Maestro Uday Bhawalkar, Pratap Awad on Pakhawaj and Meghna Sardar as well as Meghna Bhawalkar on tanpuras and supporting vocals was filmed deep within the forest area of Mollem National Park in Goa. Uday Bhawalkar is a very respected artiste and Guru in the Dhrupad genre, one of the major and oldest styles of Hindustani classical music known particularly for its austere quality, melodic nuance and elegant use of swaras. Uday Bhawalkar was trained in the traditional Guru Shishya Parampara by the renowned Gurus Zia Fariduddin Dagar and Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.
In keeping with the theme of the series, the artists were filmed in all natural surrounding with the sound of birdsong and a stream flowing by reflected in the high-fidelity audio recording. Uday Bhawalkar presented two mid-morning and early afternoon ragas, Miyan Ki Todi and Shuddha Sarang.
RAMAKRISHNAN MURTHY
December 17, 6 PM EST
Ramakrishnan Murthy – Vocals
RK Shriramkumar – Violin
NC Bharadwaj – Mridangam
N Guruprasad – Ghatam
ANJUNA TIDE POOLS, GOA
Ramakrishnan Murthy’s two-hour-long Carnatic vocal concert with his Guru, the respected violin Vidwan RK Shriramkumar, N Guruprasad on ghatam and NC Bharadwaj with Harshali Pednekar on tanpura, was filmed in a deserted section of Anjuna beach in Goa, next to tide pools rich in marine life. Ramakrishnan Murthy is widely recognized as one of the most talented Karnatik musicians of his generation and has been trained by Gurus Padma Kutty, Delhi P Sundar Rajan and RK Shriramkumar.
An early morning concert with the incoming tide rising and retreating as the clouds changed from dark grey to bright blue provided a natural canvas for the musicians to present a sweeping range of composers from the Trinity to Purandaradasa to Swati Tirunal and Andal. Beginning with Shayma Sastri’s Pahi Sri Girijasuthe, by the close of two hours, Ram sang an exquisite Saagara Sayano Vibho by MD Ramanathan before bringing the concert to a close.
AISHWARYA & BRINDHA
December 18, 6 PM EST
Aishwarya Vidhya Raghunath & Brindha Manikavasakan – Vocals
Vittal Rangan – Violin
Praveen Sparsh – Mridangam
Chandrasekara Sharma – Ghatam
ANGANGBA VILLAGE TUENSANG, NAGALAND
A delightful Carnatic Vocal duet concert featuring two wonderfully talented vocalists in their generation, Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath and Brindha Manickavaskan with Praveen Sparsh on mridangam, Vittal Rangan on violin and Chandrasekhara Sharma on Ghatam was recorded on the edge of a hilltop on a cool and windy morning in the beautiful village of Angangba in Tuensang, Nagaland. Both artistes were singing together for the first time and had put in a lot of thought on putting together a repertoire and complementing each other.
SHUBHADA PARADKAR
December 18, 6 PM EST
Shubhada Paradkar – Vocals
Mandar Puranki – Tabla
Supriya Joshi – Harmonium
Rashmi Sule & Aishwarya Rao – Tampuras & Supporting Vocals
KAMSHEET, WESTERN GHATS
Shubhada Paradkar is a senior Hindustani vocalist and Guru who draws from diverse stylistic influences to present a wide and rich repertoire. It was undoubtedly the eminent vocalist, violinist, composer and Guru Pandit Gajananrao Joshi who had a lasting influence on her with an emphasis on Gwalior and Jaipur gharana teaching. Later, she also learnt extensively from the respected Gurus Pandit Babanrao Haldankar (Agra gharana) and Pandita Padmavati Shaligram Gokhale (Jaipur Gharana) imparting a rare fullness to her training.
This early to mid-morning concert was filmed at a green theatre campus with fruit orchards and wild flowers nestled in the Western Ghats in Kamshet, a three hour drive from Mumbai. Mandar Puranik was on tabla, Supriya Joshi was on harmonium while Rashmi Sule and Aishwarya Rao were on tanpuras and backing vocals. Look out for a great morning concert in which Shubhada Paradkar shows her effortless mastery and play of rhythm, a fondness for unusual and taals and phrasing rendered with her customary zest.
TM KRISHNA
December 19, 6 PM EST
TM Krishna – Vocals
Vittal Rangan – Violin
Praveen Sparsh – Mridangam
Chandrasekara Sharma – Ghatam
ANGANGBA VILLAGE, TUENSANG, NAGALAND
TM Krishna’s two-hour concert with Praveen Sparsh on mridangam, Vittal Rangan on violin and Chandrasekhara Sharma on ghatam, brings the five December concerts in the Blue Planet series to a close. A brilliant concert with many surprises and a dynamic ebb and flow of the sonic mirrored the still rhythms of the village of Angangba in Tuensang, Nagaland.
Halfway through the concert the musicians changed location from one outdoor space in the village to another, bridged musically by building on the tail end of the tani avartan, or farance which turned out to also be the prelude for the next piece, superimposed on the same farance. Visually this was bridged by shots of the musicians walking from the first to the second location; when Krishna’s vocal track for Talisrirama begins, the musicians are back to the concert in the new location.
Look out for this and many other intriguing moments in this concert.
VENKATESH KUMAR
January 29, 2022 6:00 PM EST
Venkatesh Kumar – vocals
Raghunath Nakod – tabla
Guruprasad Hegde – harmonium
Aishwarya Desai and Arjun Vathar – tanpura and backup vocals
GUNGARGATTI, DHARWAD
Venkatesh Kumar (1953-) was born in the Bellary district of Karnataka to a father who was a folk musician and leather puppeteer. As a young boy, he was taken to the Veereshwara Punyashrama in Gadag where the great saint and musician Puttaraj Gawai lived. The next 12 years were spent with his Guru who was trained in Hindustani as well as Carnatic music. Venkatesh Kumar is one of the foremost Hindustani vocalists of our times and is a fine example of the Kiran Gharana with its melodic purity inflected with the majestic intricacies of the Gwalior Gharana vocalism. Venkatesh Kumar is a consummate classical musician of our times who is able to use his foundational training in Hindustani music with personal aesthetic choices to create a robust, individual vocalism that appeals to connoisseurs and new listeners alike. Although fame came comparatively late to him, in the last 2 decades he has grown in stature and is a greatly loved and admired musician with a wide following.
MALLADI BROTHERS
January 30, 2022 6:00 PM EST
Malladi Brothers (Vocals)
Tumkur Ravishankar (Mridangam)
Embar Kannan (Violin)
Chandrasekhara Sharma (Ghatam)
Amrita Snigdha Desiraju (Tambura)
URUR OLCOTT KUPPAM, CHENNAI
The Malladi Brothers, Malladi Sreeramprasad (b. June 12th, 1971) and Malladi Ravikumar (b. April 21st, 1973), are a Carnatic music vocalist duo. They have been their early music training with powerful in-house teachers under Malladi Srirammurthy and Malladi Suri Babu, their grandfather and father respectively. Based in Vijaywada the brothers went on to learn under Sripada Pinakapani and Nedunuri Krishnamurthy. Their rich vocalism with total immersion in sahityam as well as an inheritance of the vast resources of composers and aesthetic influences of Carnatic music from their home state of Andhra Pradesh gives them a distinctive appeal. After their initial training, the brothers also studied under Gurus Sripada Pinakapani and Nedunuri Krishnamurthy who have further enriched their artistic capabilities.
