I’m looking forward to participating in a new project spearheaded by Carnatic vocalist Kiranavali Vidyasankar. Her new project, Tradition – An Evolving Continuum was funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and is the first music grant they have ever awarded. The project will culminate in a concert on November 7th, 2015 in Philadelphia.

From the official website of the project, Carnatic Tradition:

This project will result in a two-part performance with the first part featuring a Vocal concert of Kiranavali accompanied by V V S Murari (Violin), Vinod Seetharaman (Mridangam), Ravi Balasubramaniam (Ghatam) and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (Kanjira). The second part of the performance will the feature the newly-formed ensemble.

Besides conceptualizing this project and composing music for the new ensemble, Kiranavali will lead it as the Vocalist and Chitravina artist. Accomplished Mridangam player Vinod Seetharaman will collaborate with Kiranavali in arranging the percussion section of the new compositions. Six guest artists from different parts of the United States complete the ensemble: V V S Murari (Violin), Nirmala Rajasekar (Vina), N Muralikrishnan (Electronic keyboard), Prasant Radhakrishnan (Saxophone), Ravi Balasubramaniam (Ghatam) and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (Rhythmic solfage and Kanjira).

As part of the project, each artist gave an interview and spoke briefly about their instrument in the realm of Carnatic music. Below are some videos on the saxophone from my interview. What is said here is really just a taste, perhaps to inspire further inspiration or interest. I also wrote a brief article on the subject here. Please check the website regularly to see all the other artists, their interviews as well as their articles.