"I am a positive individual. I do not subscribe to the view that the standards of music have fallen, even though this has been a documented refrain from the time the British published an official gazette and noted the same in the middle of the 19th Century. After all, an art form is an evolving tradition. Novelty and innovation are an integral part of artistic evolution. People will always find ways of doing things to suit their instincts. The success or failure of the same can be seen over time. I believe in accepting change with an open mind. As the yesteryear Carnatic star G.N. Balasubramanian said in his 1958 address, “Nothing new should be rejected merely on the score that it is novel.”

The last 20 years and more has been significant in the way technology and internet influences our lives. Listening to live concerts was a primary source of learning and absorbing music. Access to vintage material, especially music, has never been as easy as it is today. Thirty years ago, to get even a single C90 cassette of a Ramnad Krishnan or Kalyanaraman recording from a collector, I had to listen to a 3-hour lecture on “how things were in the old days”. Today, a click is all it takes before a thousand concerts are downloaded onto your hard disk. A lifetime may not be enough to listen to all the terabytes of music. But at least they are available for the discriminating listener and the hungry student. The music production industry has also undergone rapid change, eliminating the middleman completely. Carnatic music is ideal for self-distribution, whereby musicians are able to reach and interact with their audience directly. Digital music has replaced the physical medium of distribution very quickly. And the faster we adapt the better.

Singing with abandon is an important aspect of public performance. While introspection is a sign of maturity, the spirit of freedom connects you to the listener instantly. Naadaswara music, played in the open, achieves this perfect blend beautifully. Musicians like Semmangudi Srivasa Iyer and Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan have waxed eloquent on the importance of listening to the music of the naadaswaram maestros. My years of learning from naadaswaram exponent Semponarkoil S.R.D. Vaidyanathan opened my eyes to several subtle features that characterised their music. SRD encouraged me to sing the Mallari, compositions, laya exercises and pallavis that were part of his musical domain.

I get truly excited when I can enjoy the honeyed nectar of the Tamizh language when set to the beautiful raagas and taalas of our music. Singing the songs and verses written by innumerable poets and composers is one of the great joys I have experienced and hope to share. Singing in your mother tongue can change the very aesthetic of the music right from the way the words are articulated to the motivation of musical phrases to suit the meaning and comprehension of the lyric. Many listeners who are unfamiliar with a language can always enjoy the same when expounded upon by a native speaker.

The accompanist plays a very unique role in the conduct and success of a Carnatic concert. It's interesting to note that all the accompanists get a chance to play alone on stage, be it during an alapana by the violin artiste or the tani avartanam by the mridangam or upa pakkavadya artistes. The singer is always accompanied by one or all at all points during the concert. If you want to listen to my voice without any accompaniment then it would be during a speech of this nature. Whether it be their maintenance of kaalapramaanam (tempo), their sparkling upliftment of kritis or their gentle prodding towards laya (rhythmic) possibilities, they simply make you sound better than what you really were. For an accompanist, there is a constant tug of war between one's need to excel individually and controlling one's ego to offer value to the singer. Violin maestro Thiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer once said about the great mridangam exponent Pazhani Subbramania Pillai, “Pazhani sacrifices himself on the stage.