Holding the Keys
While carving a place for the piano in the world of Carnatic classical music, Anil Srinivasan has also found himself
In 2013, at a festival organised by UK-based arts oufit, Milapfest, at the Southbank Centre, London, Chennai-based contemporary-classical pianist Anil Srinivasan and Bengalurubased veena artist, Jayanthi Kumaresh, conceived an idea called The Stringmasters. Inspired by their own “bi-musical” personalities, they attempted to create a vocabulary that not only merged the forms (classical and contemporary) and the instruments (piano and veena), but along the course, create something fresh, exciting and, in Srinivasan’s own words, “a third space, if you will”. On November 24, at Delhi’s India International Centre, this musical discourse that has evolved and matured over the years will find expression. For Srinivasan, who started playing the piano at three and trained formally in western classical music in Chennai, naturally imbibing Carnatic classical music, collaborations of this kind have become a “mission of sorts”. Over the course of his performance career spanning 20 years, he has engaged with classical and contemporary artists from all over India— Sikkil Gurucharan, Aruna Sairam, Sudha Ragunathan, U. Rajesh, Shashank, Rakesh Chaurasia—and has found for himself and for the piano, eclectic identities. “It has not only helped an unusual instrument find its place and a vocabulary that plays on its strengths but also helped in enlarging the discourse around Carnatic music, allowing it to reach newer audiences; and, along the way, it has been a way for me to find myself.” For the past two weekends, in Coimbatore and Madurai, Srinivasan has been travelling with his Concert in the Dark series, where he plays blindfolded in the dark to raise funds for visually challenged women who are part of a Chennai-based NGO, Gnanadarshan. “The series has made me more empathetic,” he says. “The joy on the faces of those in the audience who can’t see but for once can enjoy life on equal terms, really can’t be put down in words.” Like his versatile piano, Srinivasan too wears many hats. He is the founder of a music education company called Rhapsody that uses music to teach academic concepts across other disciplines. Since its inception six years ago, Rhapsody has reached more than 300,000 children in south India, allowing them to engage with music and find in it an anchor and stimulus for creative expression. Along the journey, the man and his piano have only come closer.
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Srinivasan’s engagements with other artists has helped the piano find its place in Carnatic music
—Akhila Krishnamurthy