KOCHI: Since childhood, his life has entwined with music. He still has the fragmented images of his father’s thidambu nritham performance and the recital of Sanskrit slokas by his mother. Growing up, he didn’t have to think twice to choose music as his future. The musical journey of Govinda Prasad, the Payyannur-based musician has been from rags to riches.
“It was always been an eventful journey. The struggles that I have gone through in childhood made the perfect platform to flourish art in me. With the help of my parents, I have started learning Mridangam,” says Govinda Prasad.
Interestingly, the musician, known for his performances in morsing, is actually a master in Mridangam. “The sheer passion to make it big has helped me in setting my bars high. Along with performing temple duties and thidamb nritham performances at various venues, I managed time to learn Mridangam. When the necessity came, I learned Morsing on my own,” says.
He learned Mridangam under famous musicians such as Kaithapram Vishwanathan Nambudiri, Jayakrishnan, S Dinesh and many among others. “I was very conscious about having institutional training and joined Combative Memorial Government Music College, Palakkad, and later moved into Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Thiruvananthapuram. I completed my MA in Mridangam from RLV College of Music from Tripunithura,” says Prasad.
Having performed at numerous stages with various musicians, he considers the performance at Navaratri Mandapam, Thiruvananthapuram, with Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma as the most memorable among all. “I was lucky enough to share the stage with musicians like Balamuralikrishna. The performance with Thamburan was the most cherished one. Since childhood, I have been listening to many stories of scintillating performances by many musicians at Navarathri Mandapam. The day I performed on the same stage, it was a ‘dream-come-true’ moment for me,” says the musician.