Spotlight On...
Anjan Chakravarthy ‘22 is currently a sophomore at the University of Chicago studying Economics and South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Q: Beacon Faculty recently had an opportunity to see you on stage for an extended Indian percussion performance. Can you explain this in a bit of detail?
A: Back in August, I performed in a concert called the arangetram. The term “arangetram,” originating from Tamil, translates to “ascending the stage,” originally in a temple, symbolizing the moment when a budding artist makes their debut public performance after years of dedicated training under a mentor (guru).
A: Back in August, I performed in a concert called the arangetram. The term “arangetram,” originating from Tamil, translates to “ascending the stage,” originally in a temple, symbolizing the moment when a budding artist makes their debut public performance after years of dedicated training under a mentor (guru).
I've been learning the mridangam, a traditional South Indian drum, informally since I was 3 and formally since I was about ten years old. I've accompanied many artists in amateur performances but my arangetram was the first time that I ever performed professionally accompanying professional artists. Preparation for the concert started about a year ago and intense practice began at the beginning of the summer, when my teacher choreographed the entire performance and taught me the building blocks I needed to practice in order to accompany effectively on stage.
Beyond the hundreds of hours of rote and repetitive physical practice I put in over the summer, the hardest part of my preparation wasn't learning to play fast but it was learning to accompany the performer. My teacher taught me techniques to build and release tension and it was only through hours and hours of listening to recordings of actual performances that I began to develop an instinct for how to build and release tension and how to express and develop the mood and meaning of melodic songs through my percussion.
The most intense preparation started a week before my concert, when my teacher and the two artists that I was accompanying arrived at my house for a week's worth of rehearsal. I learned a lot more in this week about the practical reality of accompaniment than I had in all my previous years of training, and the fact that we were constantly rehearsing for those five days filled the house with the sounds of Indian classical music and put my brain into a pure music mode. But I think that the practice paid off - I learned to take mistakes on stage in my stride by adjusting and improvising within the strict improvisational structures of the music.
At the end of the whole process, I can conclude that I've developed a respect for my art and the hours of practice I put in left me with a more developed and refined musical talent. But the most important change that I've noticed is that I've developed a musical instinct that I've never had before and I hope to make use of it and develop it further as I continue performing in the future.
Q: How do you balance your interests with your studies and does one ever influence the other?
A: To be honest, it would have been very difficult to balance the intense preparation required for my arangetram with my work during the school year, so the fact that I had three months of summer break to prepare was really helpful to me. But I do practice and perform during the school year, and I've found many opportunities to bring my academic and musical worlds together at my university. I'm the mridangist for the South Asian Music Ensemble at my college and my work in that ensemble has led me to meet a ton of professors and music enthusiasts who have helped me explore the academic and theoretical aspect of the music I play and learn. I'm also grateful that I've had many opportunities to take classes relating to music as part of my core classes requirements — the professor of my World Music class last year was actually an Indian classical musician herself, and she introduced me to a new intellectual realm of South Indian classical that was very new to me. I actually learned about the history of South Indian classical and ended up writing my final paper on it—the process of researching for that paper was very educational for me and helped me learn the historical, political, and social context surrounding my art.
A: To be honest, it would have been very difficult to balance the intense preparation required for my arangetram with my work during the school year, so the fact that I had three months of summer break to prepare was really helpful to me. But I do practice and perform during the school year, and I've found many opportunities to bring my academic and musical worlds together at my university. I'm the mridangist for the South Asian Music Ensemble at my college and my work in that ensemble has led me to meet a ton of professors and music enthusiasts who have helped me explore the academic and theoretical aspect of the music I play and learn. I'm also grateful that I've had many opportunities to take classes relating to music as part of my core classes requirements — the professor of my World Music class last year was actually an Indian classical musician herself, and she introduced me to a new intellectual realm of South Indian classical that was very new to me. I actually learned about the history of South Indian classical and ended up writing my final paper on it—the process of researching for that paper was very educational for me and helped me learn the historical, political, and social context surrounding my art.
There have been a plethora of opportunities at school to explore my music and I would say that I not only have an academic/musical balance but also that school has allowed me to participate more deeply in music, and vice versa.