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First Light
The March Edition
Young Indian Classical Musicians Presenting Rare Art Music and Stories
Musicians
First Light will present young Hindustani and Carnatic musicians in an intimate setting. Once a month, on Sunday mornings, these thoughtfully curated concerts will feature a group of talented, sensitive and thinking musicians from across India. They will attempt to engage with their respective lineages and the traditional material they have received in distinctive ways. The musicians are encouraged to present a concert repertoire that reflects their long years of training, core aesthetic influences and values as well as their individual outlooks and interpretation. They will speak to the audiences and share critical aspects of the cultural and social histories of their art form, the compositions and their creative processes when they prepare for a concert.
In the second concert of the series, Aditya will present a set of exquisite and lesser heard compositions from the Carnatic Music repertoire and also share his thoughts and experiences as a listener, student and young practitioner while preparing for this concert. He will be accompanied by Delhi Sairam on the Mridangam, Sayee Rakshith on the violin, and G Guru Prasanna on the Kanjira.
These concerts by young musicians are a part of Kishima Arts Foundation’s Indian Classical Music & Performing Arts Public Digital Archive Project which seeks to document rare and traditional compositions and art forms.
In collaboration with:
Musicians

Aditya Madhavan
The Carnatic vocalist Aditya Madhavan is a student of Sangeet Kala Acharya Smt Radha Namboodiri and Sangeet Kalanidhi Sanjay Subrahmanyan. He was awarded the Best Vocalist award in the Spirit of Youth Concert Competition by The Music Academy Madras, the “Sangeetha Mudhra” award from Mudhra Sabha, Pallavi Darbar organised by Carnatica and Parthasarathi Swami Sabha, Bharat Ratna MS Subbulakshmi Fellowship from Shanmukhananda Sabha to name a few. He is a regular performer at the December music season and other festivals. Aditya hails from Mumbai; he completed his Engineering and moved to Chennai and is currently working with a tech start-up.

Delhi Sairam
Delhi Sri Sairam is a disciple of Mridangam Maestro Kalaimamani Dr Thiruvarur Sri Bakthavatsalam. He is a postgraduate First Rank holder in Rhythmology from the University of Madras. He has won several awards like the ‘Kalaimamani’ by the government of Tamil Nadu, ‘Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar’ from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, ‘Yuva Kala Bharathi’ from Bharat Kalachar, ‘Best senior mridangist’ award from The Music Academy, Chennai, ‘Laya Lavanya Trust Award’ from Padmabhushan Umayalapuram Sri Sivaraman to name a few. His energetic yet sensitive style of accompanying vocalists and instrumentalist alike has won him critical acclaim all over India and abroad.

Sayee Rakshith
Having started his journey as a performer at the age of 10, Sayee Rakshith has performed as a violinist with various leading Carnatic Artistes. He was part of the “Dharti Ma” initiative by Earth day network which featured leading musicians across India including Smt Bombay Jayashree, Shri Shankar Mahadevan, Smt Kaushiki Chakraborty, Shri Hans Raj and Shri Abhishek Raghuram. He has also been playing in the film industry for various music directors including M.M. Keeravani, G.V. Prakash, Leon James, Girishh Gopalakrishnan and Vishal Chandrashekhar. He has been a part of the band ‘Staccato’ since 2018 and continues to venture and collaborate with leading musicians across various genres.

G Guru Prasanna
G Guru Prasanna is an expert Carnatic percussionist specialising in the Kanjira. He trained under legendary maestro G Harishankar and has accompanied a swathe of top classical artists. He has also collaborated extensively with jazz musicians and tours widely. He lives in Bengaluru and continues to study with the esteemed Master Vyasa Vittala.