Umayalpuram Sivaraman & Chennai Sangamam 2009

Sangeetha Sangamam, the name that was given to the programme by Umayalpuram Sivaraman and his ensemble. Chennai Sangamam 2009 had concerts of top musicians in the south Chennai parks, like Sudha Ragunathan, Bombay Jayshree, Ranjani Gayathri, Sanjay Subramanyan etc.

But this year's highlight was Umayalpuram Sivaraman and his ensemble. It had senior artistes on percussion and other instruments on one side and budding musician like Bharat Sunder and two more boys on vocal on the other side. Here is a report on this programme that took place at Nageswara Rao Park, Mylapore, on the 13th of January, 2009.

Umayalpuram's beat filled the ambiance and reverberated through the pathway around the chess square. Sri. M.A.Sundaresan gave excellent support in violin and the songs literally poured out in a pleasant stream from his bows.

The programme was titled Sangeetha Sangamam and so had both classical and folk songs.

The first two songs were pure folklore and rendered well by the boys. Then there was the fast number Raghuvamsa Sudha, in raga Kathanakuthuhalam. Then came a song which had pallavi 'Eru mayil yeru', on Muruga in Tamil, next was 'Uyyalalugaviah', by Saint Thyagaraja in Telugu, a lullaby for Rama and the final charanam was again in Tamil 'En kanne kannurangu', all in the raga Nilambari. The blend was very smooth. Similarly 'Ramanukku Mannan' and 'Karunalaya nidhuiye' both in raga Hindolam, were combined and given as one single rendation. 'Muladhara murthe' in Hamsadwani followed with swift phrases.



I take a paragraph break here to tell that at this point one VVIP visitor entered. Yes, your guess is right. Madam Kanimozhi, MP and one of the organisers of Chennai Sangamam came and took her seat on the lawn along with her friends. The main song 'Tamizhai Kalvimozhiyakku' in raga Hamsadwani was dealt in detail by all the three boys adding kalpana swaras. There was also a thaniavarthanam by all the accompaniments. Umayal Sir stole the show and the crowd applauded heartily.



'Vallikanavan Perai' Kavadichindu was enjoyable. Age old song 'Adupambe' was handled in violin by Sri.Sundaresan. The next was the English note and the boys were adept in humming in a soft low pitch for the same

The finale was the song 'Shanthi nilava Vendum' followed by "Vazhiya Senthamizh'.

The rasikas present that day were mostly people from the neighbourhood and not the regulars to music sabhas. But they sat through the entire show and enjoyed the performance in toto.

You may also enjoy the two small video clippings given below.

The artistes of Sangeetha Sangamam:
Mridangam :Sri. Umayalpuram K.Sivaraman
Violin : Sri. M.A. Sundaresan
Ghatam : Sri. Pudukkotai Ramesh
Kamjira : Sri. Sri Sundar Kumar
Morsingh : Sri. A.S.Krishnan
Special Effects : Sri. Murali
Vocal 1 : Sri. K.Bharat Sunder
Vocal 2 : Sri. Nanganallur Ravishankar
Vocal 3 : Sri. Parur Ananthakrishnan