Malladi Trio Lend Sparkle to Thillana-Themed Veena Festival

Chicago IL: The fifth annual three-day Veena festival curated by Sri Annamacharya Project of North America (SAPNA) over the weekend from April 26–28 had “Thillana” for its theme this year, and was dedicated to the memory of Padmabhushan Sangeeta Kalanidhi Sripada Pinakapani and legendary violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman. Between Chitravina Ravikiran’s inauguration concert (Friday evening) and Balamurali Krishna’s grand finale (Sunday evening) both held at the Lemont Hindu temple, the whole weekend resounded with veena concerts at the Sri Venkateshwara Swami (SVS), popularly known as Balaji, temple in Aurora, Ill. Saturday’s highlight was the award of the title ‘Srikala Purna’ to Sangitacharya Malladi Suri Babu, father of the famous vocalists Malladi Brothers, Sriram Prasad and Ravi Kumar, followed by their evening vocal concert.

With their stentorian voices, Malladi Brothers took the audience by storm and sang their way into the hearts of connoisseurs. As a fitting tribute to maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman, they began the concert with Suri Babu’s brief but imposing delineation of the ragam Asaveri through Lalgudi’s set composition (varnam) Jalajaksha Neepadame Gati. Setting a stately pace for the entire concert with Parameshwara Jagadeeshwara in ragam Nattai, Malladi Brothers then sang Thyagaraja’s Manasu Nilpa in ragam Abhogi. The sparkling alapana (purely melodic exploration) in ragam Mayamalavagowla for Thyagaraja’s Vidulaku Mrokkeda was brilliant with erudite sancharas (phrases characteristic of the ragam) full of brisk passages scaling across the entire range of the raga (brigas). A majestic Shankarabharanam with elaborate ragam-thanam-pallavi was the piece de resistance of the evening. Tumkur Ravi Shankar (mridangam) and RK Shriram Kumar (violin) added a distinctly different dimension to the concert with their synchronized accompaniment. It was gratifying to see the trio of father and two sons on the stage vying with each other in a friendly musical conversation. Precise alignment of the notes (shruthi shuddham), clarity in pronunciation, depth of classicism, and a devotedly respectful approach to art are some key qualities that aspiring vocalists can glean from Malladi Brothers.

Saturday afternoon began with a well-proportioned and pleasing veena concert by Saraswathi Rajagopalan from New Delhi, followed by veena-vocal presentations from Guru Jaishri Prasad’s Pallavi School of Music. It was a delight to see children wield the instrument with confidence and pride playing the Kalyani Malika Thillana, consisting of four rare thillanas in ragas Kalyani, Mohana Kalyani, Hamir Kalyani, and Poorvi Kalyani. Guru Jayshri Prasad, whose concert was a mellifluous display of the Mysore Bani (style), is the author of “Veena, in the Theory, Practice, and Experiments in Karnatak Music.” She has composed and directed music for many documentaries, telefilms, short films, and television serials in India. Youngster Athrey Nadhan, a disciple of Shrimushnam Raja Rao, accompanied the veena artistes with an eloquently refined touch on the mridangam.

Sunday morning began with a euphonious thillana in ragam Hindolam by Neela Devi Amaravadi, a student of Veena Srinivas of India. Students from Vasanthi Iyer’s school of music, in an excellent exhibit of team work, sang and played Swati Thirunal’s Hindi thillana “Geetha dhuniku taka dheem” in ragam Dhanasree. Barely a teenager, Satvik Gurupalli showed that he could handle the veena with ease while playing thillana in ragam Thilang. Rama Gurupalli rendered another in ragam Paras. Students from Ensemble of Ragas showcased a sublime vocal and veena arrangement to present Balamurali Krishna’s thillana in Jaya Raga Malika, a composition with shruthi and graha bhedam, wonderfully handled by the students.

Saraswathi Ranganathan (veena) and Indrajit Banerjee (sitar) delivered an extremely enjoyable and well-received duet (jugalbandhi) with Dhananjay Kunte (tabla) and Ganapathi Ranganathan (mridangam). While sitar presented a gratifying Desh Raga, veena answered with folk-tinged musings filled with ornamentations (gamaka) on ragam Kedaragowla, a close Carnatic equivalent with most notes of Desh, yet sounding completely different in mood and flavor.

The afternoon resumed with a panel discussion led by Dr. Shelly Kumar on “Veena as an accompanying instrument.” Facilitated by Dr. Saradapurna Sonty, some interesting points were brought out by the participants, who were teachers from the Chicagoland schools.

Up and coming veena artiste Arthi Nadhan commendably adhered to classicism in her exposition of ragam Khamas, before accompanying Vikram Sundara Raman’s good vocal concert. Rajeswari Pariti’s thillana beautifully sketched out Kaapi ragam in a typical Andhra Bani (style of playing veena) to the competent mridangam accompaniment of Ethirajan Ramanujan. Rama Gurupalli laid out a very melodious thillana in ragam Mishra Shiva Ranjani. Yet another talented youngster Sanjay Subramaniam, student of Guruvayoor Dorai, ably accompanied her on mridangam.

Founders Drs. Sriram and Saradapurna Sonty conceived SAPNA as an institution to preserve, promote, propagate, and perpetuate Indian classical fine arts in the USA. The first fundraising dance performance by Sonty sisters Siri and Sita laid its foundations in 1990. SAPNA and Sonty Renaissance International Foundation pursued this initiative with concerts by Balamurali Krishna, Veena Chittibabu, and Nedunuri Krishnamurthy. They have introduced Annamacharya’s compositions to USA. This fifth Veena festival was ample proof of the growing patronage classical art enjoys across Chicagoland – particularly instrumental music of the likes of Veena, Chitravina, and other ancient acoustic instruments.

Pictures captions from Malladi Brothers concert
[#52] Malladi Brothers vocal concert (L to R): Tumkur Ravi Shankar (mridangam), Suri Babu, Sriram Prasad, Ravi Kumar, and RK Shriram Kumar (violin).
1) [#30] Felicitation of Malladi Suri Babu (L to R): PVRK Prasad, Shelly Kumar, Prakasam Tata, Viji Susarla, Siri Sonty, Suri Babu, and Sriram Sonty.
2) [#03] Veena-Vocal ensemble (L to R): Athrey Nathan (mridangam), vocalists Krishnaranjani Prasad, Preethi Prasad, Meghana Yadavalli, veena-players Jaishree Prasad, Vinod Menon, and Hiranmayee Kundeti.