The two day Twin Composer Festival in Madison on October 19 & 20 will showcase the works of two trailblazing composers Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi (OVK) from India, who lived from 1700-1765 and his no less illustrious Western contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). This Entertainment Extravaganza seeks to not only raise appreciation for the contributions of these two great composers, but also aims to raise funds for Planet Symphony for Environment’s Collective Micro Climate Action Movement (CMCAM) initiatives such as Roof and Land Greening and Rainwater Management across the world. The festival will feature concerts by icons of Western & Eastern cultures, dance and theater performances, as well as Emerging Artists’ programming. The rare jewel in the crown will be the Melody, Harmony & Melharmony concert on Oct 20th at 4PM in the Oakwood Auditorium featuring ace Carnatic Violinist V V Subrahmanyam and his son V V S Murari, Chitravina N Ravikiran, the inventor of Melharmony, Apollo Chamber Players (a popular String Quintet from Houston), the iconic Mrdangam player Prof Trichy Sankaran and renowned percussionists Patri Sathish Kumar & K V Gopalakrishnan. Band students of Memorial High School will also present a composition of Maestro Ravikiran arranged by Ben Jaeger, Band Director of Memorial High School. The festival will felicitate Maestros Trichy Sankaran and VV Subrahmanyam with Lifetime Achievement Awards and honor Apollo Chamber Players for their many distinguished contributions. Art Patrons Dr. C M Venkatachalam and Shekar Viswanathan get special awards for supporting and promoting music, dance and culture in North America. Talent promotion: An important highlight of the event is morning to night concerts on the opening day by emerging talents from all over the United States, as well as from India, with eminent artistes such as Bhargavi Balasubramanian, Krithika Natarajan and Rajeev Mukundan. The second day starts off with a musical on the “Life of Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi” by a Chicago based team led by C Ranganathan followed by short recitals by various students of Meenakshi Ganesan’s Kalaanjali Dance Company. The festival will culminate in a choral rendition of select compositions of OVK by artists of North American Melodic Ensemble.
I had the complete honor of speaking with Maestro Chitravina N Ravikiran ahead of this incredible event. We got into a little bit about what Melharmony is and how it will be showcased. Maestro Ravikiran did a wonderfully succinct job of filling us in on each performer and their impressive backgrounds. He was able to easily paint the picture of what the energy they each will provide during these unique performances. Each artist heading to Madison for this festival is/are a master(s) in their subject field, and together, they will work to open minds, history books and the possibilities to a successful path forward thinking about each other and the planet we all reside upon. Not only will the music be uplifting, spontaneous and downright a one of a kind offering, this type of scene would not be complete without the focus on our planet and the initiatives we as individuals can do for our small part to help cool the planet’s warming, ease Mother Nature’s aches and provide stability to a world spinning with daily turmoil, that we just cannot wait for other’s to act on. All the information you need on the festival is here including dates/time/location.
