Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. S. Sowmya – In Concert

Last Sunday, on May the 5th, SIFAA had the privilege of hosting Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. S. Sowmya at the Omkarananda Ashram in Winterthur, Switzerland. The concert consisted of two opening performances featuring local artists. The first troupe featured a violin duet with Madhuvanth Rasiah and Yatheeswar Rasiah on the violin, and Jalakshigan Chandran on the mridangam. The secound troupe featured a Carnatic vocal performance by Shajinthavi Ketheeswaran, accompanied by Lavan Rasiah on the violin, Anirudh on the mridangam, and Haridesh Manoharan on the Morsing.

Dr S. Sowmya is a highly influential Carnatic vocalist who needs little to no introduction. She received the Sangeetha Kalanidhi award in the year 2019 and therefore acknowledged for her achievements. Dr Sowmya began her Carnatic music journey at a very tender age. She first started learning the art form from her father M. Srinivasan, who later put her under the tutelage of S. Ramanathan. The artist credits her father for encouraging and nudging her to pursue Carnatic music. Apart from this, she completed a Masters’ degree in Chemistry. Her PhD thesis involved the science of crafting a mridangam that would always be in perfect pitch regardless of the change in location or temperature. The thesis not only weaved her two major interests (Chemistry and Carnatic Music) into a written work, but also made a major contribution to the Carnatic music industry. She currently holds the position of Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts Academy, an institute responsible for nurturing young talents from all over India and around the world in dance and music.

The Swiss Indian Fine Arts Association a.k.a. SIFAA had the wonderful opportunity and honour of inviting this great artist to Switzerland and present her art to the Indian audience. The singer was accompanied by Vid. Embar S. Kannan on the violin and Vid. Neiyveli R. Narayanan on the mridangam.

Dr Sowmya commenced her performance with the kriti ‘Srinathadi Guruguho’ in the raga Mayamavalagowla, composed by Sri Muttuswami Dikshitar. Many learners of Carnatic music tend to underestimate the richness and elegance of this raga, as it is the very first raga that is taught to them and also used to learn most of the basic exercises such as Saralivarsai and Jantavarsai. This thereby makes them unable to recognize the raga, when it is sung in a kriti like this one. The artist explains: “In this kriti, Muttuswami Dikshitar shows the ascending and descending order of the swaras, which is similar to the structure of a gopuram in a temple.” The essence of this kriti lies in its meaning: the singer praises the Lord whilst taking His name and sings about how the attainment of Lord is the ultimate goal in life and goes on to describe His characteristics and simultaneously states that he is nirguna (devoid of form or attribute).

If all the compositions sung in this concert were emeralds and rubies, the main piece “Himadrisute Pahimam” in the raga Kalyani was the crown jewel of the performance. There was a seamless and spontaneous collaboration between the accompanying instruments, thus allowing them to showcase their unique playing styles. The composition praises Devi Parvati as the daughter of the mountains, the wife of Lord Shiva and the sister of Lord Krishna and requests her to shower blessings upon her devotees. The main piece serves as an outlet for the artist to showcase their creativity, which was beautifully done by Dr Sowmya. The Kalpita Swaras are like a fingerprint, unique to each artist’s singing style, while still adhering to the characteristics of the raga. Dr Sowmya beautifully presented the raga as she did for the first kriti “Srinathadi Guruguho Jayati” by weaving the swaras like a precious sari draped on the goddess. Especially the descending swaras “G R S N D, R S N D P, S N D P M...” were beautifully combined to resemble the falling pleats of the sari.

The artist concluded the performance with various tukadams (smaller compositions), including a Kavadichindu (a type of composition in Tamil in praise of Gods revered in South India such as Lord Shiva and Lord Muruga, typically used in Bharatanatyam performances), a composition by Swati Tirunal in praise of Lord Rama in the raga Bhairavi and ended on a high note with a thillana, followed by a Mangalam.