Varijashree Venugopal, the Grammy-nominated singer, flautist, and composer, remembers an unbelievable story her dad and mom as soon as instructed her. She was simply 18 months outdated when her dad and mom took her to a Carnatic music live performance in Bengaluru. Like most toddlers, she didn’t have the endurance to take a seat via it and as a substitute performed with different toddlers in a close-by park.
Chatting with The Higher India, Varijashree says, “Through the live performance, my father, H S Venugopal, a grasp flautist, apparently heard me scream one thing. Thoughts you, I couldn’t even kind a sentence at the moment. However he later found out that I used to be attempting to say Raga Hamsadhwani. The tune being carried out at that very second was in Raga Hamsadhwani.”
After returning house from the live performance, her father was decided to observe up on what had simply occurred.
“Again at house, my father sang quite a lot of classical compositions from totally different composers, and as he tells it, I used to be capable of establish the shape and construction of about 40 ragas (musical modes in Carnatic music) with no matter restricted syllables I may pronounce on the time. In different phrases, he noticed early on that I had a ‘present’,” she says.
One other such incident occurred when Varijashree was 4 years outdated. By this age, she was already delivering classical Carnatic music vocal performances to small audiences. And this specific incident befell throughout certainly one of her concert events.
As she remembers, “Your complete idea of the live performance was that I’d sing for an hour. Many musicians attended this live performance, and after my hour-long efficiency, they sang a set of compositions in 100 totally different ragas. I needed to establish every raga, which I did efficiently. This live performance was filmed, however sadly, the one that recorded it misplaced the VHS tape.”
From her beginnings as a baby prodigy in Carnatic music to recording ‘A Rock Someplace’ with the inimitable Jacob Collier and Anoushka Shankar — nominated this yr for a Grammy Award for ‘Greatest International Music Efficiency’ — Varijashree has undertaken a exceptional journey.
“As a musician with a classical basis who has since expanded into various cross-cultural and interdisciplinary types, this Grammy nomination appears like an acknowledgement of not simply this tune however of the musical journey I’ve undertaken up to now. It’s a milestone that reassures me that the path I’m taking [creatively] is sweet. Hopefully, this nomination fuels any impartial artist on the market to have an awesome and enriching artistic journey,” she says.
Music permeating via the partitions
Varijashree remembers, “My father, a grasp flautist, and my mom, T V Rama, an achieved vocalist, had been my first gurus. That’s the place every part began for me.”
Her reminiscences as a toddler are few, however they arrive again to her in flashes. “However I vividly bear in mind sitting via Appa’s (father) flute classes that he would give to college students at house (he nonetheless avidly teaches to this present day). Simply being inside the home, I bear in mind how the sound of my father taking part in the flute used to permeate the partitions,” she remembers.
Moreover, Varijashree’s dad and mom took her to many Carnatic music concert events. “There are additionally reminiscences of attending weddings, and if my dad and mom couldn’t discover me, it was understood that I used to be sitting in entrance of the musicians taking part in the Nadaswaram, a double-reed wind instrument, and the Thavil, a barrel-shaped drum,” she remembers.
She additionally remembers observing different musicians who had been pals of her father’s. She would pay attention, watch, and observe how they not solely carried out but additionally learnt, practised, and perceived artwork. “Although I didn’t perceive a lot as a baby, it began to make sense after I started to understand the finer nuances of music; these had been very priceless reminiscences,” she notes.
A toddler prodigy involves life
Regardless of her unbelievable expertise and having learnt all the basics from her first gurus, Varijashree’s dad and mom felt it was finest to enrol her in additional formal and targeted classes.
On the age of 4, she started formal coaching in Carnatic vocals below Vidhushi (a title for a feminine Carnatic classical musician) H Geetha. Varijashree was seven when she gave her first full-fledged Carnatic vocal efficiency on the Bangalore Gayana Samaja.
“After studying below her tutelage for just a few years, I additionally realized some uncommon and unique compositions from Vidhushi Vasantha Srinivasan and Vidwan (a title for a male Carnatic musician) D S Srivatsa. Nevertheless, the vast majority of my formal coaching occurred below Gaanakalanidhi Vidwan Salem P Sundaresan. I used to be lucky to have him as my guru. By the point I got here below his tutelage, he was 80 years outdated. An ex-bank supervisor, my guru was an encyclopaedia of Carnatic music. I spent 15 years of intense coaching below him,” she remembers.
Nevertheless, selecting up the flute and studying methods to play it formally was not deliberate. In response to her, it simply occurred, and “it was a nice, but unintended shock to me and to my dad and mom.”
As she remembers, “I used to be curious in regards to the instrument, and I’d dabble and experiment with it in between my ninth and tenth years of formal coaching. Fortunately, I found out methods to produce a sound as a result of that’s probably the most tough half, particularly with the bamboo flute. I had additionally secretly tried studying some issues that my father was already educating different college students.”
“In the future, I instructed him that I needed to point out him how I performed a sure composition on the flute. To his shock, I performed one thing that was more adept than he had anticipated. So, he determined to coach me formally. Quickly, I began accompanying him in his concert events, and in a while, I started performing in my very own solo flute concert events, in addition to taking part in in recording periods,” she says.
Varijashree was nearly 14 years outdated when she started accompanying her father!
Going past the world of Carnatic music
Although she grew up in an surroundings steeped within the essence of Carnatic music, her dad and mom additionally uncovered her to a world past it via audio cassette tapes. “My dad and mom used to play audio cassettes every single day. It wasn’t simply Carnatic music; in addition they performed Hindustani music and lightweight classical kinds like Bhajans and Abhang, in addition to fusion acts like Shakti, John McLaughlin, and L Shankar. These had been a number of the preliminary influences,” she remembers.
The web, nevertheless, modified every part. That’s when she found a wealth of jazz music — significantly artists like Chick Corea, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bobby McFerrin.
“I used to be initially drawn extra to jazz and its related kinds due to the improvisational house it gives. That resonated with me as a result of Indian classical music can be extremely improvisational whereas being structured. What fascinated me was that jazz improvisations usually are not confined to a raga; they transfer via altering tonalities and discover numerous instructions,” she explains.
“That was one thing I had by no means heard earlier than, and it prompted me to attempt to sing these components. My solely aim was to see if I may emulate what a jazz instrumentalist or vocalist was performing, together with scatting. I needed to experiment with shifting my vocal strategies on this new format, and that led to lots of studying and experimentation, which continues to this present day. Each new piece I work on stays an extension of that train,” she provides.
Carnatic music is likely one of the most intricately designed types of classical music. Coaching in and practising this fashion is why Varijashree believes she will recognize, perceive, and method different genres of music. Nevertheless, listening to and being uncovered to totally different genres has broadened her perspective and expanded her understanding of music.
“The truth is, listening to different kinds has amplified my enjoyment of Carnatic music and influenced how I current a Carnatic Kacheri (live performance). Making use of the basics of classical Carnatic music in a worldwide context has enabled me to transcribe a jazz solo into Indian notation after which improvise on it whereas incorporating these fundamentals,” she says.
Collaborating with Jacob Collier
Up to now 12 years, Varijashree has labored with a collection of legendary Jazz artists from the West — together with Victor Wooten and Bobby McFerrin. Working in these areas, she was capable of faucet right into a community of equally gifted and famend artists. It’s via this community stretching throughout continents that Jacob and Varijashree received to know one another.
“I’ve at all times been a fan of his work. Equally, certainly one of my movies might have appeared on his radar, following which he found out that we now have lots of frequent pals. We used to be in contact every now and then on Instagram. In the future, nevertheless, he wrote to me saying that he was recording the fourth quantity of Djesse (Djesse Vol. 4 album) and that there was this tune the place he was imagining my voice that he thought would add completely properly into the mix,” she says.
“We had a protracted and detailed dialogue about what he needed from me over a name and I recorded my half in Bengaluru. The recording I obtained already had Anushka’s fantastic sitar components recorded and it sounded fantastic. However I had an unbelievable time determining methods to mix into this combine as a ‘voicetrumentalist’ (the place there are not any lyrics however I nonetheless sing and use numerous improvisational types). So, I needed to weave in, discover my very own house on the document and add one thing of worth to it. My goal was to not hamper the intention of the composition however add to the already present soul of the tune,” she provides.
VARI
This yr has been stuffed with notable occasions for Varijashree. Along with her Grammy nomination, she grew to become the primary Indian artist to carry out on the esteemed Jazz al Parque Pageant in Bogotá, Colombia, in October. Following this efficiency, she showcased her vocal prowess because the featured soloist in ‘Mahabharata – Mantras, Fights, and Threnody’ — an opera by Riccardo Nova, carried out with the Ensemble MusikFabrik in Florence, Italy.
Earlier this yr, she launched her eponymous authentic album ‘VARI’. The album was produced by Grammy Award-winning artist Michael League of Snarky Pet and options collaborations with legends like Victor Wooten, Hamilton De Holanda, Anat Cohen, and Béla Fleck.
“One of many issues I’ve found throughout my journey as a seeker of recent sounds is the artwork of writing my very own music. I’ve created it in small bits and items — possibly a single right here or there — however I’ve at all times dreamed of composing an extended piece, like a full-length album. Regardless of my aspirations, it didn’t appear to be one thing that will occur anytime quickly,” she says.
“Throughout certainly one of my travels, I met Michael League, the Grammy-winning founding father of Snarky Pet. This was about eight or 9 years in the past in New York after we attended a Roy Haynes live performance on the Blue Be aware. Afterwards, we stored in contact. I confirmed him a few songs I had begun writing, and he was very encouraging, suggesting that I ought to document a full-length album. Regardless of my doubts, I wrote a few demos, after which the method took by itself magical path. Michael produced the album, which was launched on 10 Could, 2024,” she provides.
The album is a genre-defying fusion of Indian classical music, people, and international rhythms, and it has been broadly praised for its distinctive sound. It celebrates Indian ragas in numerous codecs and incorporates all kinds of people and classical percussion and melodic devices from India.
“About 40 musicians contributed to this document, most of whom are producing Indian sounds in a very totally different context. We had a two-week manufacturing session in Bengaluru and one other month in Spain. Moreover Michael, we additionally had one other co-producer on board — my pal and achieved percussionist Pramat Kiran from Bengaluru,” she says.
It took about six years to finish this undertaking, throughout which she additionally found her capacity to interact in songwriting, particularly lyric writing.
“Furthermore, I had the honour of working with a number of the most unbelievable musicians who’re like heroes to me, alongside a number of the finest musicians from Bengaluru. The music on this album comes from their hearts and exemplifies their generosity of spirit,” she says.
It’s this generosity of spirit that additionally defines Varijashree as an artist, bridging the hole between totally different cultures.
(Edited by Pranita Bhat; Photographs courtesy Varijashree Venugopal/Instagram)
