Lilting tunes for the ear

The second session of the 28th ‘Devnandan Ubhayankar Yuva Sangeet Utsav’ was held recently at Canara Union Hall, Malleswaram.

The Utsav, organised by Smriti Nandan, was started by the late Lalita Ubhayaker who was a senior vocalist in the ‘Agra’ gharana and aims at encouraging young musicians across the country. The concert started with a music scholarship which was given to a young musician.

Soon, Priya Purusho­thaman, who has performed in the City and abroad, took the stage and started the concert by rendering the evergreen Thodi raga.

This was followed by a Nom Tom Alap. She delved into the raga for a long time and had no trouble hitting the high octaves. The gathering grew slowly and the place was packed by the time she wrapped up her alap. Despite being from New York, her enunciations were perfect and the audience was engrossed in the tarana. 

 She had great control over her voice and gammaks especially when she sang the soulful Jonpuri raga. She ended the concert with a light Meera bhajan.

She was accompanied by Shruteendra Katagade on the tabla, Prasad Kamath on the harmonium and two young musicians on the tanpura. One of the tanpura accompanyists kept the audience amazed with his performance as Priya explored the Thodi raga.

The second artiste for the day was the noted sarangi player, Allarakha Kalawant. A disciple of Ustad Imamuddin Khan, he hails from a musical family and is known for his talent in the quick interplay of swaras. He clearly proved this with his rendition of raga Shudd Sarang. Allarakha has performed for several senior artistes including Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ajoy Chakraborty and was accompanied by Kiran Godkhindi on tabla.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed the performances of both the artistes.