Svanubhava '08 - A Grand Success

By Rithvik Raja
President, YACM

Svanubhava, meaning ‘self experience’, was a festival conducted exclusively for the students of classical dance and music. As we all know, music and dance form an integral part of our culture, especially in South India. For the students who learn this great form of art, there are institutions all over the world and music is available in abundance these days. Apart from this, we also have a huge festival during December for music and dance. Then where is the need for such a festival as Svanubhava? But this festival is indeed unique.

There were many echoes from these students during the music season (December Season) that the prices of the tickets are too high and that the senior concerts are placed during the evenings where it gets too late for the students to go back home. Some students even say that they feel intimidated by the amount of music the people around them know. With all these problems in mind, Matrka came forward and approached YACM and said that something needs to be done for these students of music. This is when we realized that it is not enough if just some of us, as part of YACM (Youth Association for Classical Music) are able to benefit from a number of concerts, musical games and lec-cons conducted by us, but that our fellow music students must also be given an equal platform to exchange their views and raise questions.

Hence, after several meetings and discussions, we came up with Svanubhava, a festival targeted at making students enjoy the music while at the same time, learn and benefit from it. Here, as this was for the benefit of the students, we gave them the freedom to choose whatever they wanted – right from the concerts, lec-dems, and discussions to the artistes and decoration at the venues. So, the whole festival was conceived by the students themselves! Matrka and YACM acted as mere catalysts that brought all their needs together and gathered the resources required for the festival. This festival was also a medium through which students from different schools, institutions, and gurus came under one roof. Therefore, this acted as a platform for them to interact with each other and imbibe other angles and views on Carnatic Music.

As the initiative was to involve as many students as possible, we decided to approach the 3 institutions of music and dance in Chennai, each housing a considerable number of students – Kalakshetra, The Tamilnadu Government College of Music and The Teachers’ College of Music, The Music Academy. Apart from the students of these colleges, we also invited the students of private teachers to come forward and participate in the festival. A spot registration facility through other students can come and register directly was also arranged.

The festival was formatted in such a way that the students were given the freedom to ask questions after every event. There were concerts, lec-dems, discussions and quiz events. Apart from this, there were listening sessions where a leading artist of today came and spoke to the students about a legend and the aspects of their music they must pay attention to. There were documentary films on great masters presented for the student and a photo gallery put up by Sruti Magazine for the welfare of the students to view the great past masters whose names were heard but never seen. We also had interesting PowerPoint presentations covering lives of several past masters in order to make the students identify with the lives of great musicians and dancers alike.

In this festival, all the logistics were also handled by the students. Whether it was receiving the artists, preparing the stage, making the banners or arranging the tables, all were the students’ duty, in coordination with YACM volunteers. This gave the students an innate sense of responsibility and belonging. The six-day festival (5th to 10th August) was conducted over three venues. The first two days were at Kalakshetra, the next 2 days were at the Government Music College and the last two days were at the Music Academy. This change in venues also gave the students a chance to experience different atmospheres for music and dance and lent the festival freshness. Kalakshetra with an open air theatre atmosphere, The Government Music College Shamiana with a “pandhal” effect and the Music Academy having a formal and the usual closed auditorium atmosphere.

During the six days, we had an average attendance of about 800 students each day. This included students from the three institutions, students who registered online, students who appeared on the spot and students who were sent by their gurus individually. The response was simply overwhelming and the atmosphere was absolutely electrifying with the students being very curious, eager to learn and question. Each concert, lec-dem, interactive session was charged with excitement. There was a spark in the eyes of every student with the urge to learn and absorb more. Students have never been given so much importance during a festival or a concert. They exchanged notes with each other, helped each other understand concepts, and even sometimes translated from Tamil to English to foreign students who did not understand the language. We got the feeling, soon after a few hours into the festival, that maybe this was what they all have been waiting for!!! The artistes were very patient and encouraged questions even after concerts in the green rooms etc.

Each performance was filled with information and depth. Performing in front of so many young faces was a totally different experience for the artistes and most artistes were simply taken aback by the love and affection of these students. There were even tears of joy and happiness amongst many artistes! Without the support of these artistes (85 in total!!!!!), this festival would not have been possible.

After 6 days, though all of us were physically and mentally drained, the joy we derived by pulling off something as huge as this and the feeling of doing something for music in return was immense. The reaction of the students was something we never expected – They wrote poems, gave us small cards, and came upto us and gave us their heart felt wishes for the success of their festival. All these were such spontaneous gestures of love and happiness that we will never forget. This festival has more than achieved what we set out to do. The festival is now up and running with a great momentum with the students. By the end of the festival the students all unanimously declared that they would see us all next year for Svanubhava 2009. “Svanubhava” has come to life! Some felt that a year was too long a time to wait. The festival ended with the 800 students singing the 3 theme tunes of the festival (composed by K. Arun Prakash) which was such a big hit.

This has been a great boost for us. We are thinking of taking this festival to other cities and we want to make this a movement. I feel that this festival is a must for music students like us to learn so much which is in offer from so many great minds. We are trying to make them develop a serious ear for Carnatic music so that some of them can become teachers, some can become connoisseurs, sponsors, rasikas or even patrons. Everyone has a role in this process, but in order to create the above, we need the strong foundation and base today.