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Symphonies in the sacred land of Jerusalem, Israel- 18 Nov,2009
(click here to read).
Music on historical terrain - Tunis, 21 Oct, 2009
(click here to read).
Strums & Strains at Norway, May 2009
(click here to read).
Audience Speak - Rasika Shri.V.Prabhakar Rao's description of Sudha's concert at Singapore,Feb 9, 2008
(click here to read).
Sounds of Music in Dubai-November 2007
(click here to read).
As the voice and soul of Carnatic music Sudha has
contributed immensely to the increasing acceptance,
awareness and 'hosannas' for music in its purest
form. Representing this form, Sudha is one of the
few Indians to have enthralled packed audiences
at International Music Festivals and Concerts held
in the U.S., Canada, UK , South Africa, Australia,
New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Phillipines,
Indonesia, The Middle East, Switzerland, Germany,
Denmark, France, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden,
Luxembourg, Belgium and Sri Lanka.
Sudha was also the first Indian vocal artiste
to perform at the prestigious Sfinks Festival held
at Antwerp in July 2002.This was the first time
that Carnatic music was represented as a music form.
Sudha has the exceptional honor of being the first
Indian and only Asian to have performed
at the International Festival - ECHTERNACH at Luxembourg.
The Theatre De la Ville, Paris, France is a congregation
of the connoisseurs of music and is the ultimate
destination for artistes par excellence. Sudha's
performance to a packed auditorium there is a cherished
moment. Sudha also has the honor of having performed
at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Centre, at New
York Broadway to commemorate 50 years of the Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan.
The Theatre De la Ville, Paris, France is a congregation
of the connoisseurs of music and is the ultimate
destination for artistes par excellence. Sudha's
performance to a packed auditorium there is a cherished
moment. Sudha also has the honor of having performed
at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Centre at New York
Broadway to commemorate 50 years of the Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan.
The Global Vocal Meeting, Germany has exceptional
singers coming from different parts of the world
to join and create a unique vocal experience. Common
ingredients like time, musical ideas, curiosity
and desire to walk off beaten tracks have guided
the Global Vocal Meeting into an open musical space
and an exciting experience of vocal sounds for artists,
participants, and performers. Artistically this
project reaches a point where world music becomes
real, respecting the differences of various cultural
backgrounds as part of a creating process.
Click here for details
Global presence
The Global Group
Sudha at Stimmen
Sudha is the only Indian vocalist to have participated
in the Global Vocal Meeting organized by the 'BURGHOF'
an Academy of Music and Arts at Lorrach, Germany
and produced by STIMMEN VOICES INTERNATIONAL VOCAL
FESTIVAL. This group has toured some of the best
halls in the USA -Cleveland , Tuscon in Arizona,
Los Angeles and Chicago.
Sudha participated in the Stimmen Festival, Lorrach
in 2001 and presented a two hour Carnatic vocal
recital. This concert was a part of the month long
celebration of World Music and critics raved that
Sudha took the audience into a trance - a divine
one.
Click here for reviews
The Hindu's review of
the Stimmen Festival
Le rythme de la parole…..The rhythm of
speech 2005
Further stages and milestones have been achieved
since Keyvan Chemirani’s work two years ago, on
the rhythm of speech. Post various encounters and
conversations, a new rhythmic form was developed,
which accommodated voices from other traditions,
while in continuity with the parental tradition.
A Persian, Indian and Malian world harmonized within
an over-arching structural concept, which permits
everyone to express themselves according to the
rules and discipline of their own artistic tradition.
As ever, the rhythm of speech has been drummed out
through the fingertips and the hollow of the hand
as new encounters, combinations and ways of accompanying
have been explored in the course of numerous experimental
sessions, concerts and discussions, culminating
in the studio event of July 2005! And brought to
life at l’Abbaye de Royaumont.
As the project got underway at Royaumont, the musicians
worked with linguists. Kevyan Chemirani took, as
the starting point, the metrical essence of each
language in order to fit it to the singers’ breathing
patterns. Rhythmical structures were revealed as
motifs, tools, permitting easy passage from one
musical culture to another. Basing itself on Indian
and Persian verse, the work proceeded to a more
complex stage in which Sudha Ragunathan searched
for common modes of expression….modes not too far
removed from each other, whether they are Carnatic,
Persian or Malian!
Born out of the urge to change places in order to
find common ground, The Rhythm of Speech is infused
with the cultural traditions of each of the ten
musicians who collaborated in bringing together
languages with parallel vocal and rhythmic patterns,
which might either clash or harmonize.
It was an unusual project, particularly for Sudha,
our Shakti and fountain of vital energy. She is
the initiator of the sacred music of Southern India
and of the science of Carnatic music. In this Rhythm
of Speech, Opus 2, she has put her voice at the
disposal of a team and made available Hindu mantras,
the formulas of her art, for others to listen to
and utilize. “It was a bit nerve racking to start
with because I wasn’t sure if my voice would marry
with the rest of the project. I learned that the
music you carry within yourself is that which we
call ‘nada’ in relation to sound. I understood that
sound has no barrier and even when you work with
voices, you don’t know you can still manage to integrate
with them. It has been a big discovery for me to
find that sound can be fused into one unity.
Listening to Nahawa Doumbia, I realized that rhythm
is a predominant element and that the melodic techniques
are very close to certain ragas of our music; here
two such ragas are blended with Nahawa’s singing.
Working with the three musicians who accompany me
in this project, felt at first like walking through
a deep forest. The violinist Embar Kannan, Raman
Ramakrishnan on the Jew’s harp and Skanda Subramanian
Sundararajan on the mridangam, (two- way percussion
instrument) do not have a strict uncompromising
approach to classical music and they love to be
challenged. I think they went together brilliantly.
This project has succeeded because it has spiritual
dimension to it. During the course of this exeperience,
I’ve had some very curious moments, as if ‘called’
by sound, especially when singing in the very uppermost
registers. When I sang with Nahawa Doumbia and Ali
Reza Ghorbani, our three voices melted through the
sound into one. I lost track of the notes or the
beat I just sang, as if propelled by cosmic energy
and pulsation.”
Click here to watch video
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