Muttuswami Dikshitar Jayanti, March 30, 2009

My guru Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan led this effort to render some lesser known compositions of Muttuswami Dikshitar at a program arranged by Nada Inbam in Chennai.




The compositions that grew on me in the course of preparing for this concert were the meditative shrI nIlOtpala nAyikE (rAga nArI-rItigauLa), sprightly gOvindarAjam upasmahE nityam (mukhArI), and brooding gaurI girirAjakumArI (gaurI).

One of Kalpakam teacher's new students, Dr. Sivashree Gopalakrishnan, who has done her Sanskrit dissertation on Dikshitar, provides the narrative for the concert.

Kalpakam Swaminathan and L Ramakrishnan - Veena
Vasumathi Desikan and Sivashree Gopalakrishnan - Vocal
Amritha Murali - Violin
Tanjore Kumar - Mrudangam