Music Knows No Boundaries

Posted on 15/08/2009 in The Times of India

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  By S. Chandrashekar

  Kutcheris, dialogue concerts, a freshness and flavour that boasts of a fan following both in India and abroad, Aruna Sairam is an artiste with a difference. S. Chandrashekar meets her...

  It is not often that one associates traditional Carnatic music with medieval European Liturgical music, with the Spanish flamenco or German neoclassical strains. then again, it is not often that somebody like Aruna Sairam comes along.

  Aruna's tryst with music began when she was ten years old. She grew up in a house and atmosphere that encouraged and exposed her to a long line of some of the best and most revered musicians of the age. Thinking about it now, she says, "I was very lucky because such great people would walk in to my house all the time and some even stayed for months at a time." Formally trained under the incomparable T Brinda who was a frequent guest herself, Aruna is now as comfortable preparing for the rigorous and very traditional Madras music season, as she is hamming with Dominique Vellard of France, creating what she poetically calls "dialogue concerts".

  It has not all been smooth sailing though. Her fascination with different musical styles, what she calls her "destiny", meant that she had to work extra-hard to establish herself amongst the elite traditional circles of Carnatic music in Madras. She says, "I should be very clear about this. Traditional artistes must accept you before you become a regular name. Without them, and without that happening, nothing else can happen in your Carnatic musical career." It was that determination that saw Aruna juggle her career, family, marriage and children as she shuttled between Bombay and Madras, carving out her own niche.

  She certainly has that niche today and is acclaimed both within and outside the country. Freedom is a hard-won thing and as she happily says, "Now that I am established, I am free to explore my music, its traditions and other genres as well. "It is a wonderful sing for the future that she has her own very ardent group of students, for whom the freshness and flavour of her music is their inspiration.

   

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