Venetian violin goes Carnatic

Against the faux star-spangled dome of the Nehru Planetarium in Delhi, Sara Michieletto is synchronising the sounds of her violin with the recorded squeaks and thumps of the pulsar stars. It is an otherworldly experience, and you have to be a venturesome musician to pull it off.

This is not the first time Michieletto has taken a chance with her musical career. The first violinist and principal assistant with the Orchestra Gran Teatro La Fenice (Venetian orchestra) has been in Chennai for over a year now, on a sabbatical. She is studying the classical violin-playing tradition in India, especially the Carnatic style. Her teacher is musician and scholar N Ramanathan, and her inspiration is the legendary Carnatic vocalist, Lalgudi Jayaraman.

“It was only a couple of years ago, and well into my career in Venice, that I realised that there is a whole classical violin tradition in another part of the world that had nothing to do with what I had learnt,” says Michieletto. “I was amazed at its width and depth and history, and the fact that those in the Western classical tradition know so little about it.”
Despite her position at the Viennese orchestra, there is nothing of the diva about Sara. After a year-and-a-half of grappling with the intricacies of Indian classical music, Michieletto admits she is intimidated by its vastness. In fact, she is not even aiming for mastery of the Carnatic system. At their combined musical tribute to 16th century physicist-astronomer Galileo Galilei, held recently, Michieletto teamed up with Gurbani singer Bhai Baldip Singh. But it was an unnerving experience. “I would not have attempted it if it were not for his help. Otherwise, fusion music can easily end up a mess,” she says.

Time travel
On Tuesday Michieletto, along with pianist Marialuisa Pappalardo, will present a slice of Venetian musical history, a travel through time, at the NCPA. This is something akin to the gharana system. “If you pull the bow lightly across the violin, the sound is more like the wind blowing than anything else. That sound is particular to Venetian violin playing,” says Michieletto. She also promises a surprise at the show that she is keeping close to her chest.

Giving back
Sara, incidentally, also does voluntary work for SPEED Trust, a charitable organisation that works in the slums of Chennai. She works with the slum children using her music to give them a peek into a different world.

In her travels across the country, Sara finds Indians respond better to late 19th century Baroque music than more contemporary classical. But overall, the struggle to find an audience for classical music is the same across the world. “You have Bollywood, we have our popular music. The majority will never be interested in classical music. But we can’t let it all go because of that,” says Sara. Next summer she will be back in Venice at her position in the orchestra, richer for the strains of the Carnatic violin she has heard and played in Chennai.