Mayakkum Margazhi: If we do not spotlight instrumentalists, our music won’t have representation at global level, says L Subramaniam

Violin maestro and composer L Subramaniam is all set to conduct his annual Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival in Chennai this weekend. This year, the spotlight at the three-day fest will be on instrumentalists, he shares, and elaborates on what the fest means to him and what music lovers can expect...

‘MS LIT THE LAMP AND SUNG AT THE INAUGURAL FEST’The fest was started on January 11, 1992 — my father V Lakshminarayana’s birthday. We had MS Subbulakshmi lighting the lamp and singing a prayer song. Then, we had Veda chanting, nadaswaram and a series of concerts.

What’s in store this year…This year, in collaboration with Rasika Ranjani Sabha, we’re doing a three-day exclusively instrumental music festival. On Dec 20, we have nadaswaram by Vijay Karthikeyan and Prakash Ilaiyaraja, and a santoor-mandolin jugalbandi between Satish Vyas and U Rajesh. Now, the entire family is also involved. My son, Ambi, will be performing a solo. My wife Kavita is the artistic director of the event. Some young artistes performing — JA Jayant (flute), C Charulatha (veena), Indrayuddh Majumdar (sarod), and the SaPa Ensemble will be performing on Dec 21.

On Dec 22, there will be dance — Kathak by Meghranjani Medhi and Bharatanatyam by Nandini Jayakumar — followed by a jugalbandi between me and Amjad Ali Khan saab. He will be awarded the Lakshminarayana International Award 2024. Veteran dancer Padma Subrahmanyam will be the other recipient this year.

At that time, the idea was to do concerts in Chennai alone, but within a few years, the festival had lots of attention in other parts of India, and we started organising it across the country. This, in turn, created interest outside India. Now, we have held it in over 25 countries and 90-plus cities in different parts of the world. We have also collaborated with popular festivals like WOMADelaide, Chicago World Festival, and the Trans Siberian Festival, and associated with Indian artistes like Bismillah Khan, Pt Jasraj, and Amjad Ali Khan, among several others.

‘ARTISTES FROM ACROSS INDIA WERE ON THE SAME STAGE’We have also done programmes like Visions of India, where a different genre of music is presented. Listening to that, one can almost visualise the whole of India. We’ve featured artistes belonging to different traditions on the same stage, starting from Bengal folk to Ghazal by Pankaj Udhas, Balamuralikrishna ji performing Carnatic music, Gangubai Hangal ji singing Hindustani, my wife Kavita singing Bollywood and our daughter Bindu singing western compositions, and the Wadali Broth ers, among others. In another project, Violins Of Peace, we brought different styles of violin playing together and performed all over the world.

‘IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO PROMOTE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC’Originally, everything was vocal music and then came orchestral music. This became popular because it broke the challenge of language barrier. Globally, there are many instrumental music festivals, and instrumentalists are promoted well. But here, especially in the south, if we don’t spotlight instrumentalists, slowly, we won’t have a representation at instrumental music festivals at the global level, and south Indian music will fall back. So, it’s important to promote them as well.

In the last couple of years, we’ve started an exclusive instrumental music festival because I feel the focus for this music is not much evident in Chennai. Unless brilliant, young instrumentalists are promoted, we won’t have another TR Mahalingam or Rajarathinam Pillai or U Shrinivas.