‘Songs for the drowning’ makes a splash

CHENNAI: The Russian Cultural Centre was packed with Carnatic music enthusiasts on Sunday for the fourth season of ‘Awakening’ — a music concert conceptualised by Indian classical and contemporary dancer, Anita Ratnam in co-ordination with pianist, Anil Srinivasan. This year, the season was named ‘Songs for the Drowning’

Every year, Anil collaborates with artists to play music for one-and-a-half hours on a Sunday before Christmas. This year, he was accompanied by vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan and Sumesh Narayanan on mridangam.

“Chennai has been amazing to me in every way. I wanted to give back something to it and so, I curated this event in 2014. It is a known fact that Chennaiites savour music more than anything else. In this concert, we give a contemporary touch to Carnatic music,” said Anita.

Sharing that 50 per cent of the audience flew in from the United States, she said, “The best part about the concert is the audience. It is not the traditional Carnatic music, but a little tweaked and innovative version of it. The audience enjoyed the music a lot.”

K Prasanna, who came to the concert, said that this was the first concert that he attended this Margazhi as he flew down from the US only a day before. “It is blissful to see how Carnatic musicians are adapting to the contemporary times without disturbing the history at all,” he said.

ABOUT ‘AWAKENING’
It is a music concert conceptualised by Indian classical and contemporary dancer, Anita Ratnam in co-ordination with pianist, Anil Srinivasan. This year, the season was named ‘Songs for the Drowning.’