Last class for 2010

Today was the last music class for the Fall semester. Our next semester will start from January. In today's class, Shuchita taught us Vande Mataram.

Yesterday Learnquest had its annual recital held at the Waltham Public Library's recital hall. Kirti, Nila and I presented raag Durga. Our piece comprised of an opening aalap, chota khayal followed by alaaps and taans. We were accompanied by Shuchita on the Harmonium and another person on the Tabla. I probably should have asked someone to record the performance.

Riyaaz

I had called my parents in India yesterday. I could not speak with them since they had stepped out for a morning walk. Mira Masi happened to receive my call. She is visiting family in Bhubaneswar but will return to Delhi soon. We chatted for some time. She asked me about my music classes. I told her that the music classes are over for the summer and will resume from Fall onwards. She asked me if I am doing my riyaaz regularly. It's then I realized to my disappointment that it has been a while since I have done any riyaaz if at all. Who knows-that's probably why I could not recover from my sore throat before the contest: my voice was just not strong enough to sustain even minor ailments. Mira Masi is a professional Sitar player herself and has performed on several occasions. She reminded me of the importance of riyaaz for our vocal well-being, not to mention how relaxing and meditative the experience is. I hope I get back to my normal routine soon.

SaReGaMaPa Finale

The last few weeks have not been very encouraging for me. I fell ill with a sore throat. Though I recovered not long after, but the hoarseness lingered and continues until today. It did not make it easy for me. I had to completely cut down on my practice. With three songs to prepare (not to mention the group song), I strongly felt that I could not practice much if at all.

Fortunately my voice did not break during my semi-final performance like I had apprehended. I could see my music teacher Shuchita from the stage and the satisfied expression on her face made me feel good while delivering my performance. Also there were a few other girls from my music class who were sitting in the audience and who I respect as good singers. Their gestures during my performance and their comments later were very encouraging as well. Also I am happy I could sustain this whole episode-I had almost lost my voice a few days back. Talk about timing or rather mistiming!

Nevertheless, this experience was amazing. I loved practicing my songs whenever I could and discovering the subtle renditions every time I sang. I loved getting the hang of the song Mere Dholna from Bhool Bhulaiyaa. I had first heard Anwesha perform this song in the Chote Ustad Finale. I wish I could have sung this one in the finals. I believe I could have done justice to the song.

Some of the results of the contest were expected but I have to admit that there were a few surprises as well! Although all in all, it was a very humbling as well as an inspiring experience to hear so many good performances out there. Each participant had his/her unique nuances. This contest reinforced my thoughts on my own musical strengths while at the same time being an eye opener for me on areas that I need to work on. I am very happy that I was given an opportunity to prepare for and participate in this event. The Finale is finally over but this is not the end, it's just the beginning and I am so looking forward to it! :-)

Through to the semi-finals

Not long back back, I got an email from the SaReGaMaPa committee confirming my selection into the semi finals. I was feeling very happy not so much for cracking it but more so for getting an opportunity to prepare and compete against talented vocalists. I have been a fan of shows like SRGMP, VOI and Chotte Ustad. And it has always been my wish to compete on a similar platform although when I was in India, they did not have a whole lot of those shows.

Today after my music class (the last one for this semester), I had to hang around in Waltham for almost two hours because we were going to have our first group practice for the SRGMP finale on June 26th. It did not make sense to come home and drive back to Waltham again. So I ate a late lunch at Kabab and Tandoor, an Indian restaurant right next to LearnQuest. Then I snoozed off inside my car in the parking lot. Next the sound of thunder woke me up, just in time. It was raining cats and dogs. So I decided to go back to the venue before it got worse.

I met other semifinalists for the first time. There were other instrumentalists accompanying us. It was fun singing with the group. The song was Rang De from the movie My Name is Khan. And it sounded quite well. I also met one of the committee members who pointed out that I am one of the few semifinalists who hasn't responded with my song selection. For the finale, we are supposed to prepare three songs, one for the semi final round, and two for the final event. Only 5 of the 20 semi finalists will be singing in the evening event. Unfortunately, two of the songs I had in mind were already taken by another participant. So I picked some other songs (that I am not too familiar with but that I like). Now that my song selection is finalized officially, it is about time that I start looking for the karaoke tracks and start practicing.

NEHM SaReGaMaPa

The SaReGaMaPa contest is coming up soon. They have different audition dates starting from April 24th. I have requested to be auditioned on May 9th in the Framingham venue. I still haven't got a confirmation yet. The semifinals and finals are on 26th of June. I am excited to be just a part of this. Though I am still wondering what songs to chose. For now, I have to come up with something for the audition.

I found out about the dropbox website where some of our music class files have been uploaded. May be that's a good place to upload my recordings for feedback.

The interesting part here is that both the audition as well as the final events are scheduled shortly after two races that I have registered to run this year: one is the Cox Rhodes races half marathon in May and the other one is the 5K JP Morgan Challenge on 24th of June. Hopefully my voice is intact after the race. :)

Kailash Kher concert

After much dilly dallying, I decided to go to the concert. I have always been a fan of Kher's voice. He has a unique voice in the Indian music industry and I love a lot of his songs. So obviously when I found out about the concert, I was curious to go and hear him out in person. The only problem was that I had my last tennis day of this season and there was a game. But I somehow managed to go and play a few sets and leave. The whole madness was an adventure itself. It was a very busy day at work-I had an important presentation of my findings in the HG2 huddle. And then I headed for the tennis match. From there I drove down to Alewife station, parked my car and took the Red line to Davis Sq. station, just one stop from Alewife. The theatre was a stone's throw away from the T-stop. I almost thought that I will miss it as I was told that the ticket counter was supposed to close at 8pm. My plan was to initially buy the ticket online before I left work but by then I realized that the online ticket counter was closed.

Coming back to the concert, this was my first one in US. But it was worth all the madness I went through to get there. :o) Kher's voice was even more powerful when I heard him in person. It was awesome. Some guys were commenting on his accent when we stepped out of the theatre later that night. But who cares what his accent is. We were there to hear him out, and I have no complaints about what he had in store for us that evening. In fact, he performed most of my favorite numbers and it was almost magical hearing him sing those again. I say "almost" because I feel that better AV acoustics would have made the sound effects perfect. Luckily, he has such a hich-pitched and powerful voice that it was great nevertheless. I was also impressed by his music partners, Naresh and Paresh Kamath, who apparently are the music directors for most of his albums. In fact, I liked the whole team on stage-very smart and talented!