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Prasant’s blog - Official blog of Carnatic saxophonist/composer Prasant Radhakrishnan

Carnatic saxophone lecture and concert in San Francisco 4/22 and 4/23

Please join me at the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco for an interactive lecture demonstration and concert this week! This is the second performance as part of my artist residency there. The first was VidyA on March 5th. We will have more performances and other events there, so stay tuned.

On Thursday, April 22, there will be a brief interactive lecture about Carnatic music and the saxophone. Here is the description:

Indian classical saxophonist Prasant Radhakrishnan presents an interactive lecture-demonstration on Carnatic (South Indian classical) music, with special focus on the tradition’s use of the saxophone.

Audience members will learn about the cultural context of Carnatic music and, to enhance their listening experience, some of its technical aspects. Prasant will demonstrate many of the concepts on the saxophone, as well as perform entire pieces. As a very special bonus, attendees will receive a complimentary copy of one of Prasant's Carnatic saxophone CDs!

$15 admission. Interactive lecture 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm.

On Friday, April 23, we will present a Carnatic classical concert on saxophone and mridangam. I will be accompanied by Anantha R. Krishnan on mridangam. He is a fantastic musician and definitely worth watching. Those of you who are Carnatic music fans can look forward to hearing one or two compositions you may not have heard on saxophone yet. Here is the description from the Red Poppy website.

Prasant Radhakrishnan, founder of the critically acclaimed Carnatic jazz group VidyA, has been traveling the world playing saxophone in the traditional South Indian Carnatic classical and jazz styles since 1998. Prasant began developing his music over the course of nearly a decade of intensive musical training in India, as the foremost disciple of Carnatic saxophone pioneer “Padmashri” Dr. Kadri Gopalnath. He soon, however, began to make his own innovations to this unique style.
 
Prasant has performed in several prestigious Carnatic music venues with the most discerning and senior-level accompanying artists in the field. He is blessed with a rich, vocalized tone which allows the saxophone to imitate the human singing voice. Prasant’s music has been regularly highlighted in world-class publications such as The Hindu, the SF Chronicle and India Today magazine.
 
Prasant is a 2010 resident artist at the Red Poppy Art House and the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, as well as a recipient of a Zellerbach Foundation grant to further develop original compositions combining Carnatic music and jazz. Prasant’s continued exposure to the Carnatic and jazz traditions led him to create VidyA, an ensemble that seamlessly combines both genres. VidyA has been featured at venues such as SFJazz, San Jose Jazz, Yoshi’s and the Asian American Film Festival, and has received enthusiastic critical acclaim.
 
“[A] sweet melody all the way.” —The Hindu
www.vidyamusic.com
http://blog.prasantmusic.com

$15 admission. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show at 8:00 pm.

I hope to see you there. As usual, please feel free to spread the word.

Here is a picture of us tuning up at a concert we did two years ago at the Sangati Center in SF.

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Livestrong to...phanikiran?

Its ok Mr. Armstrong, i will probably still donate something. But Phanikiran?

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Arunachala

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VidyA at SADHANA conference, Julia Morgan Hall and more

Please join us for a wonderful day of activities Thursday, April 1 courtesy of the SADHANA foundation. Please buy tickets to support this full day of events. I will be participating in a panel discussion in the afternoon and VidyA will be performing in the evening after Srinivas Reddy and New Directions.

Here is the program below and link here http://www.sadhanafoundation.org/conference.html:

First Annual SADHANA Conference 2010
Tradition as Innovation - South Asian Classical Music in the Next Decade
UC Berkeley and The Julia Morgan - Berkeley, CA, April 1, 2010

LECTURE & DISCUSSION - Townsend Center, Gabelle Room - 1pm-3:30pm

          Welcome - Alexander von Rospatt, Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies

          Opening Remarks - Srinivas Reddy, UC Berkeley/SADHANA Foundation

CHATUR PANDIT MEMORIAL LECTURE - Pandit Partha Chatterjee
          "South Asian Classical Music in the 20th Century - A Practitioner's Perspective"

Panel Discussion - moderated by Partha Chatterjee and Srinivas Reddy
          Gautam Tejas Ganeshan (Sangati Center)
          Prasant Radhakrishnan (Vidya)
          Sameer Gupta (Namaskar)

FILM SCREENING - The Julia Morgan, 5pm-7:30pm

          "That Which Colors the Mind" - Pt. Nikhil Banerjee documentary
          A Conversation with filmmaker Steven Baigel

PERFORMANCE - The Julia Morgan, 8pm-10:30pm

          Introduction - "Listening to South Asian Classical Music"

          Sitar and Tabla - Srinivas Reddy and Michael Lewis
          New Directions - Gautam Tejas Ganeshan and Anantha R. Krishnan
          VidyA - Prasant Radhakrishnan, Sameer Gupta and David Ewell


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Filed under  //   Concerts  

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NYC east coast visit

I had a short but fun visit to nyc on Tuesday. I had a concert at the Hudson Guild with Sameer Gupta's new group Namaskar. It featured Sameer, Marc Cary, Arun Ramamurthy, Neil Murghai, Rashaan Carter(?) and myself. It was a nice evening of music and a great chance to hear everyone. The group has a really interesting vibe with the dense instrumentation. Overall the visit kind of tempted me to spend more time in nyc in the future -- what do you think?

Earlier in the day I headed over to Roberto's Winds near times square on Howard's recommendation. Great place, Roberto and Tony were great. I tried out some horns/mouthpieces etc. and got some minor repairs -- I ended up trying out Roberto's special ligature and picked up a couple.

The surprising part was running into jazz saxophone master James Carter. He was rehearsing on the other floor and came in for a peek. What a warm human being he was. I played a little bhairavi ragam for him since I already had my instrument out. It was fun.

I also got to spend some quality time with my sister, brother in-law and my 8 month old niece in Boston.

Now its back to the bay area for a VidyA performance April 1 at the SADHANA conference in Berkeley and April 3 solo at the red poppy mapp show. I will send out more details.

See you soon!

   
Click here to download:
NYC_east_coast_visit.zip (1409 KB)

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Kamalambike - bliss.

02 Kamalambike - Thodi by D. K. Jayaraman  
(download)

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. Here is Muthuswamy Dikshitar's magical "Kamalambike" in Todi ragam. If you are interested in the meaning, there are many websites that have it. 

D.K. Jayaraman with disciples brings this to life for us everyday folks. Don't be surprised if you are swept up in akhandaika rasa. Will hopefully post more regularly soon. Hope you are all well.

Lyrics:
pallavi

kamalAmbikE AshritakalpalatikE caNDikE
kamanIyAruNAMshukE karavidhRta shukE mAmava

anupallavi

kamalAsanAdi pUjita kamalapatE bahuvaradE
kamalAlaya tIrthavaibhavE shivE karuNArNavE

caraNaM

sakala lOkanAyikE saHNgItarasikE
sukavitva pradAyikE sundari gatamAyikE
vikaLEbaramuktidAnanipuNE aghaharaNE
viyadAdi bhUtakiraNE vinOdacaraNE aruNE
sakaLEguruguhakaraNE sadAshivAntahkaraNE
akacaTatapAdivarNE akhaNDaikarasa pUrNE

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On KALX 90.7 Feb 14 at 12pm

Just a heads up, I will be doing an interview and also sharing a playlist on KALX Berkeley 90.7 tomorrow (February 14) from 12 to 1pm. So tune into 90.7 and listen in! Details at http://kalx.berkeley.edu/

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Ramana Maharishi

To remember:

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Thanks for being a part of 100% for Haiti Relief at prasantmusic.com

Well, now that February 1st midnight has come and gone, the first charity push on the new prasantmusic.com is now over. In case you don't know what I am referring to, check this post. I gave myself a day to reflect before posting.

I want to thank all of those that took part in purchasing any kind of music at http://music.prasantmusic.com during this period. All of that money will be donated to Red Cross, which will of course go to Haiti relief efforts. I also want to thank those of you who helped publicize it by doing things like "retweeting" or posting or "liking" on facebook and e-mailing links to friends. You may not realize it, but little things like this can make a big difference. 

In the end it was a small group of people who came through and participated, and the amount raised wasn't much, but big things are always started by small groups of people. Every little bit counts. Thus, I remain optimistic.

There are many other causes and charities that will need our help in the future, so this is just the first of many other similar events I am planning. 

If you have any feedback about this or would like to help out, feel free to let me know. 

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Weekend concerts recapped...and pictured.

Hello everyone, I hope this post finds you well in this first week of February. Hopefully everyone has got the iPad frenzy out of their system by now.

Just a quick recap of this weekend's two concerts here in the Bay Area. Thanks to Nishanth Chandran (violin) and Nirmal Narayan (mridangam) for coming up for these concerts. I had played with Nishanth and Nirmal on separate occasions and they had played together, but never all 3 of us. It was great playing together finally. They are both incredibly talented artists, if you have not heard them, I would suggest you check them out. 

Both concerts were in intimate settings -- one was a chamber concert in Cupertino on Saturday January 30, courtesy of Sekhar Sarukkai and family. A big thanks to them for their generosity in hosting live music. There was a very warm audience and we enjoyed playing. We also enjoyed some delicious home-made food. The same goes for the second concert held on Sunday at the Sangati Center in San Francisco. Gautam Ganesan who heads up the Sangati Center is also now a vocalist, so check him out too. Here are a few pics, mostly of the Sangati Center date.

Thanks for listening and sharing....and reading this.

                 
Click here to download:
Weekend_concerts_recapped...an.zip (22410 KB)

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