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It was an auspicious accident that happened when I was just 7 years old, as I
was travelling with my uncle, a seasoned musician, on an outstation trip. The
group was enjoying the trip by singing music, but the fact that I was able to
repeat some to 10-15 phrases of my uncle’s raga alapana, without any basic
knowledge of music or swara sthanas was the one that took everyone by
surprise. This is actually made my uncle feel that I had a natural gift for
music and advised me to learn music the formal way.
Along with music, I had also take care of my academics and was at
crossroads whether to take up my engineering qualification in BITS, Pilani or
be in my home city to pursue both of them together. I took to be in Chennai
and further my musical ambition. In 1989, my first big occasion as a
musician was set in Youth Association for Culture and Music (YACM) Annual
Fest, a performance that created good reviews in the media opening the
doors for bigger ones, in my career. I went to about 4000+ performances in
India and abroad.
When I received the Best Concert Prize from the prestigious Music Academy.
The next one was my chance association with the vintage classics. In this
context, vociferous that I am in my appreciation of the olden days film music
(1930-1940’s), which was mostly synonymous with classical music, I decided
to bring to the fore, the classicism of the vintage classics with a special focus
towards the hits of M K Thyagaraja Bhagavathar and M S Subbalakshmi by
rerendering them in my voice and presentation. That Compact Disc titled “
Legendary Melodies” was welcomed by the media and the connoisseurs with
accolades, and turned out to be the season’s hot seller. I was specially
invited by DD to render such songs in their flagship musical-revival “Thullada
Manamum Thullum”, which has made me reach out to millions of people,
right inside their very drawing room.
Quality always sells, whatever field may be in. For budding performers – it
would be nice to do a bit of soul searching, work towards your strengths and
present traditional music without losing out on the individuality. Emphasis is
on the individual impact that one must create at each and every platform,
without compromising on classicism.
Any type of music that has “sound” logic (oh my punning habit really dies
hard!), elevates, not merely entertains the listener and lingers in one’s mind
long after it has been rendered is good music, be it Carnatic, Hindusthani,
Western, African or even a combo. But it takes nothing short of monumental
artistry to perform fusion with the aforesaid attributes, thus making it
impossible for most of the self-branded “fusion music” to even pass muster.
Personal Factfile :
Name : R.Suryaprakash
Place : Chennai
If not Music : If I did not take up Music, I would have done art painting
or story writing.
Email : suryaraga@yahoo.com
SkypeID : surya_master