Five years after London Olympics, Staccato enters the Sabha scene

CHENNAI: Finding an audience of different age groups enjoying a similar genre of music can sometimes be rare. But Staccato, the contemporary classical band, achieved exactly that! Making everyone in the crowd swoon to their tunes, Staccato debuted in the Sabha music category in the city on Friday.

Performing live as part of the 22nd annual music festival by the Mylapore Arts Academy, the band — Gowtham Bharadwaj V and Keerthana Vaidyanathan (vocals), RH Vikram (arrangements & keys), Raghavasimhan Sankaranarayanan (violin), Shallu Varun (bass), Abinandan R (guitars), Saurabh Joshi (tabla & ethnic percussions) and Ela (drums) — presented some contemporary classical and experimental music.

“We have chosen some traditional carnatic compositions and given it a contemporary touch to it. We’re really excited about performing here, as this is our first stage performing for the Sabha,” said Gowtham.

The band which has been performing for several cultural events, corporate gigs and music festivals, was also the only Indian band among 10,000 others from across the globe to be selected to play at the 2012 London Olympics, headed by Danny Boyle.

Sticking to traditional roots and yet taking influences from other genres such as blues, Arabian music and film songs of AR Rahman, Ilaiyaraja and MS Viswanathan, Staccato adds it’s own contemporary flavour to each of the song.

With each band member from different musical backgrounds, the band creates magic with their ragas, thalas and bhavas. Bhor bhaye, Krishna nee begane, and Etho are some of their popular songs.