Indo-French tunes for a musical evening

Musician Ravichandra talks to CE about classical music, following his passion that took him across the world, and more
Indo-French tunes for a musical evening

CHENNAI: Flautist Ravichandra Kulur has come a long way from his hometown in Udupi. Raised in a family of musicians, he learnt at a very early age that music can unite people irrespective of cultures and backgrounds. His father used to play the flute too, his mother the violin and his brother was trained in mridangam. Armed with Kulur’s instrument of choice — the flute, City Express had a chat with him about his upcoming performances, compositions and more.

While his father was a lecturer of commerce, and he is an engineer by formal education, we asked him why he chose to make a profession in music. “Once you get into art, it’s hard to come out of it. It gets addictive once people see talent and appreciation. I want to be a performer for the rest of my life,”
he smiles.

Ravi’s flute has taken him across the globe — New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Passionskirche in Berlin, and he met a fellow flautist and friend, Jean-Luc Thomas at one such festival in Germany. “I was representing India and Jean was representing France. We became friends and the collaboration happened very naturally,” he smiles, as he preps for his concert with Jean at Alliance Francaise on January 19.
Trained in South Indian classical music, we ask him about the importance of learning music. “Learning any form of art is very important. Kids should be taught their traditions, it’s important to know where you come from. It’s like knowing your mother,” he says. We asked the musician the mistakes he sees most youngsters making today. “Music should be a priority. While PR and marketing is important, music often takes a backseat because of it,” he says.

We ask him about the status of the music scene currently, as compared to the older generations. “The older generations did so much more to spread Indian music. It has not grown in the same volume, inspite of some interesting collaborations like with folk musicians in Rajasthan,” he explains, claiming that there could be so much more.

He has shared the stage with renowned musicians like M Balamuralikrishna, Pandit Ravi Sankar, Anoushka Shankar, AR Rahman, Vital Information, Karsh Kale, are among several others. We ask him what his favourite memory is and he smiles, sharing a tale about a performance in Budapest, where he was accompanying Anoushka Sankar. “It was in the dread of winter, and we had a concert in a stadium where over 2000 tickets were sold. Hours before the concert it started pouring, and we thought nobody would turn up. We saw 500 people standing under umbrellas and smiling back at us, it felt amazing,” he shares.

(Ravichandra is all set to perform live with Jean on Jan 19 at AF Madras.
For details,  call: 28279803)

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