Magsaysay awardee Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna to perform in Mumbai

Magsaysay awardee Carnatic vocalist, author and columnist and speaker, TM Krishna will be in Mumbai for a three-day tour called Karnatic Modern beginning December 2. This will include a set of concerts and conversations curated by First Edition Arts. Mumbai's music lovers can look forward to a rare quartet of events by one of the finest and most sought after musician and vocalist, who has become a symbol of the renewal of Carnatic classical music.

Mindful and sensitive to cultural and social history, TM Krishna is an artiste who is able to bring to his art all the advantages of a modern, thinking mind. His music has an impassioned intensity and the attributes of intellect. He is known for his questioning of hierarchies, and the power play that has defined social equations in the world of classical music.

The tour will kick off with a conversation on December 2 at 11 am at SCM Sophia (Social Communications Media Department, Sophia Polytechnic) Bhulabhai Desai road where TM Krishna and the writer Jerry Pinto will be in conversation on art, culture and society. This will be followed by an interactive session with the students and faculty at the open-to-all event where entry is free.

The same day in the evening will see a lec-demo by the musician vocalist at 6.30 pm at the G5A Black Box, Laxmi Mills Estate, Shakti Mills Lane, Off Dr E Moses Road, Mahalaxmi. TM Krishna accompanied by his co-musicians Akkarai Subhalakshmi (violin) and Praveen Kumar (mrdangam) will present ideas and views on 'Creativity and Improvisation in Carnatic music.' Interspersed with live demonstrations, the presentation will be moderated by journalist-researcher Sumana Ramanan. The session will end with a Q&A between the Hindustani classical musicians and students present in the audience and TM Krishna in an attempt to open up a dialogue between the two forms of Indian classical music. 

The Concert, a full length Carnatic Concert by TM Krishna on December 3 at 6 pm at Swatantraveer Savarkar Auditorium, Shivaji Park, Dadar West will see him being accompanied by Akkarai Subhalakshmi (violin), Praveen Kumar (mridangam) and Chandrasekara Sharma (ghatam). Significantly, the concert is located in the heartland of Hindustani Classical music in Dadar and not in the typical “south Indian enclaves” in Sion, Matunga or Chembur. The curators FEA, want to emphasize the need for openness and a cosmopolitan, contemporary outlook among Mumbai’s music audiences and in some cases musicians too, who tend to harbour misconceptions about other forms of music and other musical cultures. Audiences and musicians of both forms must be open and appreciative of the aesthetic values of the other and a dynamic, well spoken musician like TM Krishna is best placed to ensure that Carnatic music is understood and well received by a mixed arts audience.

This will be followed by Aikya, a unique musical collaboration between the Jogappas and TM Krishna: December 4th at 6 pm at Sitara Studio, Dadar West. Here TM Krishna will be performing with Jogappas, a transgender musical community from North Karnataka, south Maharashtra and parts of Telengana who traditionally sing folk devotional songs in praise of the Goddess Yellamma. They will draw from their vast repertoire of songs in Kannada and Marathi together with TM Krishna (vocals) and his co musicians, Akkarai Subhalakshmi (violin), Praveen Kumar (mridangam) and Chandrasekara Sharma (ghatam). There will be nine musicians on stage simultaneously during the concert from two very diverse musical traditions. The Jogappas  have an unselfconscious earthiness and abandon in their singing and their music has elements of bhajans and namasankeertanam traditions with lyrics and motifs being repeated. The Jogappas' - Laxman Nivrutti Bhosale;Mahadev, Satish Pasare;  (Belgaum) and Siddappa G Algonda and Davalsaab (Bijapur) - music instruments like suthi, an ektara-like instrument, the chowdki, a percussive instrument, and the tala, will be joined by the mridangam, ghatam and violin.

This concert is presented by First Edition Arts, in association with Bangalore based NGO Solidarity Foundation which had launched the initiative and concert for the first time last year in Bangalore. "This event, we hope, will help people recognise the essential dignity of the transgender people and help us accept them as equals. We want to celebrate the courage and talent of transcommunities from around this country,” says Shubha Chacko, director, Solidarity Foundation – a registered trust working with sexual minorities and sex workers.

According to her, this concert shows us how it is possible to dissolve differences - based on gender, caste, location (rural/urban), genre of music (classical/folk) and the outcome is magical.

The concert is a conversation between musicians in which all social equations are set aside for a meaningful collaboration driven by a desire to find meeting ground and experience the joy of communicating as equals through music.