Clip from Live Concert

Mehfil

Mehfil, the concert put on by my on campus organization, SAPA, went off very successfully. Jan Popper theater was completely filled, although I do feel bad that they turned people away because they were at capacity. Some of our Ethno Department faculty also stopped by which was awesome. This show was a concert with some of our very own talented UCLA musicians and dancers who perform Indian Classical Arts. It was cool to see students perform their own creative works on stage.

The piece I performed was with my friends, Cameron Hovsepian and Jake Jamieson. Cameron is a very talented guitarist who plays many styles, in this piece he used his training in the Turkish Saz to adapt to Indian Classical Music. Jake is an accomplished percussionist who plays almost any percussion instrument and is also well versed on the tabla. For this piece he played the cajon and the tabla. We put together a rough outline for the piece giving us a lot of room to improvise and feed off of each others musical ideas. Cameron was able to adapt to the Indian style and I taught him a few melodic lines which were quite complicated for someone who has never studied Indian Music. I am grateful that this show gave me the chance to perform this piece which I put together along with my friends/musicians.

Getty Center

I meant to post something about my memorable weekend February 13-14th a while back, but I am just getting to it now. Both of those days I had the amazing opportunity to perform at the Getty Center. I performed with an awesome group of musicians and we provided music for my sister's dance performance. Believe it or not, I have never even stepped foot near the Getty Center till that day even though I have lived in LA my whole life. It is such an incredible place, especially the theater they have there. Although it isn't too big, it has such a nice environment and great acoustics. Usually they put on concerts regularly but this was the first time they featured Indian Music and Dance.

My sister, Mythili Prakash, is a pretty well known Indian Classical Dancer and the Getty had asked her to put on a show based on the theme of Love since it was Valentines Day weekend. So she chose to represent the "Season's of Love", the different emotions that come with each season such as Fall, Winter, etc. I had worked on composing some of the music for this show so it was great to hear and perform my own compositions. Both shows were sold out on both days and people really enjoyed the show.

I felt very fortunate to add the Getty Center to the list of prestigious venues I have performed at. Plus, what an amazing view of Los Angeles from the top of that hill.

My Concert at Schoenberg

Just last Friday, I performed in the HASOM Schoenberg Building. It was a two hour solo vocal concert put together for SPICMACAY, which is a student group on campuses across the country and in India which promotes Indian music and dance, and EGSO (Ethnomusicology Graduate Student Organization). This concert took place in the choral room from 630 to 830 PM. It was the first time I had ever performed a full-on concert in Schoenberg. There was a surprisingly great turn out despite the rainy, gloomy day. I was excited to see many of my peers and other musicians in the LA area.

I sang a traditional South Indian Classical Vocal Concert. The format of the concert involves compositions from Indian poets and musicians who composed these pieces centuries ago. These pieces have been passed down through the generation of musicians and are still performed today. The majority of the concert was improvised though.
Many of the attendees were HASOM students and they stayed and listened for the whole two hours. I noticed many of the students were keeping Tala (time cycle) very proficiently even though it can get very complicated with intricate rhythms. Many students had not even heard Indian Music before and seem to grow more interested after sitting through this concert.

Overall I think it was a very successful event, and I hope to perform more often as well as hear my other peers perform too.

The Tweeting Sensation

So I've finally succumbed and got myself a twitter account. At first when I heard about twitter, I thought it was just for famous people who wanted to share their thoughts and be more "down to earth" and able to connect with us common people. Since I am a huge NBA fan I would enjoy reading Shaq's humorous tweets being posted by ESPN. I remember reading Ron Artest's tweet about being traded to the lakers even before it was announced and feeling like I was on top of the news before it was even announced. But still, I could just read these tweets, because I was after all just a normal person without interesting things to tweet. However, my Internet Marketing for Musicians class at UCLA changed my views on opening a twitter account.

After joining this class I realized that twitter isn't just for famous people. Twitter is a device that lets you expand your PR, your contacts and get your name out there as well as find out whats going on in every aspect of your interests. Since I am interested in music, I can maybe come across tweeters who are interested in the same music as me, I can find out about new musicians that other tweeters recommend and best of all I can do a little shameless advertising about my own music.

Tweetdeck is another device that helps you organize what you're looking for. For my search columns I chose Indian Classical Music, Ravi Shankar, Lakers, HASOM and UCLA.

Indian Classical Music has been my performing art and passion for most of my life and it is beginning to gain popularity in the West. I have had the opportunity to perform Indian Classical music at some of America's most esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. So I know for a fact, that the possibility of being a Indian Classical Vocalist is possible although it is going to be a daunting task. My main goal right now is to get my self out in the public and attempting to stock up my contacts. Through this search column I get to see if I can maybe come across any concerts promoters or anybody interested in hearing my music if I can gauge their interests and likes based on their tweets.

Ravi Shankar is another important search column for me since I have toured with him as his lead vocalist in his recent musical projects. This search column gives me the chance to follow some of his fans maybe, they will even recognize me if they came to some of our shows when I toured with him back in 2006-2008. This way I can build my contacts, get my name out there and notify people about my own musical works.

My third column is HASOM because it is the music school in which I am honored and excited to be a part of. This way I can see whats happening concert wise or if there are any interesting music seminars or classes right here at UCLA. This column also gives me the chance to see what my other HASOM classmates are up to musically.

My fourth search column is the Lakers. I've been a die hard Laker fan, since childhood and I love following them, chatting about them, arguing against Laker haters and just seeing what people have to say about them. With this column I can find out news about a game if I can't watch it or I can be up to date with news and trades.

My fifth search column is UCLA because I want to keep myself posted on what's going on campus event wise.

Hopefully I will fully tap into the potential that twitter offers through this Internet Marketing for Musicians Class at UCLA