Tuesday, August 15, 2023 - 8:00pm

Vishaal Sapuram, Sruti Sarathy, and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan: Unfretted:

The pairing of the chitravina (“wondrous lute”) and the Indian violin is in many ways a study in contrasts. To hear the two come together is a breathtaking experience. These two fretless string instruments of the Carnatic tradition speak profoundly and movingly to each other. Together, the two voices tell a colorful story of South Indian strings.

Unfretted is a Carnatic trio featuring chitravina (a rare Indian instrument with ancient origins), violin, and mrdangam (South Indian two-headed drum). The three musicians, Vishaal Sapuram, Sruti Sarathy, and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan, possess a deep and sensitive understanding of the Carnatic form, which they channel through a fresh, imaginative, and unbridled vision of collaborative music-making.

Sruti Sarathy is a leading Carnatic violinist, singer, and composer. A rare artist who possesses both mastery in the rigorous classical form as well as a boundary-pushing musical vision, she animates the stage in diverse contexts across the globe. Her soulful and genre-defying original music is a meeting place for Indian ragas, improvisational forms, speculative historical crossovers, South Asian diasporic experience, and literature.

Vishaal Sapuram is an acclaimed exponent of the chitravina, a rare fretless lute, from the Indian classical Carnatic tradition. He began his performing career at the age of nine and has over the years performed extensively in India, the USA, and around the world. His music has been hailed by critics as ‘mesmerizing’ and ‘showing his musical wisdom’, its ‘sonorous sound taking the audience into a trance’.

Akshay Anantapadmanabhan is a reputed and leading mridangam artist known for his sensitivity, tonality and innovative approach to spreading Indian rhythm through the world. A prime disciple of the legendary guru Sri. T.H. Subash Chandran, Akshay has performed with the past and present leading names of Carnatic music, and has collaborated with Hindustani, Latin jazz, American jazz and rock musicians in unique showcases of South Indian percussion.