Sandeep Narayan

In conversation with young vocalists of Carnatic music today

Tell us how your started your musical endeavor and how it was to move from a different country and start afresh

Having been born into a very musical household, my journey started from the womb itself. In fact my first guru was my mother, Smt Shubha Narayan. But as my training went on, I reached a point around the age of 11 where my parents wanted me to learn from a senior artist in India, which is when I first moved to Chennai (taking a temporary break from school), and learned from Shri KS Krishnamurthy. I spent almost about three years learning music from Shri Krishnamurthy, which really made my interest in Carnatic music shoot up. After his passing in 1999, I began learning from Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan. Because of my move to Chennai at the age of 11, and subsequent visits over my high school and college years, the permanent move in 2006 was a much easier transition. I had a great support system in place, in the form of my guru, musical mentors, my family, and a huge group of friends in Chennai.

Your all time favourite raaga to perform at ANY stage?

One ragam I love to sing on any stage is Durga. It is often considered a lighter ragam in the Carnatic world, but it is still well received even by the most traditional and hardcore audiences. And on a stage where listeners may not be as well educated in the deeper aspects of Carnatic music, ragam Durga is always one which goes over well. In recent years I have been requested on more than one occasion to sing this ragam, whether it be in a song or a ragam-tanam-pallavi, or just part of a ragamalika swaram (mix of different ragams), or part of the ragamalika in a virutham or slokam. It is a beautiful ragam which I can get lost into while singing.

What do you think is the most important aspect of Carnatic music and why?