The obstacle race for young, promising classical musicians

Walk down the street, board a bus, wait for the dentist, queue at a counter, and you will see everyone, everywhere, sporting that inevitable extension of the human body — earphones. What the teeming multitude listens to may be anything from Javanese gamelan to Jamaican reggae. In our AR Rahman land, mind-boggling choices include pop, light, film, fusion, folk and art music. And yet, for young Indian musicians in genres old and new, the trek remains steep, uphill and rocky.

I thought of this paradox when a Hindustani music association in Mumbai asked me to participate in a panel discussion about enhancing career opportunities for the emerging generation of Indian classical musicians. The concept note mentioned that young musicians were frustrated and financially stressed by lack of concert opportunities. Could we identify problem areas, explore avenues, suggest strategies and assist youngsters in furthering their careers?

Agreed, a major problem is that the supply exceeds the demand. But the talent available is phenomenal. How can we make the path easier and not an obstacle race for such promising, even brilliant youngsters? Most important, how can we ensure that they enjoy reasonable financial security?

I confine myself to South India, where the scene is quite different from that in the north. The young aspirants I talked to said that they had no dearth of platforms. They tell me mature as well as fledgling artists, crowd-pullers to niche stragglers, and everyone in between, find slot allotments.

Carnatic musicians are supported by the unique sabha culture of the South, particularly in Chennai, but extending through the diaspora whether Atlanta or Abu Dhabi. All these sabhas or local music organisations, regularly showcase concerts. They seek no government support, but have come to enjoy some corporate sponsorship in the last two decades. Sabhas schedule innumerable music festivals round the year, in every part of Chennai, peaking to astronomical numbers in the city’s famous December/January season. Every festival from Shivratri to Janmashtami is marked by a concert series. 

Their monthly and yearly calendars are packed with standalone concerts, duo concerts, thematic concerts, single raga concerts, tribute concerts, guru-disciple-together concerts, “experimental” concerts, jugal bandis, instrumental ensembles. You name it, they have it. Many organisations are keen to feature young and unknown artists, hoping to have the credit of discovering a prodigy.

It may be added that gen next Carnatic musicians are highly educated. They are qualified engineers, doctors, chartered accountants, bankers and biochemists, who opt to give up their safer and more lucrative office jobs in order to devote themselves to full time music. 

But it is not easy to persist in a system where the infrastructure is dated, worn and creaky. The youngsters know the problems. “Simply offering performance space is not enough, with no mechanism in place for marketing and audience building,” says one. A wry voice declares that the sabhas stop with offering stage space, and make it the responsibility of the performers to get their audiences. Another adds that while the famous are assured of packed halls, the newcomers have neither resources nor knowledge of strategies to market themselves. The fact is that most sabhas think that they are doing youngsters a favour by giving them the stage, paying them little or not at all. And since their concerts are free and sponsorship is random, there is no way of generating funds for investment and expenditure. True, youngsters are today trying to find alternative performance spaces from temple hall to park, beach and boutique. But the venue changes remain whimsical, and have not changed the funding situation. Others have banded together to generate group publicity, but usually a short lived endeavour, the result of  lack of time, expertise, and again, funding.

Every young musician I talked to knows that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even WhatsApp, offer platforms for publicity and marketing. But they also know that social media “likes” may not fill the halls.  Two thousand thumbs up for their song posted on Youtube may not translate into even two hundred listeners for their live concert.

The problem is that marketing is a highly sophisticated skill. Today’s musicians are tech-savvy, but do they know what a successful media campaign needs? Where are the professional agencies to help artists streamline/brand/package their content and build audiences? With pre-concert publicity, and post concert follow-up to maximise its impact, to generate better opportunities, higher remuneration, to boost the musician’s branding and audience appeal? A young musician admits that there is too much music available online for anyone to bother battling tight schedules and mind-numbing traffic to come to a performance for someone “who they heard is singing well, but haven’t actually gone and heard yet.”

Young Carnatic musicians have a single demand: “We don’t want more opportunities. Make what we have more meaningful, effective, and financially viable.”

The author is a playwright, theatre director, musician and journalist