Aditya Prakash: A voice with enough promise

Aditya Prakash performing at the Music Academy’s margazhi music festival in 2022.
| Photo Credit: S. Thanthoni

In his concert, Aditya Prakash brought his grounding in Carnatic music to the fore despite being a part of international musical projects. He has worked with the late Pt. Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale and many other musicians from across the globe. He has also studied Ethnomusicology from UCLA (University of California Los Angeles).

Aditya’s performance at The Music Academy did justice to the stalwarts who trained him in the Carnatic style. His voice is a definite plus, one particularly felt so in the kalpanaswara passages. The alapanas of Varali and Bhairavi, which was the main piece, proved it further.

The team that day — Sriram Sridhar (violin), R. Ramkumar (mridangam) and G. Venkatesh (morsing) added plenty of value to the concert. Sowkhya bhava that reigned supreme during his rendition of ‘Swara raga sudha’ (Sankarabharanam, Tyagaraja), continued during the swarakalpana too.

‘Sogasu juda tarama’ (Kannadagowla, Tyagaraja) set the mood for Aditya’s Varali raga exploration, followed by the violinist’s equally impressive interpretation. The kriti chosen was ‘Kamakshi bangaru’ (Varali, Syama Sastri). The niraval/swaras at ‘Syama krishna paripalini sukha shyamale siva sankari’ stood out for the artiste’s creativity and imagination. The violinist once again showed his prowess in the niraval and swara passages.

Muthuswami Dikshitar’s composition ‘Saravati tata vasini’ in raga Saravati, was the vocalist’s next choice. In the RTP, the lyrics of the pallavi went as ‘Ananda natana prakasam ashraye bhairavisam’. It was a raga mudra pallavi set in Bhairavi and Khanda Triputa tala. After the raga alapana, Aditya rounded off with the tanam. ‘Taruni nyan’ (Dwijavanti, Swati Tirunal) made for an evocative closing piece.