Vocal concert ~ Balaji Shankar @ Toronto, July '97
Sri Balaji Shankar gave a 3.5 hr vocal concert at Toronto on 5 July 97
to the able accompaniment of Sri Ganesh Prasad (violin) and Sri Poongulam Subramanyam (mridangam). This is their first visit to North America and the audience was quite clearly in favour of adding their names to the "Can-Come-Again" list !The main pieces were: "kanakangi" in ragam thodi(ata thala varnam) of pallavi gopala iyer; "narasimha nannu" in ragam bilahari of Thyagaraja; "thalli ninnu" in ragam kalyani of Syama Sastri; and ragam-thanam-pallavi in karaharapriya.
This is the first time anyone has sung this varnam at Toronto and a few rasikas expressed their happiness with this choice. Balaji impressed the audience with his excellent voice-quality , the
range, the confident way with which he handled laya-aspects and the
general sincerity he portrayed on the stage. His melodious modulations
especially in "Ranganayakam" and Meera Bhajan were very effective.
By adding items like Meera Bhajans, Balaji added a non-DKJ/DKP
dimension ---an enjoyable one---- to the concert in addition to the many
DKJ/DKP chestnuts he served. Good luck to all the youngsters ....perhaps the youngest to have visited us this year!