Music: The Story of a Fascinating Collaboration
Two tabla players (one of them only ten years old), an Indian classical music violinist, and a Western cellist came together for an impressive concert at the annual Festival of Tabla in Los Angeles, California. An inspired collaboration of disparate musicians, the backstory reveals an interesting connection with Atlanta and with India-based Dr. N. Rajam, the acclaimed Padma Bhushan-awarded violinist, who is an eighth-generation descendant of a famous Carnatic violinist family.
Mile sur mera tumhara, to sur bane hamara
[When my melody meets yours, they come together to become one]
Earlier this year in Los Angeles, the 2024 Grammy for Best Global Music Album was awarded to Shakti, the fusion band, for their album This Moment. Ustad Zakir Hussain, the tabla maestro, accepted the award, celebrating his fifty-year partnership with John McLaughlin, the British guitarist and cofounder of Shakti. Pandit Ravi Shankar is another legend that comes to mind who had memorable collaborations— such as the album Passages with Philip Glass, who is regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century; and the song Within You Without You with the iconic Beatles.
[Top] The concert at the Festival of Tabla that spiked the curiosity of the author about how this collaboration of disparate artists from across the country came together for such a satisfying performance.
Maestros and their collaborations inspire awe for their perfection. But when everyday musicians come together and deliver a performance that touches you, one wonders what went into such a satisfying collaboration. How did the artists from faraway places come together? How did each artist remain true to their traditional music while also innovating and adapting?
I was very curious about answers to these questions when I attended the Festival of Tabla (FOT) 2024 in Los Angeles. It was a tranquil summer afternoon at the beautiful campus of the Soka University of America (SAU), a Buddhist liberal arts college dedicated to developing global citizens. Resonating perfectly with that mission was the two-day tabla festival featuring 20 Indian classical music performances and workshops. Novices and accomplished artists from multiple countries sang and played various instruments. Fond parents and grandparents, as also friends and neighbors, of the artists and other Indian music-lovers formed an audience of around 600.
[Left] Rupesh and Mona Kotecha, the couple who started the Festival of Tabla in 2017.
A multinational and multi-generational violin and cello performance piqued my attention. Lakshminarayana (Lak) Pisupati, a violinist from Atlanta, collaborated with Chris Votek, a cellist from Los Angeles. Accompanying them on tabla were Anjaneya Sastry and his 10-year-old fifth-grader son, Varenya Sastry.
Pisupati and Votek’s improvisation in Raag Madhuvanti felt like soul food. The gayaki ang, an approach in Indian classical music where the instrumentalists strive to emulate the vocals, was impressive. I wondered how the music blended so smoothly without a decades-long partnership, written music, or a conductor guiding the music. Here is the story of their collaboration, one entity at a time.
The Kotecha couple and the Festival of Tabla
The story starts with the forum that made this concert possible—the annual Festival of Tabla (FOT) in Los Angeles, a brainchild of Rupesh and Mona Kotecha. Kotecha was born in Uganda, spent his childhood in the U.K., and his adult life in the U.S.A. His passion for tabla was one constant in his life across the four continents. He formerly trained under Pandit Taranath Rao, a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). His wife, Mona Kotecha, grew up in a musical family that regularly hosted bhajan and keertan meetings. She sings bhajans herself.
The Kotechas put their interest and experience in music to good use when Kotecha realized that tabla players would benefit from having the spotlight on them. Since tabla is usually an accompaniment in most Indian classical concerts, tabla players did not have many opportunities to shine in their own right.
The Kotechas wanted to change that, so they conceived FOT as a forum to spotlight tabla players. It started modestly in 2017 and is now a full-fledged annual event with hundreds of participants from all over.
As the audience grew, artists from other states and countries applied to participate, bringing with them a national and international audience. In some ways, FOT became a musical match-making organization for passionate musical souls. It also became an aspirational platform for budding young artists.
[Right] From getting annoyed at his apartment mate’s constant practice of tabla during his postgraduate studies at Georgia Tech, Anjaneya Sastry grew to love tabla enough to start training in it at the Pandit Jasraj School of Music in Atlanta.
The father-and-son duo of tabla players
In FOT 2022, Varenya Sastry from Atlanta was only eight years old when he left the audience speechless with his thirty-minute solo tabla performance. The secret behind such an accomplished performance at such a young age? He has been listening to those familiar beats since birth, thanks to the daily riyaaz of his father Anjaneya Sastry. So, it was no surprise that the precocious youngster was ready for formal tabla lessons by age five. Since then, he has also attended week-long workshops with tabla maestros.
In contrast, tabla came quite late into the life of Anjaneya Sastry. He did not grow up in a musical family. Ironically, his initial relationship with the twin drums was one of annoyance—he had gotten tired of listening to his apartment mate’s constant practice during his postgraduate studies at Georgia Tech. At times, he just prayed for it to stop.
[Left] 10-year-old Varenya Sastry has been listening to the familiar beats of tabla since birth, thanks to the daily riyaaz of his father Anjaneya Sastry.
However, over time, the tabla intrigued him enough to take lessons at the local Pandit Jasraj School of Music. The shortage of tabla vaadaks in Atlanta gave him many opportunities to play in accompaniment in concerts. That came with pressure to perfect his skills. Soon, he found another passionate musician, Lak, the violinist, to practice with.
The moonstruck violinist
Lakshminarayana (Lak) Pisupati attended FOT 2023 to support his friend Sastry and his son. A sincere part-time Carnatic violinist, he has performed solo and also has accompanied many visiting artists. His interest in Hindustani music had spiked since his high school days when he listened to All India Radio and Doordarshan, but it stayed dormant for many years.
Through an unexpected turn of events, he ended up taking violin lessons virtually from Padma Bhushan-awardee Dr. N. Rajam, an eight-generation descendant from a famous Carnatic music violinist family. Pisupati applied to his passion for music the same concepts of professional rigor, such as deliverables and schedules, that he learned as an information technology professional.
[Right] Lakshminarayana (Lak) Pisupati has been interested in violin since his days in high school in India when he used to listen to All India Radio and Doordarshan..
The cellist who fell in love with Indian raaga
Chris Votek, a Los Angeles-based cellist and CalArts alumnus, fell in love with raaga music upon hearing gayaki ang violinist Jagan Ramamoorthy. After teaching Votek, an ardent student, for seven years, Ramamoorthy concluded Votek was ready for his guru in India, Ammaji, who, as it turned out, was none other than Dr. N. Rajam, Pisupati’s guru.
Going to India to pursue his passion for Carnatic-style violin was a tall order, but Votek was fortunate that his parents, wine farmers from Sonoma County, California, supported his musical passion enough to understand why he needed to go across the ocean to take lessons. He came to suburban Mumbai and trained under Ammaji for three months. While India was initially an intense and overwhelming experience, he adapted well enough to adapt to the curiosity of Indian bystanders about this white man with a very large instrument that many had never seen. He connected with Ammaji and the music well enough to repeat his India visits.
From LA to ATL for the love of music
FOT 2023 was the place where Pisupati and Votek’s paths crossed. Kinship was easy because they were learning from the same guru. Both expressed an interest in working together in the future. So, it was no
surprise that Votek ended up in Atlanta, spending a week with his music buddies, Lak and Anjaneya. They cooked vegetarian food without onions and garlic, served along with the spicy avakaya (mango pickle), which, much to the surprise of Pisupati and Sastry, did not deter Votek. Connecting at multiple levels, they kept practicing and recorded a raaga by the end of the week. The groundwork for the 2024 FOT concert was being laid, even if not as a conscious goal.
[Left] Chris Votek, a Los Angeles-based cellist and CalArts alumnus, fell in love with raaga music upon hearing gayaki-ang violinist Jagan Ramamoorthy.
At face value, there were many roadblocks to a good collaboration between Western and Eastern musicians. Cello is not used very often in Indian classical music. The violin and cello are not tuned in the same octave. Hindustani music relies on a short composition of a particular raaga that provides the structure. The raaga improvisation relies on the artists’ creativity and imagination. So how would the two artists—the violinist and the cellist—build upon, rather than take away, from each other? Agreement on the rules and the key phrases of the raaga was imperative. They had to improvise independently in solo and then periodically repeat the same melody together.
They were starting to understand and anticipate what their partner would play next so that they could figure out a way to complement each other’s music. For example, one could play a supportive note in a different octave. Together with the tabla players, they developed a supportive vibe where everyone got an opportunity to have the spotlight. After many hours of practice together, the three figured out their best recipe for performing together.
Organic, innovative growth
What they accomplished through those practice sessions was remaining true to the traditional gayakiang style while, at the same time, introducing organic innovation and growth that came from their diverse cultural backgrounds.
Their creative collaboration has also informed their parenting style. Pisupati learned to support the creative passions and competency levels of his children, and not being stuck in the traditional Asian-Indian parent mindset of doctor/engineer/computer science career tracks. Sastry grew as a parent, recognizing not just the hard work and sadhana that makes a musician, but also the fun aspects of creativity. This manifests itself in father and son jam sessions, musical puzzles, and friendly competition.
Thanks to the experimentation that went into preparing for this concert, Votek notated Hindustani music in Western sheet music, thereby opening the door to collaborating with other Western musicians in quartets, etc. He also actively participates in organizations, such as Bridge to Everywhere, that help bridge different cultures through music. Little Varenya’s journey has been to take his special gift in his stride and function as a normal elementary school student.
Votek, in India, with his guru, violinist Dr. N. Rajam (“Ammaji”), a Padma Bhushan awardee and eight-generation descendant of a famous Carnatic music family.
Each collaborative performance at FOT (and other similar festivals) has a special story behind it. They nourish a “make the world a better place” narrative that makes the most of living in a multicultural America. In a world where one can just as easily be fearful of losing tradition and react by building walls around oneself, one can also choose to adapt and build bridges to other cultures. That choice is ours to make.
Dr. Amita Naganand is a data scientist who has worked for higher education, health services, and local and state government institutions. She is a trained Hindustani music vocalist.
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