Tune in to the record maker
CHENNAI: Having been introduced to music at five, it’s no wonder that MS Martin has such affinity for teaching music to kids. A gold medallist in BA Music from Annamalai University and student of scholar-musician TK Govinda Rao, the Guinness record holder will attempt another world record for largest keyboard concert next week, and City Express catches up with the master musician for a chat.
After training as a vocalist, Martin started focussing on adapting and composing Carnatic music for the keyboard.
Awarded the Isaimamani award by Annamalai University in 1993, he was a pioneer in introducing keyboard classes to Chennai (with a deep base in Carnatic music) through the Sivan Arts Academy.
“The response I received made me concentrate on keyboard training to train more classically aware keyboardist and pianists in the city. Today, I train young students in synchronising and transferring vocal nuances onto the keyboard,” he says.
His attempts at giving more exposure to students led him to organise large scale concerts, which in turn has led to creating records. “The first attempt was in 2009 for Limca Book of Awards,” he adds. “Nearly 75 keyboardists played in an ensemble at Narada Gana Sabha, where SP Balasubrahmanyam and late K Balachander were the chief guests,” he smiles. But by far the crowning glory for him was in 2011, when he and his 109 students won the Guinness World Record for the largest electronic keyboard ensemble, at The Music Academy.
On his teaching experience, he says, “The nuances of Carnatic vocals are hard to learn and harder to translate to the keyboard, but I have made it my aim to make it as easy as possible!” However, he does not restrict his teaching to Carnatic music and is adept at Western instrumentals as well. This is corroborated by the rapport he shares with his students.
Martin has also adopted the theme of ending child labour with his latest Guinness record attempt to be held on May 1 at St Bede’s Auditorium. “This will be a mega-concert with nearly 600 children from across Tamil Nadu. We have been planning this for over two years.” The planning and logistics were done through the Madhuradhwani Sangeetha Sabha that he is a part of and trains children in instrumental music.
Initially they were looking at a 1,000 keyboardists but he had to cut it down due to space constraints. “We have nearly 100 kids in the waitlist...the exposure is more important than the record for them,” he says. There are also 15 visually challenged students who will be part of the ensemble, apart from children from government aided schools.
The song list includes two versions of Vande Mataram, Acham Acham Illai and Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram.
The concert will be held on May 1 at St Bede’s Auditorium, Santhome. The entry is free for all