53 f Academy Ward
Veena player Hari Sivanesan has been this year’s beneficiary of Radio 3’s artist mentoring scheme, the World Routes Academy. The BBC’s Hélène Frisby has the travelling tales.
I
f, like me, you’re feeling overworked and just can’t wait for your summer holiday, wait till you hear about the life of Hari. Quite how he has man- aged it remains a bit of a mystery, but
this year’s BBC Radio 3 World Routes Academy mentee Hari Sivanesan has suc- ceeded in juggling a full time job (he is a marketing officer for an IT accounting com- pany) with the demands of a BBC mentor- ing scheme which has thrown our young performer in at the deep end: to work with a highly acclaimed mentor and master singer of Carnatic music, in a variety of dif- ferent recording environments; from studio 80A in London’s Broadcasting House to vil- lage temples and composer shrines in India and Sri Lanka. Not to mention two large- scale BBC concerts over the summer (the BBC Proms and WOMAD) which will mark the finale of his nine-month mentorship. On top of all that, Hari participated in a number of radio programmes which tracked his World Routes Academy journey along every step of the way.
“This year has been a year of thinking from work to home to music without leav- ing a gap for much else,” he says. “Whether consciously or subconsciously, the next concert or next piece or the last raga is tumble-drying in my head whether I want it or not. The days start with making sure I have the right pieces on my iPod so that on my journeys I’m making best use of my time, I’m singing my songs, practicing new variations and nuances in my head on the train, while walking, while eating, whilst apparently watching TV, sometimes I forget where I’m walking. Haha”
If you did catch a World Routes Academy radio programme in the last few months, you’ll no doubt be familiar with Hari’s chuckle and jovial nature, now a bit of a trademark of our protegé who as it turns out took to radio present- ing as a fish to water. The ability to talk about their music and culture to a wider audience played in important part in choosing the 2011 protegé and Hari cer- tainly has the zing.
Even though a Londoner through and through (he was born in Greenwich, 28 years ago), Hari plays a typically South Indi- an instrument called the veena which he learned to play at the Bhavan Centre, an Indian school of music and dance in West Kensington , under the tutelage of his London Guru Smt Sivasakti Sivanesan. The veena is a member of the lute family, and being the predecessor to the sitar, it looks quite similar to its North Indian cousin even though it sounds quite different. With two
gourds, and 24 frets of brass wire set into wax, it produces a much deeper and bassier sound than the sitar and is difficult to com- pare to any other instrument because of its extraordinary fluidity. It is precisely its deep resonating timbre and extensive range that enables the instrument to closely emu- late the human voice, the most divine of all instrument in India.
Depictions of the veena date back thousands of years (she is often found in the arms of the goddess of learning, Saras- vati) and even though she may well be one of the oldest instruments on the planet, she is still pretty unknown outside of India. Compared to other Indian counterparts like the sitar you rarely hear or see the instrument on a Western concert platform.
Hari explains, “In today’s world, it’s probably underappreciated. I suppose the whole point of a veena is that it stands for tradition, for culture, hence there haven’t been many modifications to it in hundreds of years. Newer instruments like the sitar, the sarod, the violin and the Indian slide guitar (aka the mohan veena) have more appeal to a wider audience. Even amongst an Indian audience, the majority would probably prefer listening to a vocalist as they can sing along with the lyrics; hence I think it takes a certain
amount of understanding of Carnatic music to appreciate a veena”.
T
Because the veena and Carnatic music as a whole have been eclipsed by the better-known music and musicians of North India in recent decades, the Acade- my decided to focus on South India for its second edition.
he journey began in March when Hari travelled to Chennai to meet with his mentor, acclaimed Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam, who is based
there. Outside of India, Aruna is known for her collaborative works with artists from other genres such as French Gregori- an singer Dominique Vellard, but in Chennai, the capital of Carnatic music, she is considered a beacon of a rich and complex tradition of devotional singing and an exceptional performer able to win over the harshest of critics (the Indian classical scene is largely dominated by Brahmins and academics). The BBC crew got a feel for Aruna’s actual status at Hari’s very first encounter with her when our young protegé threw himself on Aruna’s office floor and and placed his head on her feet, a display of respect and very much the protocol in India when a pupil meets with a guru of that calibre.
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