|
|
| Excerpts from Press Clippings and Interviews....EXPANSIVE RAGA ESSAYS
Friday, Dec 9, 2011
Uma Krishnaswamy, The Hindu Music Season Supplement After a short invocation to Lord Ganesha Vidya Subramanian proceeded with Swati Tirunal's "Pannagendra Sayana", an Ashta Ragamalika, starting with Ragam Shankarabharanam. The bhavam of ragas such as Thodi, Bhairavi, Neelambari and Surutti were brought out beautifully while singing the sahityam...The short and crisp raga sketch of Dhanyasi was followed by a rare kriti "Dalachina Varu" of Subbaraya Shastri...The raga alapana of Kedaragowla...was etched out carefully, replete with all its beautiful sancharas.... DISTANT MELODIES
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Abimanyu Nagarajan, The Telegraph - Calcutta“I’ve got students from all over the world,” says Vidya Subramanian, a Carnatic musician based in Chennai, who has been giving online lessons for the past six years. “I have students in Africa, the US, the UK and Australia.” .....Indeed, the practice has so many takers now that many music teachers, who once taught online only as part time exercise, have now opted to do it full time. For example, Subramanian, who is a chartered accountant with an MBA degree, has switched careers to focus solely on online teaching. She has even developed an extensive online network where aspiring music students can get in touch with the right teachers.... “Usually, I give a few free lessons to gauge the student, and then put him or her in touch with someone who would make a good teacher. We also have regular teacher training sessions.” .... “There are a lot of factors that go into deciding the fees, though,” clarifies Subramanian. “For example, we wouldn’t want to turn away talented students just because they can’t pay the usual rate. Other factors include the standard of the student, whether it’s a one-on-one session, the standard of the teacher, and so on.”....... MUSIC CONCERT AT POWAI
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Bhanu Kumar, Times of India - Mumbai ... It was a unique presentation completely in synchronisation with the listeners. Vidya not only sang well but reached across to the audience with a lot of data... Vidya exuded huge confidence that comes from years of training and practice... "She had included rare ragas like Rasikapriya, Durga and Bindu malini in her presentation and rendered them very well", says Dr. G Ramakrishnan, President of PFA (Powai Fine Arts)... Friday, August 12, 2011Friday Review, The Hindu, Karnataka EditionThe young singer's authoritative progressions deserved appreciation and the confidently propelled articulations attracted the audience. Scholarly alapana in Kalyani ("Ethavunara" - Thyagaraja) featured imaginative improvisations. Meaningful neraval at "Shrikarudagu" and energetic kalpana swaras beautified the composition...
Friday Review, The Hindu, Chennai 
The vocal concert of Vidya Subramaniam at the Tirumalai Tirupathi Devasthanam was interesting as she provided a brief prologue or epilogue to each kriti she rendered highlighting some special aspects of the content in addition to the information on the composer, ragam and talam. ‘Aganitha mahimadputha leela’, the Gowla ragam composition from the Sapataratna Collection of Oothukadu Venkatakavi in Adi talam was the opening item of her concert. The composition was set in the pattern of the Pancharatna kritis with a charanam followed by swara-sahitya suite. Vidya pointed out a few noteworthy aspects of the kriti like the ‘Namo Namasthe’ the refrain after each charanam and also the famous and favourite reference from the composer about the ‘Kalinga Nartana’ of Sri Krishna as ‘Bhujanga sirasi natanam’ in this kriti. Kedaragowla known for its strong melodic and majestic qualities was chosen for Ragam-Tanam- Pallavi. Offering the raga in two installments, Vidya gave extra accent on the raga’s dominant swaras and phrases. The pallavi that followed the tanam was set to Adi Talam went as ‘Sri Venkatesam Smarami Seshachala Nayakam’.
Vocalist Vidya Subramanian, a Clifton Park resident, will lead her Carnatic Music Ensemble in a free concert and pre-concert talk at Troy’s Arts Center for the Capital Region on Sunday. Subramanian moved to the area a decade ago. She is a native of the Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, who left a full-time position with General Electric to "focus full-time on carnatic music." She says. "It’s a very interesting and challenging art form. There really is no end to the learning." Subramanian moved to the area a decade ago. She is a native of the Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, who left a full-time position with General Electric to "focus full-time on carnatic music." She says. "It’s a very interesting and challenging art form. There really is no end to the learning." Her stated goal is "reaching out to new audiences for this musical form. One of my challenges is to communicate effectively to local community about carnatic music as an art form audiences are not familiar with."
To that end, says Jill Rafferty-Weiisch, the Arts Center’s Director of Performing Arts and Outreach, Subramanian has recently secured a Strategic Opportunity Stipend from the not-for-profit New York Foundation for the Arts to help promote her efforts. "She’s interested in running a class here in carnatic singing," says Rafferty-Wieinisch. "She’s really interested in introducing this form to people beyond those for whom this is their culture."
"A very important difference between carnatic music and Western classical music is we don’t emphasize harmony," she says. "You don’t use chords or other harmonic elements familiar in Western music."
Subramanian recently received a grant through the Saratoga County Arts Council to begin a free training course that will be offered at the Clifton Park Public Library. "I hope such outreach efforts, and our performance in Troy, will help bring this music to new audiences," she says. "The local public response is growing, particularly in the last year or so, but there is still a lot of work to be done."
THE ART OF SHARING Grants enable two Saratoga County musicians to showcase traditions By Tom Keyser, Staff Writer The Times Union, Friday, January 8, 2010   
Nancy Walker served two years on the panel that evaluates applicants for arts grants in Saratoga County. The second year, 2008, she lobbied hard for an Indian musician from Clifton Park. Walker, a folksinger from Greenfield Center, believed that the musician, Vidya Subramanian, should be heard by Americans unfamiliar with her music. "I thought Vidya's work was top-notch. And it is top-notch," Walker says. "It's throat singing. It's something we don't hear very often. In her world, in her country, this is an art. And we need to understand it."
The American folkie and the Indian musician will receive their grants Monday at the Arts Center in Saratoga Springs along with 24 other recipients. Both will receive $2,500, and both plan on using the money to tell stories -- Subramanian, the story of the Indian classical music known as Carnatic, and Walker, stories of the people of Greenfield Center, which is six miles northwest of Saratoga Springs.
They will be the only individuals to receive grants from the $52,660 distributed by Saratoga Arts (formerly Saratoga County Arts Council). The money comes from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Subramanian says, "I can't say I was shocked to receive the grant, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I did a lot of work understanding the expectations of the selection panel, and I've been trying to reach out to a lot of people about this musical art form."
Subramanian was born in southern India and lived in Chennai, a vibrant, culturally active community on the eastern coast, until coming to the United States to pursue a master's degree at Boston College. Now, she teaches Carnatic music and performs at Indian-music concerts.
"My goal is to educate and engage local communities in the 3,000-year-old tradition of Carnatic vocal music," Subramanian says. "It's a completely different type of music from what people here are familiar with."
ANCIENT VOICE Vidya Subramanian sings and teaches Indian classical music SAM BRADEN SPECIAL TO THE TIMES UNION Section: Preview, Page: PV6
Date: Thursday, April 23, 2009 On April 25 Clifton Park library will be home to the music of Southern India when a local woman brings a trio of musicians for an informative performance of an unusual and exotic art form. The dominant language used in the music, Sanskrit, may be a dead language, but the music still thrives.
Vidya Subramanian lives in Clifton Park now, but it was in her birthplace of Chennai, India, that she was exposed to the type of Indian classical called Carnatic music. It uses a blend of structure and improvisation that demands improvisational ability along with encyclopedic knowledge of the many compositions available. Subramanian likened the style to jazz, where standards are often reinterpreted by musicians. So what would someone unacquainted with Carnatic music look for in a performance?
"It's going to be interesting to see how we perform improvisation without sacrificing the natural harmony that flows in the music," said Subramanian in a recent phone interview. As the singer in a trio, she will be improvising on top of the melodies already provided in the composition, which can range from the 13th century to today. Her accompaniment of a violin and a mridangam, an Indian drum, will take turns improvising both rhythmically with the tala component and harmonically with the raga.
Sound complicated? It is. "The Raga system is best studied under an expert," said Subramanian, before mentioning her own noteworthy mentor, guru and composer Lalgudi Jayaraman. She began advanced level instructions from him in 1993 in Chennai. And now she's a teacher herself.
She doesn't just teach face-to-face. "After moving to the United States, I found that I was getting inquiries from people who live all around the country who were interested in getting instruction in this style of music," she explained, so she decided to take advantage of modern technology to teach students.
Although she received an MBA in finance from Boston College, she decided to dedicate her life to the music that she loves. "I've always been pursuing my passion in music in a very serious way, but I decided in 2004 to devote my energy full time to my pursuit of learning and teaching Carnatic music," she said.
She developed a podcast, Raagarasika, where she interacts with a colleague in Seattle who acts as a student by asking her questions. "There's a lot of terminology that we use that a Western listener may not be familiar with," she explained, but it's not just the unacquainted who are served by the free podcast. She also uses Skype, an instant messaging program with phone and webcam capability, to instruct students while they look at notes electronically.
"With people traveling out of the country to study or work, a lot of people are interested in keeping links to the roots," said Subramanian. "Through the Internet and online teaching and podcasting, we are able to bridge the barriers of distance."
- Courtesy: Albany Times Union, Thursday Preview, April 23, 2009. 12/21/2009 Tuning into the podcast wave By: Bhairavi Jhaveri, Hindusthan Times, Mumbai, India Podcasts can also be stored and archived and hence, double as great reference material. One reason why podcasts of Indian classical music flourish in the US. New York-based Carnatic vocalist Vidya Subramanian and Devesh Satyavolu have been co-producing a podcast called ‘Raagarasika’ since June 2008. - Courtesy: Hindusthan Times, Mumbai, India, www.hindusthantimes.com, 12/21/09 9/4/2009 Indian Classical Music Rocks By: Andrew Adler, Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY There are few cultural traditions as old or as intriguing as classical Indian music, which is a whole lot more than shades of Ravi Shankar playing the sitar. And there's a fine opportunity to sample this diverse body of music during a concert Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Hindu Temple of Kentucky, 4213 Accomack Drive.
Three artists are slated to perform: vocalist Vidya Subramanian, violinist Prashanth Gururaja and Vasudevan Namboodiri, who plays the mridangam, a double-sided drum.
Admission is free, although donations will be accepted. For more information, visit www.vidyasubramanian.com. - Courtesy: Courier Journal, Louisville, KY, www.courier-journal.com, 9/4/09. 6/16/2009 Review of ICC Summer Classical Events-- Temple Moderator
...Aficionados of pure classical as well as novices to the music enjoyed Vidya Subramanian who gave pertinent explanations and details on how to appreciate carnatic music as well as historical background on the compositions. Her concert was remarkable for the rare ragas that she presented along with Priya Hariharan on Violin and Venkat on Mridangam...
- Courtesy: Newsletter of India Cultural Center, Utah, 6/16/09. | 05/07/2009 | | Indian concert offers insight to culture | | By: Glenn Griffith , Community News |
 |  | From left, Ganesh Sankaranarayanan, Vidya Subramanian and Ravi Srinivasan perform at teh Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library. (Glenn Griffith/Community News) | |
Indian vocalist Vidya Subramanian was joined by fellow performers Ravi Srinivasan on violin and Ganesh Sankaranarayanan on drum for the April 25 performance in the library's second floor conference room.
The 90 minute peek into the historic, melodic, and harmonic nature of south Indian classical music was a fragrant bouquet to the eyes, ears, and mind. Subramanian gives vocal lessons to students throughout the world from her Clifton Park home using Internet podcasts.
She also gives lessons to students one on one using specialized programs available from several Internet sources.
The free library performance was part workshop, part lecture, and part concert. To increase appreciation of what her audience was about to hear Subramanian first described the differences between northern and southern Indian classical music. Carnatic music, she said, is the name given to the classical music of south India. Most of the compositions in this style played today were composed in the 18th century. Much of the work being performed was written by three major Indian composers.
For her performance Subramanian and her accompanists played only Carnatic music though her vocals were performed in several different languages, Teluga, Kanada, and Tamil. As they performed the compositions Subramanian, Srinivasan, and Sankaranarayanan sat cross legged on pillows placed on a small riser at one end of the room. Subramanian's vocals rose and fell in the centuries old Indian vocal patterns as Srinivasan and Sankaranarayanan at first followed and then improvised individual variations off the counted beats.
As the two musicians strayed from the tune's structured composition some audience members kept syncopated time along with Subramanian counting out the beats using their hands on their thighs, first a fore hand, then the back hand, a thumb, and finally the ring finger.
"I enjoyed it," said Bernie Gorowitz afterward. "I have several CDs of Indian music at home." Gorowitz's wife Alice gave Subramanian's vocals a rave review. "I thought she was wonderful," she said. "The music is very complex."
Indian Carnatic music sounds unusual to a Western ear trained in simple melodies with a repetitious vocal chorus. The Indian music puts less emphasis on harmony, a feature in Western music. Indian vocalists also use gamakams, micro tones that embellish one note. This is the familiar wavering notes heard in Indian vocal music.
To accompany the vocalists more closely many Indian musicians have gravitated to the violin. The use of the violin has become so prevalent a traditional native Indian instrument has fallen out of favor and is now nearly an historic artifact. "It's lack of frets and its similarity to the human voice has made (the violin) indispensable to a classical concert," Subramanian said.
Subramanian said the Indian community in the Capital District is expanding and that includes Saratoga County and southern Saratoga County. She viewed performances like this one in addition to her podcasts as a possible bridge between Western culture and Indian music. |
- Courtesy: Saratoga County Community News, www.cnweekly.com, May 7, 2009. | |
| Neatly formatted Vidya Subramaniam’s theme based concert revealed skill and ingenuity. G. SWAMINATHAN 
Melody in perfect proportion: Vidya Subramaniam.
Thematic concerts, mostly based on a single composer, are in vogue. Vidya Subramaniam’s vocal recital for Karthik Fine Arts, at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Mini Hall was based on the compositions of Sadasiva Brahmendrar, a 17th century poet who took to an austere life at a very early age.
Vidya Subramaniam has to be credited for her sound articulation and choice of songs and for managing the task neatly in a concert format. She set her concert rolling with ‘Tungathirange Dheere’ in Hamsadhwani with a dash of kalpanaswaras. ‘Kelathi Mama Hrudaye’ in Atana preceded the Poorvikalyani exposition in detail. Subramaniam’s vocal chords are sharp and clear; she had planned the phrases with competence and progressed well with her ingenuity.
To the practised ear, ‘Maanasa Sanchara Re’ (Sama), ‘Bhajare Gopalam’ (Hindolam) and ‘Bruhi Mukundethi’ (Chenchuruti) came as fine fillers.
- Courtesy: The Hindu, Friday Review, May 25, 2007.
| | Vidya G. Subramanian has been a disciple of maestro Padmabhushan Lalgudi Jayaraman in Carnatic vocal music since 1993. She had her initial training under Rukmini Rajagopalan, a renowned teacher. Vidya has performed concerts for several prestigious organisations in India and USA. Her performances for organisations such as the Music Academy (Youth series), Narada Gana Sabha, Mylapore Fine arts, Kartik Fine arts, Kapali Fine arts, Madurai Satguru Sangeetha Samajam, Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, Fine Arts Association of Arizona, Pallavi of NY Capital district, Thyagaraja Music Society of Buffalo and Cornell University have won wide acclaim. She has also given lec-dems in the music departments of several US universities. She recently recorded an album under Kalavardhani’s label. She was awarded merit scholarships by the Center for Cultural Resources & Training, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu Isai Iyal Nataka Mandram. Vidya has won prizes in numerous prestigious music competitions, including tambura prizes awarded by the Indian Fine Arts and VDS Arts Academy. Vidya also has a brilliant academic record. She is a chartered accountant (gold medalist in the year 2000) with an MBA in Finance from Boston College, USA (Selected for dean’s merit scholarship and membership to National Business Honor Society, USA). Vidya runs a music school from her home in Albany, New York, USA, and trains several students in Carnatic music. She is currently in Chennai to perform some concerts during the music season. - Courtesy: www.chennaionline.com | |
|