This Sunday, I am performing a Carnatic concert at a newly opened hall in Chennai called Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Memorial Hall. The concert starts at 7pm sharp and is open to the public.

The lineup will include:

Prasant Radhakrishnan: Saxophone
B.U. Ganeshprasad: Violin
Trichur Narendran: Mridangam
V. Suresh: Ghatam
You can get complimentary passes:

• Contact the sponsor of the event: info@gatsby.in with number of tickets required. Or call (044) 28331677. You can also get passes at the Raymonds outlet in Nungambakkam.
  
• Contact the hall at info@sirmuthamemorial.com

The hall is located at:  

Shenston Park, 13/1 Harrington Road
Chetput, Chennai 600031 Tamil Nadu 

It is on the Lady Andal School premises. If you know anyone in Chennai, tell them to come!

Labels: concerts, travel

Please note: This post has nothing to do with music. With that out of the way...

I am writing from Changi Airport in Singapore. I am on my way to India for a five week trip for some intensive practice/study and also some concerts around South India. I think I've been to this airport countless times now. I am in the unfortunate position of having over an eight hour layover in the middle of the night Singapore time. With the transit hotels overbooked, there really was nothing to do here except wait and endure the 40 minutes bad music that loops over the airport speakers.

Anyways, this flight was especially long. Over 11 hours to stop in Seoul, Korea. The usual antics ensued, beginning with some Berkeley students wanting me to switch seats so they could be together. I soon found myself in the middle seat of the middle section, you know, the worst seat on the entire plane, next to some kids gyrating nonstop and calling for their mommy in an extremely high decibel level.

Due to lack of sleep I watched more movies than I ever have in a given period...such as Warlords, Juno, Horton Hears A Who and even Japanese film "Smilers," a heartwarming tale about an over enthusiastic tap dancer with a degree in child psychology who must lead a junior league hockey team in Hokkaido to the championships in order the win his girflfriend's hand in marriage (with a good dose of McDonald's product placement). There were other movies too, but I wont get into it.

There was a 90 minute layover in Seoul. In the airport I noticed a funny trend. Nearly all of the younger Korean couples had coordinated or sometimes exactly matching outfits. I spotted at least five such couples at the same gate. I am not one to notice clothing, but it was so glaringly obvious, and actually a bit hilarious. I wonder if that trend will ever make it the U.S.? Matching couples clothes! Anyways, I'm probably the last person to notice this...

I spent some time in a small Korea Culture Museum they had there. Not bad.

I'll leave you with two thoughts:

1. Why is it that the majority of passengers jump up and stand in a line before boarding even when its not  yet time to board and it wont help them get on the plane faster anyway?

2. Singapore "Changi" airport advertises all over that they have FREE wireless surfing. Well, from what I could see its not free -- you need to have one of those airport wireless providers to login. I might be wrong, but you will need to use the ethernet stations located around the airport.


Have a great holiday weekend!

Labels: random, travel

This almost two months overdue, but I thought I would give you a quick post about a concert at Sangati Center on May 3rd, 2008.

The concert featured myself on saxophone, Ajay Narasimha on Violin and Anantha R. Krishnan on Mridungam. It was great to play with both of these artists. I had played with Ajay before and it was the first time playing with Anantha, who in case you did not know, is the grandson of the legendary mridangam vidwan Palghat Raghu. As he jokingly said before the concert, "that doesn't mean I play well." But of course, he played wonderfully, and we all had a good time.

I am looking forward to performing together again.
 
Here are a couple photos and excerpt videos from the concert, with more to come. Full photoset on flickr here.









I still have news to tell you about VidyA. I am off to India for some personal practice time and a few concerts. I will try to get in a few posts while I am there.

Labels: concerts, photos