{"id":33285,"date":"2014-09-20T04:48:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-20T08:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=33285"},"modified":"2014-09-20T22:42:51","modified_gmt":"2014-09-21T02:42:51","slug":"music-of-mandolinshrinivas-transcended-frontiers-and-genres-chitravina-n-ravikiran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=33285","title":{"rendered":"Music of “Mandolin” Shrinivas Transcended Frontiers and Genres-Chitravina N. Ravikiran"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/p>\n

Chitravina N. Ravikiran<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"pic<\/a>

pic courtesy of: The Hindu<\/p><\/div>\n

The galaxy of music has lost one of its most glittering stars in the death of Mandolin U. Shrinivas. That his remarkable achievements immortalised him even as a teenager is small consolation for the tragedy of losing him at the age of 45.<\/p>\n

Every superlative offered to him seemed redundant in almost no time \u2014 such was his mastery over the art. From the time he stormed into the Carnatic field around age 10, his innate musicality, razor-sharp mind, his command over speed and range, the effortlessness of expression and freshness of musical and mathematical patterns challenged minds, while his charismatic presence on-stage and cartoon-loving simplicity off it stole hearts. His music transcended genres and frontiers \u2014 his admirers included Pandit Ravishankar, John McLaughlin and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, not to mention Nobel laureates and heads of States.<\/p>\n

Shrinivas\u2019 talent was God-given but his success was not accidental. His work ethic, reverence towards achievers, faith in God, astute professional judgment, an ever-smiling face and his capacity to handle gruelling schedules of more than 30 concerts a month contributed enormously to his galactic rise in his early years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shrinivas was not merely someone I admired professionally. He was as close to my heart as anyone can truly be. I first heard him at a wedding concert in 1981. I was 14 but as a \u2018senior\u2019 prodigy, had been exposed to hundreds of children whose parents zealously believed them to be musical avatars. I still recall my ardent prayer as I entered the hall, \u2018Dear God, let this at least be a genuine prodigy!\u2019<\/p>\n

Though our careers ran parallel for a few years, it never affected our friendship or mutual regard. We cherished our \u2018politically-correct-yet-collars-down-style\u2019 interactions at airports, hotels, film-shoots, cultural events or committee meetings. Shrinivas initiated a tradition of calling me on the dot at 12 am on my birthday (February 12) and I used to reciprocate a few days later on February 28. We were elated when we found a compatible pitch that enabled us to perform together last year, after over 30 years of feasibility study! I still recall the \u00e9lan with which he grasped and reproduced every nuance of my Reetigowla varnam.<\/p>\n

The two of us were to perform a series of fundraisers for musicians’ welfare in the U.S. this October and when I informed him that a few people were keen that the show in San Jose, California be dedicated to Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi, he assented readily. But with characteristic unaffected humility, he requested that I send him a few masterpieces to learn from. He will not be there for those concerts now. I am going to miss him tremendously.<\/p>\n

(N. Ravikiran is a composer and chitravina exponent) <\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Chitravina N. Ravikiran The galaxy of music has lost one of its most glittering stars in the death of Mandolin U. Shrinivas. That his remarkable achievements immortalised him even as a teenager is small consolation for the tragedy of losing him at the age of 45. Every superlative offered to him seemed redundant in …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Music of “Mandolin” Shrinivas Transcended Frontiers and Genres-Chitravina N. Ravikiran’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33285"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33328,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33285\/revisions\/33328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}