A unique jugalbandi

As part of the concert ‘Trivenu’, organised by the Department of Language and Culture, three flautists from different cultural backgrounds enthralled the audience at Tummalapallivari Kshetrayya Kala Kshetram over the weekend. Organised in association with Vijayawada Music Academy, the concert had a “jugalbandi” flautists Nagaraj Talluri of South India, Rupak Kulkarni of North India and Nicolo Melochi from Italy.

The concert commenced with a traditional Hamsadwani raga. Nagaraj, Rupak and Nicolo played the flute in three ranges with excellent coordination. The concert continued with another popular raga Shanmukhapriya in which the trio gave an amazing display of this skill, making the audience appreciate the joy that music can elicit. The next item was an excellent composition in Chakranarayaneeyam, which was based on chakravaka raga.

Later, the trio played Western style in raga G-minor composition where the artistes showed variation in vibrations of wind. This was ably supported by keyboard, base guitar and drums. Energetic support was rendered by Rajesh Srinivasan on Mridangam, Ramendra Singh Solanki on Tabla, Rakesh Chary on Keyboard, Keith Peters on Base Guitar and Phanindra on Drums.

D Vijaya Bhaskar, Director, Department of Language and Culture spoke on the occasion and said the artistes deserved appreciation and that it was a privilege to organise the programme. Later, the artistes were felicitated by the Director on behalf of State Government. The programme was conducted by D Chandrasekhar and Mani Nagaraj.