Chitravina N Ravikiran for Shri S Balachander's 90th Birth Anniversary

Veena Dr Balachander had a very close association with Ravikiran's family ever since he was captivated by his father & guru Chitravina Narasimhan's playing when the latter was in his teens. In this tribute concert, Ravikiran has recalled his interactions with the multi-faceted maestro who was renowned for his inspiring musical acumen as well as his strong convictions about several issues.

Sangita Kalanidhi Chitravina N Ravikiran, hailed as the "Mozart of India" (Wisconsin State Journal) and renowned for his "Teasing precision & dazzling effects" (New York Times) and for "Taking his music to new audiences" (CNN TV) discovered a new raga, Choodamani at age 2 and composed his first full piece at age 11.

With over 800 compositions to his credit in 5 languages - Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada - encompassing various music and dance forms like geetam, varnam, krti, tillana, padam, javali, chindu, bhajan, kavuttuvam, shabdam and his own innovative form swarakrti, maestro Ravikiran is among the most prolific topline composers in Indian Classical Music and Dance. His compositions include operatic and multi-cultural international dance productions such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Lakshmi Prabhavam, Vinayaka Vaibhavam, Almighty Trinity, Savitri, Cosmos, Illusion to Resolution, Panchakriya and Pushed to the Edge.

Ravikiran was the first to compose in each of the 35 talas of Carnatic Music and also the 72-mela-ragamalika geetam. He is known for exploring interesting concepts such as "schematic svarakshara" pieces (where svaraksharas themselves have an underlying theme in each line like SR - RR - GR - MR or S,D - R,D - G,D- M,D etc) and innovative approaches to incorporating Raga-mudra (name of raga) in multiple ways within the same composition (like in the krti, "Adharam nee enakku" where the raga name Kedaram appears directly or suggestively 8-9 times). Known for discovering ragas like Keshavapriya, Vaishnavi, Katyayani, Mohini and Andhakarini, Ravikiran has also composed hundreds of pallavis (often extempore in his concerts) as well as introduced new approaches in rhythm including Seamless Korvais and Mathemagical patterns.

For more information on Ravikiran as composer including his contributions in world music and Melharmony collaborations with Western Classical, Jazz, Rock and other genres of music, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitrav...