The 34th Baithak on 2 February 2020 in Alt-Treptow features Carnatic musicians Aarti Swaminathan (vocals), Vijay Kannan (flute), and Balakrishna Rao (mridangam). Entry: donation.
About Carnatic music:
Carnatic music is the art music of South India. Purandara Dasa is considered the father of Carnatic music. Carnatic music has primarily been associated with Bhakti although as a music form it is quite diverse and complex. It has evolved over the centuries thanks to different composers (vaggeyakaras) and performers which include the Trinity of Carnatic music: Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, and Shyama Shastri.
About the artists:
Vocal: Aarti Swaminathan
Aarti Swaminathan was initiated into Carnatic vocal music at the age of five at Trivandrum, India. After her initial training under Sri Padmanabhan and Smt. Chithra Sureshkumar, she took up advanced lessons from Karur Sri Krishnamoorthy and Smt G. Seethalakshmi, a senior disciple of Semmangudi Sri Srinivasa Iyer. Apart from being associated with Carnatic vocal music for the past 22 years, Aarti has also learned Carnatic violin from Smt. Padma and Sri Easwara Varma. She has been regularly giving concerts from a very early age and has won awards and prizes including the prestigious G N Balasubramaniam Memorial Award. Aarti moved to Berlin in 2015 to pursue her PhD in Biology from Göttingen where she had completed her Master's degree. She has been a regular contributor to and performer for the Göttingen and Berlin Indian music scene. Currently she is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Charité university hospital in Berlin.
Flute: Vijay Kannan
Vijay Kannan has been associated with music from the age of six. Having been trained in Carnatic singing, he took up the flute out of a fascination for the instrument and learned to play on his own. His passion for music has resulted in collaborations all over the world. He has released four albums in a series titled "Haunting Bamboo", which contains improvisational Indian ragas rendered on the bamboo flute with an emphasis on aiding meditation and relaxation. He's a regular in the jazz, world music, and improv scene in Berlin and Germany and also regularly dons the role of a music advisor and session musician in the Indian film industry. Also a composer and music producer, he has had his works featured in the BBC and used in independent films and documentaries. He completed his PhD in electrical engineering and lived in Berlin for the past nine years.
Mridangam: Balakrishna Rao
Born in a musical family, Balakrishna Rao started to learn mridangam at the age of eight, from his father Soorali R Ganesha Murthy, a renowned mridangist from Karnataka. He was later attracted to the playing style of Kalaimamani Srimushnam Sri V Raja Rao and moved to Chennai to take up advanced training from him under the gurukula system for three years. Balakrishna has won several prizes and accolades in mridangam competitions and has been part of various concert series in music festivals in India and abroad. His musical tours have taken him to various countries in Europe and China where his mridangam accompaniment has been well received and appreciated. He has completed his PhD in physics at Saarland University, Germany, in 2016 and is currently working as a research scientist for Daimler in Stuttgart.
