Vignesh Ishwar (Carnatic Vocal)

HN Bhaskar - Violin

Akshay Anantapadmanabhan - Mridangam

Anirudh Athreya - Khanjira

Vignesh Ishwar has a plateful of skill set . A powerful but flexible voice and a keen musical sense are the chief ones, as he demonstrated at the Music Academy. A seesaw in the tempo of a concert is often recommended to break the monotony and to offer varied experiences. But if carried too far, some parts could be a drag, as he must have discovered in this concert.

On his initial years in music, Vignesh says, “TSA Sir laid a thorough and extremely solid foundation. It took 3 years to reach varNam-s.” His grandmother would escort him to his classes, listen outside the door and take methodical notes on TSA’s suggestions. “She used to make me sing the alankAram-s backwards in tri-kAlam, in swaram and in akAram,” he says, felicitously demonstrating. TSA added the further variation of singing each line of alankAram in a different rAgam, changing one note each time.