Beautiful 'Smrithi'
The Nritya Dhama presented a Mohiniattam recital by Dr Rekha Raju, last week. Rekha Raju started her lessons in Bharathanatya with Padmini Ramachandran and continued her training under Prof A. Janardhanan.
A Chartered Accountant, Rekha has a Masters degree in Performing Arts and a doctorate too. From last 10 years she is training youngsters in her own institution "Nritya Dha-ma". Dr Rekha Raju is a recipient of few awards from Bha-rath Kalachar and Krishna Gana Sabha and few others.
In the current programme called Smrithi, Rekha Raju, right from the invocatory piece revealed a good sense of aesthetics. She sparkled in well-knit jathies and sleek expressiveness in the 'Shankara Sri Giri' (Hasanandi raga). Her interpretation in "Sakhi he" (Astapadi - Shudda Sarang raga) brought out the 'bhava' impactfully. The Karnaranjani (Om Namo Narayana) and Behag (Muruganin) pieces vouched for her choreographic skills. She along with her students concluded with a thillana in the raga Mand. Dr Rekha Raju displayed greater depth and received kudos from the connoisseurs.
Praveen (vocal), Alexrapheal (Natuvanga), Jagadeesh Janardhan (mridanga), Shivaramakrishnan (violin), Kalamandalam Anand (Edakka) and Dr Vinod (flute) - gave inspiring support from the wings.
Aesthetic vocal
S Shankar, senior vocalist of the state, is also a recipient of "Sangeetha Kalarathna" (from Bangalore Gayana Samaja) and Rajyotsava awards. He is known for his vast repertoire, high-pitched voice and lively presentation.
In his concert on Friday for the Veena Doreswamy Iyengar Memorial Trust, Shankar, dropping the oft-repeated invocatory pieces, chose "Panchamatanga" in Malahari raga. "Yema Ninne" of Subbaraya Sastry, was another majestic kruthi and "Chintayami" is one of the well-known composition of Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar. Madhyamavathi raga was evocative with several lively phrases. The "Tyagaraja Gurum" of M D Ramanathan is a infrequent composition. Kalyani raga bristled with good sanghathies and "Nijadasa Varada" was a fine composition of Pattanam Subramanya Iyer.
The second half of the concert of Shankar was equally rewarding. Being the birthday of both DVG and Pu Thi Na, Shankar presented one song of each of them - "Vanusumadollu" of D V Gundappa and "Tugire Raghu Ramana" of Narasimhachar, were welcomed by the connoisseurs naturally. So also a thillana of Dr Doreswamy Iyengar was refreshing. Shankar concluded with his favourite mangala "Marajanaka" of Vidya Prasanna Teertha Swamiji. Talented accompanists B K Raghu, C Cheluvaraj and Vyasa Vittala gave good support on violin, mridanga and khanjari, respectively, while Easwaraiah was the co-singer.
The Nritya Dhama presented a Mohiniattam recital by Dr Rekha Raju, last week. Rekha Raju started her lessons in Bharathanatya with Padmini Ramachandran and continued her training under Prof A. Janardhanan.
A Chartered Accountant, Rekha has a Masters degree in Performing Arts and a doctorate too. From last 10 years she is training youngsters in her own institution "Nritya Dha-ma". Dr Rekha Raju is a recipient of few awards from Bha-rath Kalachar and Krishna Gana Sabha and few others.
In the current programme called Smrithi, Rekha Raju, right from the invocatory piece revealed a good sense of aesthetics. She sparkled in well-knit jathies and sleek expressiveness in the 'Shankara Sri Giri' (Hasanandi raga). Her interpretation in "Sakhi he" (Astapadi - Shudda Sarang raga) brought out the 'bhava' impactfully. The Karnaranjani (Om Namo Narayana) and Behag (Muruganin) pieces vouched for her choreographic skills. She along with her students concluded with a thillana in the raga Mand. Dr Rekha Raju displayed greater depth and received kudos from the connoisseurs.
Praveen (vocal), Alexrapheal (Natuvanga), Jagadeesh Janardhan (mridanga), Shivaramakrishnan (violin), Kalamandalam Anand (Edakka) and Dr Vinod (flute) - gave inspiring support from the wings.
Aesthetic vocal
S Shankar, senior vocalist of the state, is also a recipient of "Sangeetha Kalarathna" (from Bangalore Gayana Samaja) and Rajyotsava awards. He is known for his vast repertoire, high-pitched voice and lively presentation.
In his concert on Friday for the Veena Doreswamy Iyengar Memorial Trust, Shankar, dropping the oft-repeated invocatory pieces, chose "Panchamatanga" in Malahari raga. "Yema Ninne" of Subbaraya Sastry, was another majestic kruthi and "Chintayami" is one of the well-known composition of Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar. Madhyamavathi raga was evocative with several lively phrases. The "Tyagaraja Gurum" of M D Ramanathan is a infrequent composition. Kalyani raga bristled with good sanghathies and "Nijadasa Varada" was a fine composition of Pattanam Subramanya Iyer.
The second half of the concert of Shankar was equally rewarding. Being the birthday of both DVG and Pu Thi Na, Shankar presented one song of each of them - "Vanusumadollu" of D V Gundappa and "Tugire Raghu Ramana" of Narasimhachar, were welcomed by the connoisseurs naturally. So also a thillana of Dr Doreswamy Iyengar was refreshing. Shankar concluded with his favourite mangala "Marajanaka" of Vidya Prasanna Teertha Swamiji. Talented accompanists B K Raghu, C Cheluvaraj and Vyasa Vittala gave good support on violin, mridanga and khanjari, respectively, while Easwaraiah was the co-singer.