Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival (CTF) has become the most sought after event even for the established Carnatic musicians outside of India. The festival has been tirelessly engaging the Indian community across the American continent for an annual coming together that celebrates Carnatic as a tradition. This year, visiting the Cleveland festival for the eighth consecutive year is a Chennai-based music institution, Sishyakulam that has reimagined Carnatic tradition’s presentation format. Its managing director, the young and vibrant Shankar Santhanagopalan, tells me more about the new format.
But first, here are a few broad strokes that will paint the cultural scene of the Indian diaspora in North America. As much as the community is tuned to pop culture and contemporary forms, they prioritise classical artforms over others for their richness and depth. The feasibility and availability for this goes to the pioneering efforts of a few good Samaritans, who sowed the cultural seeds as early as the 1970s. Today many centres of performing arts have mushroomed in various parts. The Indian diaspora’s socio-cultural engagements here not only exemplifies how they are dedicated in strengthening their cultural roots, but also demonstrates how traditions are inclusive. Through that lens, they add to India’s unity and diversity in a far more pronounced manner.
What was missing in this scenario was a place where parents and students could meet, interact with peers from other regions more often without always having to wait for their India trip. This need was met when Sishyakulam proposed the EPIC Choir. “When we studied the Indian classical music landscape in the United States, we observed that the Carnatic music community was widespread but fragmented. EPIC Choir was conceived to be a platform to bring students from across the country together to be part of something larger than their regional exposure to the artform,” Shankar shared.
“The choral ensemble format enabled us to introduce young learners to contemporary compositions rooted in Carnatic idioms. Since its debut at the CTF in 2015, it has delivered nearly 50 original compositions — each crafted to balance artistic depth with accessibility,” he further explained.
Through EPIC Choir, the institution’s mission also expanded, fostering cross-cultural collaboration, inclusivity and innovation. He explained how every single piece performed over the years in the choir has added a new colour to the existing vocabulary. He felt the format gives an early exposure to advanced concepts of Carnatic music such as rare ragas, nottu swarams, asymmetric talas and intricate lyrical structures. When probed more, he even demonstrated how the compositional works distilled complexity without compromising artistic integrity.
Freed from geographic and bani-based silos, this years’ participants in the EPIC Choir included teachers and students who came together in unprecedented solidarity. Of the 250 vocalists and instrumentalists who performed this year, more than two third of participants were under the age of 14. These young learners, who are already engaging with an astonishingly diverse range of material: from Thiruppugazh, Thiruvaasagam, Thirukkural, Thiruppavai, stotrams and bhajans, also got exposed to concepts like chords and harmonies borrowed from Western music. Some students who were already exposed to other world music formats used this opportunity as a bridge for a better grasp of the nuances embedded within the Carnatic form.
An incredible opportunity
How better to comprehend cultural pluralism, exchange, and tolerance than by connecting with nativity and traditions that have shown continuity? Without doubt, the opportunity would develop insights on how our native forms inherently accommodate reinventions. Even if the revelation doesn’t happen immediately, the experiential aspect of learning an Indic art form has the effect of a chemical titration. The reward of engaging with it will dawn one fine day. When it does, its alchemy would be cathartic, even satiating the existential thirst, lending a vision that will connect many dots.
Although pop culture and contemporary forms are impressively layered and relatively stylised today, when it comes to reinventing within the frameworks of Indian classical forms, it is quite challenging. Besides, traditions are designed as a path to self-discovery where the entertainment value, one-up-manship, and commerce are muted. With these factors sidelined, classical art forms and knowledge traditions become demanding as a discipline; due to which it has become a niche or an elite activity.
To understand reinvention within classical forms, what is important to know is that the walls of traditions are to be pushed from within, and never for the sake of being inventive. Only a sound, informed, balanced artist who is self-content and comfortable in their elements can even attempt to bring about change in it. A measure of success of a reinvention, many times, is a very slow process that only the passage of time decides. Having said that, EPIC Choir has all the right ingredients to become a success story as the objective of introducing choir into Carnatic was never to mirror the Western format. Rather, it was solely designed to reimagine Carnatic tradition of a certain scale so that a beginner can absorb the elements of its musical scope with joy, while a seasoned rasika can also take delight in the nuances presented. This dual impact, along with the attitude of mentors in wanting to be of service to the Indian art’s global future, adds as true reasons.