Violin master and composer L Subramaniam All is set for the annual Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival to take place in Chennai this weekend. This year, the focus of the three-day festival will be on the instrumentalist, who shares and elaborates on what the festival means to him and what music lovers can expect…
“MS lights up lights and sings at first music festival”
The festival started on January 11, 1992, which was the birthday of my father V Lakshminarayana. We asked Ms. Subrakshmi to light lamps and sing prayer songs. We then had Vedic chanting, nadaswaram and a series of concerts.
What’s in store for this year…
This year, we are organizing a three-day instrumental music festival in collaboration with Rasika Ranjani Sabha. On December 20, we will have nadaswaram by Vijay Karthikeyan and Prakash Ilaiyaraja, and santoor-mandolin jugalbandi by Satish Vyas and U Rajesh. Now, the whole family is involved. My son Ambi will be performing a solo. My wife Kavita is the artistic director of the event. Performances by some young artistes – JA Jayant (flute), C Charulatha (veena), Indrayuddh Majumdar (sarod) and SaPa Ensemble will be performed on December 21.
On December 22, there will be dances – Kathak by Meghranjani Medhi and Bharatanatyam by Nandini Jayakumar – followed by jugalbandi between me and Amjad Ali Khan saab. He will receive the Lakshminarayana International Award 2024.
The idea was to hold concerts only in Chennai, but within a few years, the festival attracted a lot of attention in other parts of India and we started holding concerts across the country. This in turn sparked interest outside India. Currently, we have held this event in more than 25 countries and more than 90 cities around the world. We also work with popular music festivals such as WOMADelaide, Chicago World Music Festival and Trans-Siberian Music Festival, and with Indian artists such as Bismillah Khan, Pt Jasraj and Amjad Ali Khan.
“Artists from all over India on the same stage”
We also produce shows like ‘Visions of India’, which features different genres of music. Listening to these words, one can almost imagine the whole of India. We showcased artists of different traditions on the same stage, from Bengali folk music to Ghazal of Pankaj Udhas, performances by Balamuralikrishna ji carnatic musicGangubai Hangal ji singing Hindustani, my wife Kavita singing Bollywood, our daughter Bindu singing western works, Wadali Brothers etc. In another project, Violin for Peace, we combine different styles of violin playing and perform them around the world.
“Promoting instrumental music is very important”
Initially it was all vocal, then orchestral. This became popular because it broke the challenge of language barriers. There are many instrumental music festivals around the world, and instrumentalists are well promoted. But here, especially in the South, if we don’t focus on instrumentalists, slowly we won’t be represented in instrumental music festivals globally and South Indian music will regress. Therefore, it is also important to promote them.
Over the past few years, we started a unique instrumental music festival because I felt that this kind of music focus was not evident in Chennai. Unless talented young instrumentalists are promoted, we will not have TR Mahalingam or Rajarathinam Pillai or U Shrinivas anymore.
