A medley of classical arts

CHENNAI : The Sivananda Festival of Music is an annual event hosted by The Temple of Fine Arts International (TFA), Sivashantha Trust and Annalakshmi Restaurant. With a mission to use arts as a medium, uplift mankind and the society, the festival is back this year and will see eminent artists such as Ustad Usman Khan, OS Arun and Umesh Shetty (with  TFA Inner Space Dance group). We talk to the artists to find out about their journey and fondest memories, as they prepare for their performance on April 8.

Sitar Vidwan — Ustad Usman Khan
As a child Ustad Usman Khan was  always surrounded by music. Coming from a family of musicians, he was taught to play the sitar by his father and grandfather, at a very young age. Every day, he would come back from school and sit down with his father for his lessons. “My father would ask me to observe how he taught other students, and force me to memorise it. More than a father, he was my guru,” he says. His father was a strict teacher.

 “I am serious when it comes to discipline. I don’t make any compromises. But I am not as strict as my father.” He gave his first stage performance at the  age of nine for All India Radio (AIR). Usman Khan says that it was special for him, because the photo of him playing was printed on the front page of the AIR’s magazine. We are in an age where musicians are turning to fusion and exploring different genres of music. They even fuse Indian and Western music. “There is a lot of scope for music today. Musicians are being creative, exploring and experimenting a lot. I have also composed with western musicians on Indian ragas, almost 20 years ago,” he shares. The important point is there should be some purpose in the music and the aesthetics shouldn’t be lost in the

process.

Vocal master — OS Arun
In his intial days, OS Arun wasn’t encouraged to take up music as a career, because his parents were worried about his future. But he still went ahead and worked hard towards it. Arun learned under his father and he calls him a very sincere and devoted guru who would explain the meaning of the song and raga. “My father taught his students at home and there was constant exchange of musical knowledge. So I grew up around music. More than formal training, I picked up just by listening, and that made a lot of difference,” he shares. From devotional songs to Carnatic and fusion, Arun has sung in different genres and platforms. The shift from one genre to another was easy because of his upbringing in New Delhi, which helped break the language barrier, and making pronunciations clearer.

“My training in Carnatic music and having an open mind helped me explore different genres. That’s the power of Carnatic music. It helps you understand and adapt other genres well,” he says. His performance in 1986 in Dublin, is very close to his heart. He got a four minute-long standing ovation from the audience. “It was the finale of a month-long tour and the manager came up to me, handed over a cassette, and asked me to reproduce the song. I was reluctant initially but did it anyway. It was the popular Ireland national song Oh Danny Boy.”

Versatile dancer — Umesh Shetty
Born into a family of dancers, Umesh Shetty is not sure if he chose dance or dance chose him. “Swamiji (Guru, HH Swami Shantanand Saraswati) and my father Gopal Shetty were instrumental in igniting that passion within me. I am happy that I am in the space that I am today,” he says. Umesh started training at the Temple of Fine Arts (TFA), Malaysia since its inception in 1981. He then trained in multiple styles and techniques of Indian art forms and contemporary dance. Was it challenging to learn all these different dance forms? “Art is a never-ending journey and it is impossible to learn it all. As long as there is passion to learn, it becomes a joy and not a challenge. Although all these dance forms come under the same umbrella, I feel that the differences are only the external form. The content (intention/expression) remains the same. To me, dance is an expression of the joyous spirit through the mind and body” he says. 

Umesh will perform with his dance group — The TFA Inner Space Dance (ISD), the performing wing of TFA. He will doia repertoire consisting Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak and Contemporary. “ISD began in 2005 under the guidance of Swamiji. We will be presenting Inner Space Dance Conversations, an idea where a collection of bodies is able to masterfully communicate in a multitude of dance forms — a type of conversation that flows from and occurs at the Inner Space” he explains.