It is possible for a musically motivated student to reach a higher music level by sheer perseverance, dedication and a teacher willing to part with his or her knowledge and committed parents who choose to evolve their life exclusively around their children. Many of our professional musicians can be certainly classified as achievers this way. Prodigies like Mandolin Srinivas or Flute Mahalingam are in a different category. They are like Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, or for that matter, Tamil Poet Subramania Bharati. They are God sent and often they seem to pass away leaving a permanent vacuum for years to come.
I casually attended one of his earliest concerts at Sastri Hall perhaps in 1979 or 1982. Virtually every lady attending the program identified with him as one’s own son electrifying the audience with Viriboni in unimaginable speed, followed by majestic Hamsadhwani and melting Hamsanadam in tremendous speed.
I had tears in my eyes watching a young boy and listening to a true genius. May be he was seven or eight years old then. The instrument was new to me and realized its unique advantage for a young boy with musical genius. He could move his tender fingers in all directions in split second and was able to create cascades of gamakas with little effort.
Amidst very little demand for any solo instrumental music, his was an exception across the Madras music circles during all music seasons.
For the first time in Chicago Ameer Khusro Society rose like a meteor. It was actually one man’s creation, one Mr. Habeeb Ahmad (sp?) who overnight brought some of the outstanding musicians from India and organized music festivals across USA for nearly 3 or 4 years. He treated it purely as a business venture and the city was suddenly witnessing a grand Hindustani & Carnatic music festival. Other great performers in this list included great musicians like Pandit Jasraj, Rajan and Sajan Misra, Amjad Ali Khan, KV Narayanaswamy to name a few. Mandolin’s performance was scheduled to start at 2:00 PM.
We were all excited to know that Mandolin Srinivas will be performing here in Chicago. I called all of my music loving friends from Madison and Milwaukee and other neighboring areas in the same proximity and families of ST Raos, West Bend Subramaniams, Swamys, and Sakti etc. Some graduate students stayed overnight with us to listen to the genius.
I had a sudden call from Mr. Habeeb Ahmad. He needed my help to communicate to the audience that the concert could be delayed due to the delayed arrival of the artists. Srinivas called me from O’Hare. He said that Mr. Habeeb Ahmad wanted to take them directly to the concert hall as he was committed to music lovers. They were traveling from Syracuse by a late night flight and had not even taken bath or done with morning ablutions. All that Srinivas wanted was to take a bath and do his prayers to Lord Hanuman before he will go to concert stage. When we asked him about lunch arrangements apparently, they could have a quick snack at McDonald’s on the way to the concert hall in Naperville!! I told Mr. Habeeb Ahmed that if he can drop the artists in my house, we will bring the artists and he could directly deal with the audience waiting for the concert. There was sizeable audience right at my house in Villa Park, anxiously waiting to have a glimpse of this prodigy and share a few words with him. He had a quick bath and went to our bedroom with his instrument and asked for a match box. He lighted agarbatti before a small photo of Lord Hanuman and played the first few lines of Viriboni in super speed and electrified all of us down stairs listening to this rehearsal cum prayer. He was ready to leave for the hall. All he wanted before the concert was just a can of Coke!! We saw the child in him with his minimal needs and utter simplicity. We saw the prodigy in action right from the Varnam piece and the hall was packed with music lovers. Madison Swaminathan said it will be his duty to somehow arrange his programs at Madison. For the next three or four years, Swaminthan would arrange Mandolin’s program via the University of Wisconsin with help of some music lovers. Needless to say, we were always part of those activities in those early years. He was accompanied by Kanyakumari on violin and Srimushnam Raja Rao on Mridnagam. His Shanmukha Priya, Arabhi, Bahudari, Hameer Kalyani are all musical gems.
As with many talented young instrumentalists from India, he was more and more to be seen in USA performing many fusion concerts across USA with people like L. Subramaniam, Mc Laughlin, Zakhir Hussain and Gazal singers like Hariharan or Shankar Mahadevan. He was quite at ease to distinguish such programs with an authentic Carnatic music program. When professional musicians are at ease with both popular and classical pieces, money finally dictates where they go and many authentic classical music organizations were unable to match their market price of fusion music for this talent. As recent as two years back we missed one such opportunity to organize his program under CTU. Luckily we joined with HTGC to run a program of his a few years back.
In a sense people like Mandolin Srinivas, Balamurali Krishna, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Ramani or MSG have played an indirect role in the growth of CTU. Many of the CTU volunteers in those days were so deeply attached to their music that they will travel 300 miles just to listen to their music concert in another Midwest city.
It is a pity that somehow the greatest prodigies are not properly recognized by Indian government or by the prestigious music societies. They all deserve much greater recognition from the Government of India. Alas Mandolin is no more with us!
Dr. T.E.S.Raghavan
Chairman