Concert for Valayapatti Nadhalaya Trust - 29th December 2007

This is first oppurtunity for Sathya to perform in this forum and it was indeed a good oppurtunity as he had new set of audience apart from the regular rasikas. He also teamed up with Arunachala Karthick on violin - after a long time, Kumbakonam Swaminathan on Mrudhangam and HariharaSharma on the Kanjeera.

Sathya started the concert with Navaragamalika varnam and the violin volume for this for pretty low. From the second krithi - Gum Ganapathim it was all set and Arunachal Karthick was impressive, as he used to be always, during his round of alapanas and kalpanaswras. Swaminathan was very alert and followed Sathya's patterns along with HariharaSharma who was his usual good today. Sri Malarvannan suggested Sathya to also take up Violin as he felt there was shortage of good violin artists in the making. Well we will have to wait and see and the time only will have to answer this!

The details of the krithis performed are as follows:

01. Varnam - Navaragamalika - Adhi
02. Gumganapathim - Hamsadwani - Adhi [Thisra Nadai]
03. Devadeva - Mayamalavagowla - Rupakam
04. Nadhathanumanusam - Chitharanjani - Adi
05. Kanathandni - Kathanakudhugalam - Adi
06. Saravanabhava - Shanmugapriya - Adi
07. Vanathumedhu - Vallalar Pasuram
08. Pramamudhitha - Bhajan

Concert for Sri Parthasarathy Sabha after 5 years on 27th Dec'07

It was a sort of home coming for Sathya when he performed for Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha on the 27th Dec'07 after one of the first official December season concerts he performed here in 2002. He got a great team of Rajeev on violin, Sri Erode Nagaraj on Mrudhangam and Sri Venkatsubramaniam on Ghatam as enhancement artist for this concert. Starting with a Tamil varnam - Anname in ragam Arabi the team presented a melodious concert overall, thanks to the PA system which was of great standard. The good turnout of knowledgeable audience for this concert was also a reason for the success of the concert.

Rajeev was apt in his alapanas and gave his varieties in the kalpanaswaram section. Sri Nagaraj on Mrudhangam was performing for the first time with Sathya and he was all praise for Sathya in his efforts. He was enjoying Sathya's style of playing and enhanced the concert in a big way. His thani with Venkatasubramaniam was well received and the team should be meeting very often as the co-ordination looked very impressive. The details of the krithis performed are as under:

01. Varnam (Tamizh) - Arabi - Adhi
02. Siddhivinayakam - Shanmugapriya - Adhi [RS]
03. Itinyayama - Malavi - Adhi
04. Janani Mamava - Bhairavi - Misrachappu [R]
05. Seethamma - Vasantha - Rupakam {RS]
06. Biranabrova - Kalyani - Adhi - Tisragathi [RNS]
07. Thirupugazh
08. TheeradhaVillayatuPillai - Ragamaliaka - Ekam [Thisragathi]
09. Chandrasekara - Sindhubhairavi - Adhi

Sri Krishna Gana Sabha on 25th December, 2007

Today's concert at Krishna Gana Sabha also had good attendance and was with new team of S.Karthick, Mannarkoil J. Balaji on Mrudhangam and Subba Rao on Ghatam. While Karthick's presentation was soft and melodious Sri Balaji's performance was perfect in his apporach to the line of thought of that of Sathya showing great anticipation. Sri Subba Rao gave good support throughout the concert. The audio at KGS mini hall was well handled by the technician and it was at great comfort level for both the audience and the artists.

Sathya started off with Abogi varnam (played thisram) with good swaram for this. This was follwed with a brief alapana on Chakaravagam for the krithi Gajananayutham. A good elaboration was performed for Jaganmohini ragam by both Sathya and Karthick followed by a well presented krithi Sobillu in sowkya kalapramanam. This was followed by Endaromahanubhavulu on Sri ragam after which a well received Ramanukku MananMudi was performed with thoughtful raga alapana. Niraval was performed followed by swaram at Pattam Katta Yetravandi and was really intricate as the eduppu was after 2 aksharams.

Just before the concert started, Sathya decided to present a Ragam Thanam Pallavi in the raga Brindhavani set to Adhi thalam and kudos to the accompanying artists who got on to it perfectly. The pallavi line is "Ramanai Sriramanai Raghuramanai Potri Padi Arulperuvom". The line was composed by Sathya's father on hearing a fusion album of Sri Kadri Gopalnath. Sathya took Hamsanadham & Amruthavarshini ragas to present in the kalpanaswarams and Karthick responded very well on this. Sri Balaji gave a pleasant thani with Subba Rao taking up with Sri Balaji very well.

Sathya signed off the concert with Muralidhara Gopala followed with a brisk Lalgudi's Thillana in the ragam Jonpuri set to Adhi thalam. Both yesterday and today audience came out with great appreciation for Sathya's efforts to bring out the nuances and wished & blessed him to keep improving and exploring the best possible.

The song details of the presentation is as follows:
1. Varnam - Abogi - Adhi (swaram)
2. Gajananayutham - Chakravagam - Adhi (R & S)
3. Sobillu Sapthaswara - Jagamhini - Rupakam (R)
4. EntharoMahanubhavulu - Sri - Adhi
5. Ramanukku MannanMudi - Hindolam - Adhi (R & S)
6. ThayeThripurasundhari - SuddhaSAveri - Kandachappu
7. RTP - Brindhavani - Adhi with ragmalika swaram on Hamsanadham & Amruthavarshini.
8. MuralidharaGopala - Maandu - Adhi
9. Thillana - Jonpuri - Adi

Chennaiyil Thiruvaiyaru on 24th December, 2007

Sathya's concert for Chennaiyil Tiruvaiyaru was held at the Kamaraj Memorial Hall on 24/12/2007. He was accompanied by Kandadevi Sri. Vijayaraghavanon the violin, Kumabakonam Sri. Saravanan on the mridangam and Tirukkannapuram Sri. Sourirajan on the khanjira and morsing.

The concert was very well-attended and the ambience of the auditorium with the excellent arrangements enhanced the concert atmosphere. Lakshman Shruthi and the sponsors of the event have gone to great length to promote this 5-day festival and their efforts were amply rewarded in terms of attendance and public participation.

Sri. Vijayaraghavan was in top form and played some brilliant phrases in his solo essays and also while responding to the swarams. The very positive way in which he played with a smile on his face made listening - and watching - a great experience. Sri. Saravanan and Sri. Sourirajan showed great anticipation and were excellent during the Thani.

The concert was very well presented with fine co-ordination among the artistes.
Sathya's playing was very facile and involved. He played Saranga for the first time in a concert today and it was well received. When the concert started Sathya announced that all the songs to be played were Thyagaraja's. However, on request, he played Paluke Bangara by Bhadrachala Ramadas.

The songlist is as follows:
Sri Gananatham - Kanakangi - Adi (S)
Rama Nannu Brovara - Harikambhoji - Rupakam (RS)
Teliyaledu Rama - Denuka - Adi
Neevadane gana - Saranga - K. Chapu (R)
Nannu Palimpa - Mohanam - Adi (RNS + Thani) (Ragamalika swarams)
Vandanamu Raghunandana - Sahana - Adi
Paluke Bangara - Ananda Bhairavi - Adi

Cocert for MFAC - Mylapore Fine Arts on 23rd Dec'07

Sathya's concert today had the best attendance for him at MFAC in the last 3 years inspite of being a 130 - 3 pm concert. It is also to be said that Sathya and his team of enhancement artists namely Karaikal Venkatasubramaniam on Violin and Rajna Swaminathan on mrudhangam did not disappoint any one today. Starting off with a brisk Mohanakalyani krithi Siddhivinayakam in Adhi thalam, Sathya's kalpanaswaras and response from Venkat were really good. Rajna's performance showed the guru's blessing (Sri Umayalpuram Sivaraman) and was excellent through out. With a detailed Bhairavi raga alapana Sathya performed Keechu Keechengum a Thirupavai. Then he took up Bavayami Raguramam a ragamalika set to Rupaka thalam and performed a good alapana for the all the ragam. He then came back on the reverse and went to perform the krithi. The tempo was good and special mention on Rajna here as she gave great variations and played many patterns during this krithi.

The link for the audio track of this concert is http://www.esnips.com/web/MFAC23rdDec07

Then on to Vachaspathi both Sathya and Venkatasubramaniam gave an elaborate alapana followed by the krithi Kantachutumi set to Adhi thalam. The kalapana swaram portion was a nice quality competition between Sathya and Venkatasubramaniam & both came out successful. Rajna performed like a seasoned artist with great anticipation during these exchanges. Her thani avarthanam was very impressive and should have won many hearts for the same. Sathya concluded with Karpagampike in Bilahari followed by a Sai Bhajan. It was indeed one of the highly turned out audience for Sathya's performance and sure that every one had a great feeling as we could see many coming and blessing Sathya. In the audience was a sister pair from Durban, South Africa who are fans of Sathya and also dancers by themselves.

Deatails fo the songs performed:

01. Sidhivinayakam - Mohana Kalyani - Adhi
02. KeechuKeechengum - Bhairavi - Misrachappu - Thirupavai
03. Bavayami Raghuramam _ Raagamalika - Rupakam
04. Kantajutumi - Vachaspathi - Adhi
05. Karpagampike - Bilahari - Rupakam
06. Sai Bhanja - Revathy

Great day to have got blessings from 101 year old Carnatic Rasika

Thanks to Mr. Sankar a resident of East Tambaram. Sathya had one of the greatest day for Sathya as he was blessed by a 101 year old rasika who also gave him his spatika mala which he has been wearing for more than 70 years. It was at the Swami Iyyapa Bakatha Sabha, East Tambaram where Sathya gave a short concert for about 45 mts today with Thillaisthanam R. Suryanarayanan on mrudhangam. He was also honoured by the President of the samithi with shawl and was introduced to Mr Balasubraamaniam - President of Tamil Sangam, Melbourne Australia. Mr & Mrs Vasan also from Australia along with Mr Balasubramaniam has indicated possibility of a concert tour for Sathya's team and we hope it come true in the near future.

Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan Concert 14th Dec'07

It was a concert which was unscheduled and came as a surprise from the officials of Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan. As Ms Saindhavi could not perform on the 14th Dec'07 due to unforseen circumstances, Sathya was offered the platform and it was also ideal for Sathya to invite a South African Musician Kids group for the concert. Devanathan on Violin and Srivanchiam Sriram on Mrudhangam enhanced the concert and here is the link of the audio track

http://tinyurl.com/2ejmg4

The list of songs performed are:

01. Varnam - Sahana - Adhi
02. SriMahaganapathim - Gowla - MisraChaapu
03. Neepadhamegathi - Nalinakanthi - Rupakam
04. Thulasibilva - KedharaGowla - Adhi
05. Vasudevayeni - Kalyani - Adhi
06. Bhajan
07. Thillana - Desh - Adhi

It was a day after a good review on Sathya was there in "Dina Tahnthi" (you can see it in Sathya's http://reviewsonsathya.blogspot.com) which had praised Sathya, however directing him to change from Keyboard to any other form of expressing his musical talents viz. vocal music or any instrument like violin, veena, Mandolin etc.

Sathya is in the way to reach his goal and this review is another reason to keep us going in the direction we had planned.

Nungambakkam Cultural Concert 8th Dec'07

It was indeed a concert with the blessings of two of most senior critics who were there to see Sathya performing on the 8th Dec'07. Sathya was performing with same ease as he use to perform normally and this is one of his reason for success. He started off with Mallari and had a good presentation of kalpanaswara in Hamsadwani. Then he performed Diwakarathanujam - a navagraha krithi of Dikshidhar which was indeed appreciated by few rasikas who had listened to him during his earlier performance of the same krithi. They also informed that they could see a great improvement on the performance this time.

The raga alapana for Banthuvarali for Visalakshi was well supported by Raghuraman on violin and also gave his best during his turn. MadavaMamava on Neelabari actually made few people sleep as the timing was also that helped the few available audience to get to a quick nap.

The elaborate alapana on Karaharapriya was followed by good Niraval and Kalapanaswara presentation. Suryanarayanan on mrudhangam was of great support throughout the concert and gave a good thani. He is one of the mrudhangist who performs to the best comfort level of the main artist without disturbing their mood and patterns. Sathya finished the concert with a SindhuBhairavi krithi and had the appreciation of the two good critics of Chennai who were talking to him and giving tips for a long time after the concert. This will sure be of great use to Sathya and hope he gets more and more directions from people like them.

Get to the link http://youtube.com/my_playlists?p=70A4BC1BA1E3D382 for few clipping of the concert.

For audio log on to http://www.esnips.com/web/Nungambakkam-Cultural-Academy-Chennai-8th-Dec07

Thirumoorthy Sangeetha Sabha, Pozhichalur - 07th Dec'07

With this being the second concert for this Music festival in Chennai for Sathya and was also the second time he was performing in this forum, Sathya decided to present a kind of concept concert. He took up Thyagarajar's Pancharathna ragas namely Sri, Gowla, Naatai, Arabi and Varali in that order as major krithis for the day with Hamsanadham and Navarasa Kanada as fillers and ended with krithis on Aberi, Madhyamavathi and Sindhubhairavi. The track four in the audio link has the speech of the Secy of the Sabha and that conveys how the concert was presented by the team of Sathya, Karaikal Venkatasubramaniam - Violin, Thillaisthanam Suriyanarayanan - Mrudhnagam and HariharaSubramaniam - Ghatam.

Sathya was exploring his best on the allapanas and his rendition of Aarabi and Varali got much appreciation. Following is the links for the audio and video samples and you may pls get to the link and enjoy the same.

http://tinyurl.com/26fjgr

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7CF0674F151A50B3

The details of the krithis performed are as follows:

01. Varnam - Sri - Adhi
02. Pranamamyagam - Gowla - Adhi
03. Jaya Jaya - Naatai - Kandachaapu
04. Buntureethikolu - Hamsanadham - Adhi
05. Juthamurare - Aarabi - Rupakam
06. Vandheysadha - NavarasaKaanada - Adi
07. Ka Va Va - Varali - Adhi
08. Maname Ganame - Aberi - Adhi
09. Karpagame - Madhyamavathi - Adhi
10. Chandrasekara - Sindhubhairavi - Ekam

Bengalooru Habba 2007 - Sathya on the 4th Dec'07 at Gayana Samaja.

It was a good oppurtunity for Sathya to have performed for Bungalooru Habba 2007 and he performed at the Gayana Samaj on the 4th Dec'07 along with M. Rajeev on Violin, Thilaisthanam Suriyanaryanan on Mrudhangam and Sri Thirukannapuram J Sowrirajan on Ghatam, Morsing & Konnakol. Sathya started off with Hamsadwani varnam and did raga alapanas for Suddha Dhanyasi, Keeravani, PoorviKalyani and Aberi. Sathya & Rajeev's alapana presentation was well appreciated and so was the kalpana swaras for Hamsadwani varnam, Atana, Poorvikalyani and Aberi krithis. Both Suriyanarayanan and Sowrirajan were enhancing the concert with their rhythm and the thani was earmarked with all the three talents of Sowrirajan coming out with great timing. The concert ended with Bagyadhalakshmi in Madhyamavathi.

There were couple of young audience who wanted to watch Sathya's finger movements and were asked to come and sit behind him for almost half the concert. It was nice to see interest shown by these kids in our traditional music even though, they were in Carnatic on Keyboard concert. One of the organisors who was present gave Sathya and the team compliments with a likely assurance of a concept concert next year. Indeed this says about the success of the presentation. The details of the pieces presented were as follows:

01. Varnam - Hamsadwani -Adhi
02. SriMahaganapathim - Atana - Adhi
03. Narayanan - SudhaDhanyasi - Kandachaapu
04. Balasarasamurali - Keeravani - Adhi
05. Gyanamusakaradha - PoorviKalyani - Rupakam
06. Bajare Manasa - Aberi - Adhi
07. Sarasamuki - GowdaMalhar - Adhi
08. Karedhare - Janasamohini - Adhi
09. Kuraionrumillai - Raagamalika - Adhi
10. Bagyadhalakshmi - Madhyamavathi - Adhi

Here is the link for the sample track http://tinyurl.com/2fl8zl

A good start for the December 2007 Music Festival

It was indeed a great start for Sathya - 1st Dec'07 at Bharat Kalachar for the December Music festival 2007 with a well presented Jugalbandhi with B. Ananthakrishnan - Hindustani vocal, S.J. Arjun Ganesh on Mrudhangam and N. Sundar on Tabla. The team presented 5 pieces in all starting with Hamsadwani followed by Dharbari & Dharbari Kaanada, Yaman & Kalyani, Dhanashree Thillana and rounded off with BagyadhalakshmiBaramma. They presented with both of them taking part in each number without crossing their boundaries and did not perform any individual number. It was also due to the time factor as the concert started little behind the schedule due to the prize distribution function.

Sathya was performing Carnatic on Keyboard and also backed up Ananthakrishnan's Hindustani with Harmonium tone. This in particular was much appreciated as he did not mix up any where. Ananthakrishnan laid hands on the violin for Hamsadwani. The following excerpts form the speeches of Dr. Mrs. YGP and Mr YG Mahendra gives an over all view of the concert.

Pls listen to the tracks and the speech which are not edited except that the order of speech is changed to Mrs YGP, Mr YGM and then self. Mrs YGP appreciated the prowess of Sathya to play both Carnatic while being in lead and back up for Hindustani without mixing. She was all praise for Ananthakrishnan's ability to sing Hindustani vocal as generally he is know as a good violin artist in the music circle. The efforts of Arjun Ganesh and Sundar was also appreciated by her. However she felt that the two artist were too good in their genre of music and it was probably not good to take it in a mixed form. She preferred to see them perform individual concert and this probably is in itself a great success for the artist. She did say that while she prefers to listen them individually, their efforts on date was commendable.

Mr YG Mahendra mentioned that he liked the concept and was in praise for both the artist. Mr YGM was all praise for their excellent control and not mixing up any where any time. He wished them all success and asked them to continue doing this concept maintaining their un mixed presentation keeping their domain clear. He also indicated that to satisfy Mrs YGP two individual concerts would be given next year.

A small video clipping of the presentation: http://youtube.com/watch?v=g1ocjQvdlUY

The audio tracks links are as follows:

01 http://www.esnips.com/doc/abf4a80a-08b4-485e-b5af-68f9a5c63ef6/01_Hamsadwani

02 http://www.esnips.com/doc/a5b9d0ec-b71e-453c-9258-bdc65b770661/02_Dharbari_and_DharbariKaanada

03 http://www.esnips.com/doc/3ec28999-a080-4ef1-9498-1936fcd488ab/03_Yaman_and_Kalyani

04 http://www.esnips.com/doc/c5ee2b63-bddb-4fca-8a98-ad834f1bc5ad/04_Speech_By_Mrs-YGP_Mr-YGMahendra_and_Krishnababu

05 http://www.esnips.com/doc/bd391979-7fba-4eb7-8ac6-7614c62f3f3e/05_Thillana_Geethadhunuku_Dhanashree

06 http://www.esnips.com/doc/91298203-b2a7-469b-9523-a4cf61e622d4/06_BhagyadhalakshmiBaramma_Bowliand_Madhyamavathi

Looking forward to audience strength like this in all the season concerts in all and for Sathya's in particular.