Sandeep Narayan shares an inspiring story...
“Growing up, ragam Kambodhi had always been my achilles heel. A few years ago, my guru Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyan caught wind of this and told me to start singing it in concerts immediately so that I'd get over my discomfort with the ragam. I finally felt that I was ready to sing it in The Madras Music Academy in December 2012, the first year I'd been promoted to the sub-senior time slot.
I was feeling somewhat comfortable in the intimidating environment, and it was time to start the Kambodhi alapanai. About a minute into the ragam, the sound system started going completely haywire. I quickly found myself singing a ragam I'd been uncomfortable with for years, in an auditorium I was already scared to sing in, at a time slot that I was nervous to be singing in. After several howls from the speakers, I leaned over to my violinist and whispered, 'Whether or not they fix this, we'll get kicked off the stage at 3:45, so keep playing!' He smiled, and gave me my cue for the alapanai from where I'd left off. I closed my eyes and sang the next 10 minutes of ragam without any amplification, as they'd shut off the system. When I hit the higher register in the silent auditorium, I got an applause of encouragement that gave me the boost to finish strong. After this concert, I was given the 'Best Vocalist Award' by the Academy.
In fact, one well-known musician asked how on earth I managed not to yell at the sound engineer as any artiste might have done in frustration. I replied that I was simply too scared to react in any other way than to keep singing!”
“Growing up, ragam Kambodhi had always been my achilles heel. A few years ago, my guru Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyan caught wind of this and told me to start singing it in concerts immediately so that I'd get over my discomfort with the ragam. I finally felt that I was ready to sing it in The Madras Music Academy in December 2012, the first year I'd been promoted to the sub-senior time slot.
I was feeling somewhat comfortable in the intimidating environment, and it was time to start the Kambodhi alapanai. About a minute into the ragam, the sound system started going completely haywire. I quickly found myself singing a ragam I'd been uncomfortable with for years, in an auditorium I was already scared to sing in, at a time slot that I was nervous to be singing in. After several howls from the speakers, I leaned over to my violinist and whispered, 'Whether or not they fix this, we'll get kicked off the stage at 3:45, so keep playing!' He smiled, and gave me my cue for the alapanai from where I'd left off. I closed my eyes and sang the next 10 minutes of ragam without any amplification, as they'd shut off the system. When I hit the higher register in the silent auditorium, I got an applause of encouragement that gave me the boost to finish strong. After this concert, I was given the 'Best Vocalist Award' by the Academy.
In fact, one well-known musician asked how on earth I managed not to yell at the sound engineer as any artiste might have done in frustration. I replied that I was simply too scared to react in any other way than to keep singing!”
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