The Carnatic classical music, which was popular only in South India, has been taken across the globe by many musicians today. The intricacies and the melody of the music has attracted large number of audience and many youngsters are pursuing their education in music with sheer love for the art.
Here is one such ace violin artiste, S Yashasvi who took up music as his career due to his passion towards the art. He is part of the Carnatic classical music instrument ensemble, Layalahari.
When we interacted with the artiste, he spoke at length about his journey in the world of music. Having started his music education at the age of 12, initially he was under the tutelage of his parents A Subbarao and Kamala Subbarao. He gave his first performance at the age of 17. “Practice, patience and perseverance are the key words for a music student. This enhances inner knowledge of music and makes one a good musician. The youngsters today have innumerable opportunities and platforms to showcase their talents when compared to the yesteryears,” Yashasvi says.
Many musicians believe that today many youngsters are giving up lucrative jobs to pursue music as a profession. Yashasvi also agrees and says, “To become a professional, a musician is required to dedicate oneself to the art and devote time for the subject.” Bringing out some of the negative aspects, he said, “All musicians are not made to walk on the red carpet unless a he or she gains fame through subjective knowledge. There are also many who are highly knowledgeable and have good hold on subject, but their talent is never recognised.” With several years of experience and regular practice, the artiste has imbibed different styles of music from Dr R K Srikantan and Anoor S Ramakrishna. His clarity of thought and the expression of different Sangathis while performing alapana or swara kalpana depicts that he is clearly influenced by the legendary musicians like M S Gopalakrishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman and others. He says, “Violinists should be knowledgeable to adopt to any style of music rendition and play accordingly as they accompany artistes from various schools of music. While accompanying the vocalist or any instrumentalist, either in alapana or swara prasthara or neraval, the accompanying violinist should bring out the same essence within a very limited time.” The artiste has also tried his mettle in some fusion concerts collaborating with the German and Russian symphony. Speaking about the collaborations, he said, “In fusion concerts, the music will not be exactly classical, but it is based on classical music. Yehudi Menuhin is one of my favourite western violinists whose recordings are always played at home.” The time limit of a concert rendition has reduced when compared to the times where the stalwarts of the Indian Classical music like M L Vasantha Kumari, M S Subbu Lakshmi, Semmangudi Srinivas Iyer and others performed. Some musicians believe that it is due to the coming of the CDs and DVDs and also due to the time constraint, the audience presence for the live concert is reducing.
“With the change of time, musical renditions have also been changed accordingly, but the original sphere of music has remained the same. The values of musical hearing is changed in the audience. The young musicians should not bring down values of music rather educate the audience and take them to higher values of music.”
Some of the memorable concerts that still remains fresh in his mind includes a concert with his father A Subbarao, with his guru R K Srikantan in the prestigious Sringeri Navarathi festival. “Layalahari concert in Rajbhavan led by Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma still remains fresh in mind because of the highest music values it held. Secondly, the musicians I played with are wizards in the field of music.”