Ramana Balachandhran: Ragam Nattakurinji

The young and prodigiously talented veena player Ramana Balachandhran was a featured artiste at the Cusp festival held in Chennai earlier this year. He began his recital with a Thyagaraja kriti entitled Kuvalaya Dala Nayana in Ragam Nattakurinji.
Ramana was accompanied by Praveen Sparsh on mridangam. Praveen was also one of the co-curators of the festival along with Priya Purushothaman, Ranjani Ramachandran, Abhishek Borkar, Brindha Manickavasakan and Devina Dutt of First Edition Arts.

[@gopuraman]

Oh lotus eyed one! Protect me. I have been passionately loving you. A very poignant krithi of saint thyagaraja so nicely sung & played by genius Ramana. There are 7 charanams in this krithi. I gues he had time only for 2. Blessings of Ramana maharshi abundant on this boy!🙏

[@kvenkata08]

Ramana, you're spectacular with your fingers! Would love to hear more from you! Seems like many gems are hidden within you. Hari Om

[@raghunandanasharma7178]

bengaloorina bharavase :) athava bengaloorige ondu bharavase, Ramana Balachandran. May his tribe live long, grow for ever.

[@DKMKartha108]

VAgeeSvari's (nAdAtmikA vaak) PurushAvatAram! namO namah!

[@altclut]

I saw this young man in January 2015 at the Madras Music Club. He was ‘just a boy’ but already a great master of music. It was my first and only visit to India (from the UK). Here in Scotland I have seen Ravi Shankar play three times. Ramana is his equal. I love when he sings!

[@ranawaqas4351]

What is this
Please contact me
[e-mail]

[@ranawaqas4351]

Real all music just talwandi gharana
other people by fake no telant

[@ranawaqas4351]

My challenge All singing boys and old mens
Just real music on the talwandi gharana Pakistan

[@visvanathannaicker4451]

Excellent young talent on both artists. Well done !

[@hridyammt547]

Great future...waiting you..with.full of music...enjoy your own world. ...

[@seethukrish]

Excellent.....both Praveen and Ramana

[@rishishenoy]

Only other person who sings while playing Veena, I have seen is Prince Rama Varma.
Ramana has the blessings of Ramana Maharshi as well as S Balachander !

[@balumuthu1]

I fully endorse you.

[@altclut]

Prince Rama Varma uses the veena as an accompaniment to his singing. Ramana sings the musical structure of his veena sequences. There is no similarity.

[@raghugopalan6139]

To name a few other artists: Kalpagam Swaminathan and her disciple Nirmala Rajasekar, Karaikudi Subramanian, and Mudikondan Ramesh also sing while playing the Veena.

[@rishishenoy]

@@raghugopalan6139 Thanks for the information.
I have heard Smt Kalpagam Swaminathan but not heard her sing along.

[@sria8163]

To play and sing had been in the past ...it needs to be promoted as rightly done by Ramana

[@chocolatefrogs1992]

The problem is, when you start playing the notes, instead of maintaining a drone while singing, you just can’t fully commit to the vocal. You’re never giving your 100%

[@maheshram7844]

@@chocolatefrogs1992 I agree -- I do feel Ramana strikes the balance. His vocals arent' superseding the veena virtuosity, they are giving the audience a chance to grasp some of the lyrics and also nurturing his vocal skills.

[@lakshmishankarnarayan2386]

Beautiful 🙏

[@Shobanaprakash69]

Excellent

[@arun2402]

Amazing performance. Splendid...!

[@ashwinprasad5415]

Unfortunately, there is constant background hiss in this concert! :(

[@Samskrithii]

That is the tanpura only

[@ashwinprasad5415]

@@Samskrithii Hmmm, it isn't the tampura! Hiss is evident when using headphones! Posting it just to help them avoid this the next time! otherwise they usually do a great job! big fan

[@latharamaprasad235]

Excellent