When you spot young kids who perform tasks beyond their age and abilities, you call them 'prodigies'. But what do you call elderly people (80plus) who perform like youngsters and who defy their age and physical limitations?
Her music defies....
She amazes me with her padhanthram and rich repertoire of krithis and composers. Yet she is so humble. She is probably the only musician who makes it a point not to repeat songs and never uses any form of aid to help her with the lyrics.
Despite being an octogenarian, she sits on the floor, performs for 2.5 hours and rarely uses vocal support. Her vocal chords supported by her lungs (double tampura) produces powerful and evocative music. Be it executing a varnam in third kala, presenting an intricate korvai of kalpanaswarams, adeptly handling vivadi ragas, or weaving a raga alike virutham it all looks like a child's play at her age. Both her music and memory defies her age and time we live in.
Her concerts are classrooms
As much as I go to listen to music, I also use the opportunity to improve my knowledge; her concerts are classrooms. And she continues to be a water fountain sharing her knowledge with parched throats well before The Music Academy acknowledged her with the title "Sangita Kala Acharya". She is none other than Smt. Neela Ramgopal Mami who sang at Nada Inbam today supported by MR Gopinath on violin, Anathakrishnan on Mridhangam and Sethuraman on Kanjira.
Find below the gems presented by her today:
1. Varnam - Devamanohari - Patnam Subramanya Iyer - wonderful execution in 3rd kaalam
2. Satatha Gananatha - Mohanam - Purundaradasar - delectable Kalapanaswarams
3. Brihadeeshwaram Bhajarechita - Lalithapanchamam - Muthuswami Dikshithar- a rarely heard krithi
4. Darbar - Enthundi Vedalitho - Thyagaraja -another rarely sung krithi
5. Sarasijananbha Sodari - Nagagandhari - Mutthuswami Dikshithar
6. Bairavi - Upacharamu - Thyagaraja - Swaras and thaniavarthanam
7. Virutham - Mathivathanam aada - Behag, Bhageshree, Sindhubairavi
8. Tirupathi Venkataramana - Sindhubairavi - Purundaradasar
9. Thirupugazh - Yerumayil - Hamsanandi - Arunagirinathar
Not just her, her music too is vintage and divine!
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