A Musician’s Diary: Notes and Notations from the Carnatic Repertoire

Sushma Somasekharan- musician

Akshay Anantapadmanabhan- percussionist

V R Devika- story teller

The SIFAS festival begins on March 28, 2014 at the SIFAS auditorium with a unique and exciting presentation by Aalaap- A Musician’s Diary: Notes and Notations from the Carnatic Repertoire.

Aalaap, a performing arts’ initiative based in Chennai, India, is proud to present A Musician’s Diary: Notes and Notations from the Carnatic Repertoire, at the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society, on March 28. 2014. An experimental production that attempts to seamlessly blend a storyteller’s compelling narratives and a musician’s enchanting and evocative melodies and rhythms, Aalaap’s brainchild is a constantly evolving bridge between different spaces – storytelling, theatre, music and dance – within the performing arts.

A Musician’s Diary: Notes and Notations from the Carnatic Repertoire is a 90-minute performance act featuring engaging and inspirational anecdotes from the lives of India’s most famous Carnatic musicians and composers.

Our artistes – VR Devika (storyteller) and Sushma Somasekaran (musician), with Akshay Ananthapadmanaban (percussionist) – will paint pictures from the lives of legendary figures like MS Subbulakshmi, Lalgudi G Jayaraman and DK Pattamal, just to name a few, and re-create those memories with songs and compositions that, over the ages, have come to define their life and body of work.

About Aalaap:

Aalaap is an initiative in the performing arts. Sometimes, it works on its own, as an independent entity. Other times, Aalaap dresses up as a collaborator and attempts to work with performing artistes from across India, and assist them in the many aspects of the arts, its production, promotion and presentation. Designed as an artiste-centric initiative that is sensitive to the style and sensibilities that qualify and constitute every artiste, Aalaap’s focus areas include ideation, curation, execution, content creation, research, management and promotion. Under this umbrella, Aalaap also publishes a high-end, bi-monthly performing arts magazine by the same name. It is has launched six thematic editions at unique and one-of-a-kind launch events.

About the artistes:

VR Devika: The founder and managing trustee of The Aseema Trust, a non-profit organisation, VR Devika is a well-known Chennai-based cultural activist, who has a passion for performing arts and education. She is here today with us, in her capacity as a fine, knowledgeable and articulate storyteller.

Sushma Somasekharan: A new voice within the Carnatic vocal tradition, Sushma’s voice embodies talent, intellect and emotion. Born and raised in Singapore, Sushma has made Chennai her home and here she learns, performs and practices.

Akshay Ananthapadmanaban: A percussionist who plays the mridangam and the kanjeera, Akshay is involved with several collaborative efforts across different genres of music, exerting his considerable skill and passion for music every time.