Venkat Raman
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Rajhesh Vaidya, one of the most popular Veena artistes has just commenced his Concert at the Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls Grammar School. He returns to New Zealand after 28 years when he travelled out of India for the first time.
Tribute to Mothers
Rajesh started the programme with ‘ Amma enrazhaikkaadha uyirillaiyae’ a highly emotional song written by the late Vaali’ and composed by Ilayaraja for the Tamil film ‘Mannan’ (1992), followed by ‘Thiruppuram Kundrathil New Siritthal’ (a Poovai Senguttuvan song rendered by Rajalakshmi and P Suseela) featured in ‘Kandan Karunai (1967) which had The late K V Mahadevan as the Music Director.
Ten Songs Non-Stop
Rajesh is currently rendering ten songs non-stop, starting with ‘Unnai Kanatha Kannum Kannalla,’ sung by P Suseela in ‘Idayak Kamalam,’ a great song written by Kannadasan and tuned by KV Mahadevan.
Organised by our community leaders and musicians including Suren Surendran, a part of the proceeds of the programme will be donated to ‘Gandhi Illam New Zealand Trust,’ a charity organisation that supports children in Sri Lanka.
About Rajhesh Vaidya
Those of us who have grown with world-renowned Veena masters such as S Balachander, Chitti Babu and Doraiswami Iyengar would appreciate the divinity of this great instrument – it is believed to be the gift of Goddess Saraswathi, who is always seen with the Veena in her hands. We have watched and applauded these maestros perform miracles with this stringed instrument.
Rajhesh is a chip of the old block. Born into a musically endowed family, he inherited the talent of his father K M Vaidyanathan, a Mridangam and Ghatam master. Inspired and encouraged by him, Rajhesh was also highly influenced by the mastery of Chitti Babu. With such pedagogues, he began to fine-tune his nuances on the Veena and the result has been magical. He later came under the tutelage of Lakshminarayana Shankar (or Shenkar).
Many thanks.
Best wishes and regards
Venkat.