K Bharat Sundar on April 22 in Auckland
Venkat Raman –
One of the most promising Carnatic Music vocalists of the modern era will make his debut in New Zealand with a concert in Auckland next month.
Rasikas New Zealand and Sangeetha Bharathi Music School are organising the musical performance of K Bharat Sundar at Raye Freedman Art Centre of Epsom Girls Grammar School, Silver Road, Epsom on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 530 pm.
Parur MS Ananthakrishnan and Melakaveri K Balaji will accompany him respectively on Violin and Mridangam.
Tickets for the programme will be on sale from April 3, 2017.
Emerging Masters Series
Priya Srinivasan of Rasikas New Zealand said that the forthcoming programme is a part of the ‘Emerging Masters Series,’ which was launched two years ago.
“Rasikas NZ and Sangeetha Bharathi are pleased to present a dynamic youngster who is making waves in the Carnatic music arena. The winner of the very first Jaya TV Carnatic Music Idol, K Bharat Sundar is amongst the top musicians of his generation,” she said.
“This is the first Concert in the series for us in 2017,” she said.
Famous Mentors
Bharat showed inclination towards Carnatic Music from a very early age and when he was six years old, he was brought under the tutelage of Gayathri Mahesh, a senior disciple of veteran vocalist OS Thyagarajan.
His other mentors and trainers were Leelavathi Gopalakrishnan and her son G Srikanth, Trichy J Venkatraman, Srimushnam Rajarao (who taught him to render Pallavis), and his current masters P S Narayanaswamy and Dr S Sowmya.
Failure was the first step on the ladder of success for Bharat. He lost in the semifinals of the ‘Ragamalika’ programme of Jaya TV but that turned out to be a phase-changer in his life and career. As a consolation prize, he was presented with a CD of Carnatic Music stalwarts.
Inspiring Vidhwans
“These CDs were my first exposure to the Carnatic music concert pattern. Now, my preference is for Carnatic music. Although I will not turn down offers from film music directors, I will decide after listening to the tune of every song. I listen to film music, rock, blues, the Beatles and so on,” he told The Hindu in an interview.
Bharat is a recipient of the three-year M S Subbulakshmi Birth Centenary Scholarship in 2015. Among the Awards that he has won are ‘Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer Youth Excellence Award’ (2016), ‘Best Vocalist Sub Senior Category Award’ of Music Academy (2016), ‘Sri Parthasarathi Swamy Sabha Dr MLV Award’ Instituted by Sudha Raghunathan (2015); ‘Isai Chudar Award’ by Karthik Fine Arts (2010).
Bharat is an active member of Sukrtam Foundation, a Non-Profit Trust founded in Chennai, by renowned Carnatic vocalist Dr Sowmya.
