Further information on Queen’s Birthday Party in Chennai – 18 February

Remarks by Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai at the Queen’s Birthday Party, Thursday 18 February 2016

Wow.

Many thanks to HighKicks, Stagefright, Blessing Chimanga and band, DJ Eddie, and the amazing Violin Sisters – Nandini and Dr Lalitha. Please join me in thanking them……

Friends, Indians, Countrymen, lend me your ears. It’s hard to believe that just a couple of months ago, this city was starting to recover from a horrible calamity. The way in which this city came together reminds me strongly of the Horace quotation ‘In adversity those talents are called forth which are concealed by prosperity’. It is those talents that will drive this state forward.

2015 was a big year for UK and India. Last November, we welcomed Prime Minister Modi to the UK. That visit resulted in over £9 billion of business deals and built on the long traditional links between our two countries, including the one and a half million Indian diaspora. Her Majesty spoke of ‘an enhanced partnership’, with India a key government priority. Our Prime Ministers also discussed how we could work together for global prosperity and security, and on delivering Prime Minister Modi’s vision for India, by transforming its economy, building 100 smart cities, skilling 500 million young people, providing around the clock electricity for all; building 10,000 km of roads. These are massive projects. Britain will help to transform this vision into a reality, including by leveraging the strengths of the UK financial markets. In Prime Minister Modi’s words, ‘after James Bond, Brooke Bond we go to Rupee Bond!’

We were proud to support the Tamil Nadu government as partner country at the Global Investors Meet in September. UK companies did significant business – OPG signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government worth £2.4 billion. And several UK companies signed a further £30 million worth of MoUs and commercial deals. This year we celebrate the fact that 64 years ago on 6 February, Queen Elizabeth acceded to the British throne. In September, she overtook Queen Victoria as the UK’s longest reigning monarch. And in a couple of short months, she will celebrate her 90th birthday. This is an extraordinary achievement for a monarch and her Consort Prince Philip who have dedicated their lives to service for the British Crown, including as the Head of the Commonwealth. May I ask you to please join me in raising a toast to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

23rd April marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, playwright, poet and actor. The language of Shakespeare is the language of the world. English is the most widely spoken language on the planet, and the language of choice in business, diplomacy, science, education, IT and entertainment. 2 billion people will be studying English by 2020. Look out for a range of events across India throughout the year.

Today is our opportunity to thank all of you: our friends and partners that have helped us strengthen what is already a powerful partnership. So on behalf of the UK team here – not just the BDHC but; our sister organisation the British Council which reaches places we can’t: and the UK companies – including our generous sponsors – that employ in excess of 50000 people in Chennai alone, and are as much Ambassadors for the UK as we are.

Thank you: we are proud to work with you.

We hope you enjoy our carefully selected British Indian fare tonight including the most popular UK dish, the exalted chicken tikka masala and – of course – fish and chips. I will end with another quote from the Bard. ‘And to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour’. I enjoin you all to have a very merry evening!

Thank you

The British Deputy High Commissioner Chennai, Bharat Joshi hosted the Queen’s Birthday Party on 18 February 2016. This year is special because UK also celebrates HM Queen Elizabeth as the longest reigning Monarch, and marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, playwright, poet and actor. Exciting strands marked this event for Chennai’s business, academic, cultural and civil society guests, and will showcase the Best of Britain.

Highlights:

• Stagefright, an innovative theatre group, “re-imagined” Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, with a tongue-in-cheek twist
• High Kicks, Chennai’s all-girls contemporary dance crew will perform a highly-stylised dance piece on the James Bond theme
• “Violin Sisters”, Kalaimamani Dr M Lalitha and Kaliamamani M Nandini played the Indian and British national anthems
• Blessing Chimanga and Band, a popular live band from Zimbabwe and DJ Eddie from Exodus played a range of popular music

Background on performers

• Stagefright Productions:

A Chennai-based theatre and music company, led by Freddy Koikaran, a theatre professional with over 25 years of stage experience. Starting with the musical “Grease” in 2004, Stagefright has staged over 30 different productions in music and theatre across South India.

• High Kicks:

Dance on Bond Theme: An all-girls dance contemporary dance ensemble created by Aparna Nagesh. They have represented India at the Commonwealth Youth Dance Fest in 2014 in Glasgow.

• The Violin Sisters:

Dr M Lalitha and M Nandini are Fulbright and Charles Wallace Trust Fellows in performing arts. The only female duo in Asia to perform World music, South Indian classical, fusion and Western classical at Le Mauricien.

• Blessing Chimanga and band:

A 24-year old talented musician who plays the Drums, Marimba and Percussion. He is also a music director, arranger, songwriter and singer. Blessing has played with many musicians in the UK and internationally.

• DJ Eddie, Exodus:

Exodus started and founded by Edison Prithiviraj focuses on music festivals such as “Global Isai Festival”, “Madras Jazz Festival”, “Himalayan Blues Festival” and “October Music Festival”. Exodus also promotes Artists / Bands & DJ’s and their music by organizing music workshops and concerts.

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https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/2015-was-a-big-year-for-uk-and-india

Counterflows Festival 2016: The Carnatic Music Ensemble

April 10, 2016

In an exciting collaboration for the Classical arts, EarthSync has partnered with AC Projects – producers of the Counterflows Festival in Glasgow, UK – to showcase the Carnatic Music Ensemble. Featured in the ensemble is violin virtuoso Dr M. Lalitha Kalaimamani and her guru and mother – vocalist Smt. Subbulakshmi Muthuswamy, marking the first time in the festival’s history that South Indian Carnatic music will be showcased at the prestigious event. The festival, now in its fifth edition, is a tribute to experimental art, music and culture in all its colourful splendour.

“This is so special for me, being able to share Carnatic music of South India – the music of my homeland,” Dr. Lalitha told IndiEarth before her performance, “Very often when international audiences think of Indian music, the first thing that comes to mind is North Indian Hindustani Classical. I do believe God has sent me here to share this music, and I am honoured to fulfil this purpose”.

For Lalitha, music has has been part of her very being even before she was born, hailing from a prestigious lineage of Classical musicians. She has also garnered widespread critical acclaim for her performances around the world with sister and fellow violinist Nandini Kalaimamani. “My mother used to play music to my sister and I when we were in her womb” she laughs, “so that’s how music started for me, and that’s how I remember my childhood. My grandfather was my first Guru, and then my mother, and both of them were very strict! You couldn’t take them for granted, and I certainly couldn’t be playful”.

Years later, Lalitha is grateful for the discipline those initial years of mentorship  instilled in her and her music. “I wake up early in the morning between 3:30 – 4am to practice – the early morning hours before dawn are the best time. Practice is part of me, just like how I eat every day, I practice. Even when I’m not practicing, in my mind I’ll be working on music, mentally rehearsing a krithi, or working out a rhythmic pattern, sometimes at night I don’t get sleep because I keep working!”

At the Counterflows Festival this year, Lalitha and her mother will showcase a blend of Carnatic vocal and violin compositions, accompanied by the mridangamand morsing. Their special bond extends beyond the conventional mother daughter relationship, to that of guru and disciple, teacher and student. “My mother is one of my greatest inspirations” says Lalitha proudly, “we used to rendervarnams in 4 to 5 grades of tempo, it’s very difficult but it’s a specialty of my family. When I was just learning the concept I used to get depressed because it’s not easy, you need to practice! My mother used to quote stories from Napoleon and Alexander The Great, stories about not giving up and returning to the battlefield. She inspired me to keep going”.

This collaborative effort of AC Projects and EarthSync is aimed at fostering dialogue between contemporary UK based performers and Carnatic musicians, while providing more international platforms for the music and culture of South India. Both AC Projects and EarthSync share the desire to support these traditions of music, providing avenues for it to be recognized by the contemporary music scene as a way to help save some of these traditions from vanishing.

Electronic music pioneer and artist Mark Fell will explore possible ways to collaborate with musicians from the tradition, examining the systems and processes in the context of his digital practice. Mark will attend Counterflows to begin the dialogue with The Carnatic Music Ensemble.

For more details on the Counterflows Festival, visit the website: http://counterflows.com/

Dr. Lalitha Muthuswamy (right), a renowned violinist, became the first #Carnatic musician to play at the “Counterflows Festival” in Glasgow, Scotland with her mother and teacher Mrs. Subbulakshmi Muthuswamy. A collaborative effort of EarthSync (official) and EarthSync and AC Projects, South Indian Carnatic music was showcased for the first time in the history of this festival.

Dr. Muthuswamy is a two-time recipient of the#Fulbright Award to the U.S.

Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music celebrates Spring 2016 Recital Students were felicitated by Mr. James Vasanthan, eminent Music Director during the Graduation ceremony Chennai, 17 th May, 2016: Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, Asia’s Premier institute for Music education, today celebrated the successful completion of the spring 2016 Semester. Eminent Music Director, James Vasanthan presided over the function as the Special Guest for the evening and awarded certificates to over 20 students.Ms. Anusha Ramasubramoney was awarded the General Excellence Scholarship for the

Spring 2016 semester. The ceremony witnessed opening performance by Mr. Priyankar Saikia who will be transferring credits to reputable McNally Smith College upon graduation.
The evening was filled with exciting performances of the graduating batch in collaboration with the international faculty line-up. The ceremony ended with special spring 2016 faculty performance showcase. Apart from regular classes, the spring 2016 semester at SAM had students and faculty performing full-house concerts at prestigious venues and received accolades of appreciation. The semester also had a series of workshop in music production and performance throughout the term by eminent global musicians.Swarnabhoomi Academic Institutions (SAI): Swarnabhoomi Academic Institutions (SAI)is a Company registered under Section 25 of Companies Act, 1956.  It is an initiative by the promoters of MARG Limited, one of India’s fastest growing infrastructure companies.  It is an education initiative aimed at connecting the industry with academia while shaping young minds to create a knowledge-based society and bringing about profound harmony and prosperity At present the following   institutions is operational under the purview of SAI  Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM)  MARG Institute of Design & Architecture Swarnabhoomi (MIDAS)  MARG NavajyothiVidyalaya (MNV) The institutions are located at MARG Swarnabhoomi, off the scenic ECR near Kalpakkam.

 

http://www.abinayatv.com/students-were-felicitated-by-mr-james-vasanthan-eminent-music-director-during-the-graduation-ceremony/

Siblings on song

http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/siblings-on-song/article8309832.ece?secpage=true&secname=entertainment

It was a double delight for lovers of Carnatic music in New Delhi this past week.

At a time when Carnatic instrumental concerts in traditional formats are rare events in the Capital, it was heartening to see two different organisations hosting duet violin concerts of two pairs of siblings on successive days recently.

While Sunaad featured the siblings Mysore M. Nagaraj and Dr. M. Manjunath on the second day of their festival titled “Sangamam 2016”, the big ticket music sabha, the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha in association with Team Telugu Bhawan featured Dr. M. Lalitha and M. Nandhini on the first day of its Tyagaraja Music and Dance Festival.

While the former festival was spread across three days, the latter was a four day affair. Both the siblings through years of hard work and experience in the field, which became evident no sooner they started playing, presented a delectable renderings. The brothers in their concert of about two hours presented five items in all, including a ragam-tanam-pallavi.

While packing as many as nine items in their concert of around the same time, the sisters struck to the festival’s theme and made it an “all Tyagaraja compositions concert”. While Nagaraj-Munjunath duo started their concert with a slow tempo composition of Muthuswami Dikshidar, “Akilandeswari” in raga Dwijawanti in a riveting tempo, Lalitha-Nandhini duo started with a sparkling Tyagaraja’s “Raghunayaka” in raga Hamsadhwani. Both the siblings introduced creative swara formats for the opening piece itself, bringing to fore their depth in creativity at the very outset.

While the brothers took up Tyagaraja’s “Manasu nilpa” in raga Abhogi for detailed rendition before embarking on the central item, the sisters took up “Nadupai” in raga Madhyamavathi and “Varanarada” in Vijayasri. The ragam-tanam-pallavi of Nagaraj-Manjunath duo was in raga Shanmukhapriya and the pallavi “Sankari vasankari sivasankari sakalaloka janani” was composed in adi tala. The siblings together delineated the ragas – Shanmukhapriya here in this session and Abhogi earlier – in turns. The fast passages, particularly using notes in higher octave, though brought out the mastery of the duo in handling the instrument. One felt that they were traversing to the “point of no return” region.

The duo earlier recited Muthuswami Dikshidar’s “Srivaralakshmi” in Sriragam in an enchanting manner. In the case of Lalitha-Nandhini duo, each sibling took up a raga for delineation (Lalitha the Madhyamavathi raga and Nandhini the Vijayasri raga).

Earlier, the duo played the first pancharatna kriti “Jagadanandakaraka” in Nata, “Tolinejesina” in Suddhabangala, “Nannukannatali” in Sindhukannada and “Idisamayamura” in Chayanata. Their central item was “Etavunara” in raga Kalyani, which the duo took up in a detailed manner giving adequate justice to every aspect and presented in a befitting manner.

Bangalore-based Arjun Kumar on the mridangam and G. Guruprasanna on the Kanjira provided excellent support to Nagaraj-Manjunath duo and played a riveting tani avartanam in adi tal, though they had stretched it too much.

M.V. Chandrasekhar on the mridangam and Nerkunam Dr. S. Sankar on the kanjira too provided excellent support to Lalitha-Nandhini duo.

They too played the tani avartanam in adi tala in an enjoyable manner.

http://digitalpaper.mathrubhumi.com/c/8838871

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/An-Evening-of-All-Things-English-in-Chennai/2016/02/20/article3286298.ece

The word ‘special’ doesn’t even begin to describe the birthday party held at Nungambakkam on Friday. First, it was held to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday on April 21. Second, it celebrated the fact that the Queen became the longest serving British monarch last September, and third, it marks the 400th year since the death of the Bard, William Shakespeare.

“Unlike other countries, the UK doesn’t have a national day, so we celebrate the Queen’s birthday. This year, it’s on a bigger scale,” Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner Chennai, told City Express.

With a host of diverse performances — which had some connection to Britain — lined up, there was never a dull moment. First, Stagefright Productions had a tongue-in-cheek, five-minute rendition of the Bard’s Romeo and Juliet. This was followed by High Kicks, an all-girls dance group, performing a James Bond special theatre-ish dance piece, with dialogues and music from 007 movies playing on the screen in the background.The ‘Bond girls’ set the stage on fire and even mingled with the audience for a while during their performance. They also used their guns to blast enemies and enacted action sequences. “What we did today was something called ‘Dirty Contemporary’. It’s a mix of contemporary dance with elements of street jazz,” Aparna Nagesh of High Kicks told City Express.

After this, all guests stood at attention as violin sisters, Lalitha and Nandini, who are cultural ambassadors to the US and UK, performed the national anthems of both India and Great Britain.

The tempo then picked up, with Zimbabwean band Zimboita’s high-energy performance using traditional instruments like Marimba. With their music, dance and antics, the endearing band told the audience to work hard, but added, “If you feel like shaking and moving, please go on!” A collective sigh descended on the audience when the band announced their last song. DJ Eddie and his group then belted out popular songs to wind up the evening.

Thanking them for their performances, Joshi, in his speech said it was “hard to believe” that just a couple of months ago, this city was recovering from the floods. Highlighting that the UK was proud to support the Tamil Nadu government as a partner at the Global Investors meet in September, Joshi said that in all, £2.43 billion worth of MoUs and business deals had been signed.

Lauding the “extraordinary achievement” of the Queen and her consort Prince Philip’s service to the British crown, Joshi raised a toast to the monarch and drew everyone’s attention to UK’s most popular dish — the “exalted” chicken tikka masala!

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http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/A-New-Direction-through-Guru-Sishya-Parampara/2016/01/02/article3206760.ece