The Carnatic world is dominated by vocalists. How can instrumentalists find larger audiences?

In Carnatic music, concerts with instrumentalist headliners such as the veena, flute or violin are a small fraction of performances at most music festivals, including the biggest one of them all the Chennai December season. Most concerts are centred around the vocalist.

One reason why instrumentalists struggle to find audiences for their concerts is the importance of song lyrics in Carnatic music. In Indian classical music, whether it’s Carnatic or Hindustani, the essence lies in three elements: melody (raga), rhythm (tala) and lyrics (sahitya). While melody and rhythm may require some listening experience to appreciate fully, the lyrics play a crucial role in making the songs relatable and even able to evoke a transcendental experience for the listeners.

This is especially true for Carnatic concerts with their vast collection of devotional songs in various South Indian languages.

“Instrumental concerts need a bit more elevated understanding of the music [by the audience], which is why it remains a niche field,” said Shashank Subramanyam, a self-taught flute maestro from Chennai who gave his first public concert when he was six.

Audiences “are able to relate to the sahitya [lyrics] more than the raga aspect”, agreed Dr RV Raghavendra, founder and managing trustee of Ananya GML Cultural Academy, a Bangalore-based organisation that has been promoting performing arts for more than 25 years.

While organising concerts at Ananya, Raghavendra’s team solicits the opinion of rasikas who regularly attend the organisation’s concerts. “They [the rasikas] tell us how the sahitya of a simple Purandaradasa song is more important [to them] than the raga part of the concert,” he said.

However, Raghavendra acknowledged that if the performer is a well-known instrumentalist, the decision to host a concert by them becomes easier. “We had no problem getting people for a saxophone concert by Dr Kadri Gopalnath as he had a fan following,” he said.

But it becomes a challenge for young instrumentalists, he noted. “In an auditorium that seats 350 there are 40 to 50 people at such concerts” said Raghavendra.

It has not been any easier for Carnatic instrumentalists outside India. “I think that the opportunities have stayed somewhat consistent, at least here in the US,” said veena player Dr Guhan Venkataraman, 28, who lives in San Francisco. Venkataraman gave his first veena concert when he was 12 and performs at least once a month.

Globally acclaimed veena player Nirmala Rajasekar, who lives in Minnesota, echoed this sentiment. “I cannot say the situation is not good [for me] but I think it could be better with more instrumental concerts,” she said. “I don’t think anywhere it is equitable and a vocalist always seems to have the most number of performances in any festival and that’s how it has always been.”

Rajasekar gave her first public concert when she was 13 years old and has been playing in main concert slots for more than four decades, including at the famed Chennai music season in December.

Venkataraman, who is on the AI team of a biotech firm, noted that it is extremely difficult for an instrumentalist to make a career a career in music. “It is exceedingly difficult to earn a name, and it is even harder to maintain a name,” he said. “While the ceilings of a stellar music career can make you a legend, the floor of a steady income is so much higher to sustain a lifestyle, especially here in the US.”

Rajasekar agreed. “I have many promising students, playing fantastically but what they’re going to do, we’ll have to wait because I know that some of them want to become professional musicians,” she said.

Venkatraman hopes that as time goes on, it will be better for instrumental musicians. “It’s a chicken-and-egg situation,” he said. “What will come first, more opportunities for musicians, or more instrumental musicians?”

The way forward

In the absence of song lyrics, how are instrumentalists holding their own? “This is where the science of music plays a part,” said Subramanyam, the flute player. “I don’t always say intellectual music sells to the masses, no matter how good it is. Virtuosity is never easy and in that aspect flute has done very well with its range and adaptability.”

Though Indian instruments with a long pedigree such as the flute, veena, nadaswaram and violin (which has been Indianised for over a century) continue to face challenges being the headliners, it has not stopped a series of other western instruments appearing on the Carnatic stage. The guitar, the mandolin, piano, saxophone and clarinet have appeared on the Carnatic stage at different periods.

As with any change, audience reactions have ranged from curiosity and at times disdain and dismissal to surprise and kudos. Yet artists old and young have taken the risk of not merely trying out these instruments but in many instances promoting them by playing them exclusively and helping them thrive. This happened, as music writer A Seshan eloquently put it, through a “process of adoption, adaptation and assimilation” to the Carnatic idiom.

Instrumentalists and concert organisers have attempted many innovative ways to bring instrumental concerts to performance spaces. Festivals such as the Nadhaswaram Music Festival, Violin Vaibhavam, Vipanchika Mahotsavam and the recent Mahindra Percussion Festival in Bangalore have not only created opportunities for instrumentalists but also made audiences aware of newer musical sounds and artists.

Ensembles like the Veena Gaanam featuring more than 30 veena players on stage at the annual Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana for the last decade have been a way to highlight the stringed instrument.

Creating such opportunities for musicians playing similar instruments in an ensemble have also been uplifting since Carnatic concerts are typically solo oriented. “Creating space to bring multiple veenas is one way I have found that brings in a lot more interest, because so many things can be harnessed and can make it [the performance] more interesting,” said Rajasekar who conducts the Veena Gaanam. “People have started to wait for this [event] to happen every year.”

Collaborations with instrumentalists from other musical genres have created opportunities in global music festivals. Maithree, an ensemble formed by Rajasekar in 2018 with Carnatic mridangist Thanjavur K Murugaboopathi, cellist Michelle Kinney, and brothers Pat (clarinet) and Tim O’Keefe (drums) have created original music with Indian, Irish and Turkish tunes.

Subrahmanyan has collaborated with musicians across genres such as sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee, guitar players Vishwa Mohan Bhat and John McLaughlin and Pierre Dorge and his New Jungle Orchestra.

A Carnatic Quartet, an ensemble of violinist Shreya Devnath with Mylai Karthikeyan (nadhaswaram) Praveen Sparsh (mridangam) and two thavil artistes Adyar G Silambarasan and Gummudipoondi R Jeevanandham blend classical, folk, and electronic music, as well as collaborate with artists who perform Villupaatu, a traditional folk art form from Tamil Nadu.

All these innovations are creating opportunities for instrumentalists, but they have yet to significantly impact the traditional circuit of sabhas or organisations that hold concerts. Addressing the curation process and programming approach of sabhas is crucial. As Subramanyam noted, “Barring a few sabhas, there has not been much change year after year in terms of programming and concert format.”

Some instrumentalists argue for a paradigm shift in making instrumental music more dynamic and vocal-like. Prasanna, a guitarist, expressed this view in an interview with The New Sunday Express. “Jazz is constantly evolving, while Carnatic music is static,” he said.

Word of mouth about artist calibre remains a factor influencing concert opportunities. However, social media has significantly changed the landscape, providing vocalists and instrumentalists with easier ways to build their brands and connect with audiences. This has made it somewhat easier for organisers to feature them.

Nevertheless, young and popular instrumentalists like Ramana Balachandhran (veena), Mylai Karthikeyan (nadhaswaram), and JA Jayanth (flute) are still relatively few in number compared to their vocalist counterparts in the circuit.

By utilising innovative teaching methods, developing new platforms and forming collaborations across genres, instrumentalists could enhance audience appreciation and create more opportunities for themselves.

Chitra Srikrishna is a Carnatic vocalist based in Bangalore. Her website can be accessed here.