Dubai: The Emirates Theatre, Dubai, reverberated with mellifluous music on Friday, March 13, as 200 ardent students of music rendered several compositions curated by the legendary Indian violinist and vocal singer R.K. Shriramkumar.
The auditorium at Umm Suqeim was packed to capacity with Carnatic music lovers and connoisseurs for Guru Vandanam to 14th Century composer Purandaradasa, who has made significant and legendary contributions to Carnatic music.
Guru Vandanam in Sanskrit and other Indian languages means ‘Reverence for the Teacher’.
Shriramkumar supported by percussionists Sriram Subbaraman on mridangam and Kumar Sitaraman on ghatam along with Amruth Kumar on morsing paid a musical tribute to Purandaradasa. They regaled the audience with several compositions of the ‘Pitamaha’(grandfather) of South Indian classical music. Towards the end of the show, the main instrumentalist gave way for the accompanying artistes for a challenging thani avarthanam.
In simple terms, ‘thani’ means rhythm and ‘avarthanam’ is repetition. Normally the mridangist starts the thani avartanam and here Subbaraman set the tone for an enoyable fare with Sitaraman on ghatam (clay pot) and Amruth Kumar on Morsing, who ably took the opportunity to make the evening memorable.
The three-hour programme was brought by Mohana and presented by SL Events.
