The vitality of youth is essential for the survival and growth of any nation, organisation, or art form. Without young talent, art forms risk becoming obsolete. Carnatic music has long faced the challenge of preserving its rich traditions while encouraging new generations to innovate. This balance is familiar within the community, yet the Youth Association for Classical Music (YACM) often goes unnoticed by those new to the genre.

In the 1980s, Carnatic music saw a decline in youth participation. To address this, young musicians of the time, who are now celebrated musicians, formed YACM. This association provided opportunities, fostered enduring friendships, and created legacies that continue to shape Carnatic music today.

From its inception in 1985, the YACM committee members have been some of the most successful musicians of their generation. Starting with N.Vijay Siva, R.K.Shriramkumar, P.Unnikrishnan, Mannarkoil J. Balaji, Sanjay Subrahmanyan in the 1980s, Gayathri Venkatraghavan, K.Arun Prakash, N.Manoj Siva, T.M.Krishna, Sangeetha Sivakumar, Charulatha Mani, Palghat R.Ramprasad in the 1990s and later in the 2000s included Amritha Murali, K.V.Gopalakrishnan, Nisha Rajagopal, K.Gayatri, Vidya Kalyanaraman, Vasudha Ravi, Charumathi Raghuraman, M.Balamuralikrishna, Rithvik Raja, V.Anirudh Athreya and G.Chandrasekara Sharma. 

True to its initial objective, the committee has always been led by youth and catered to the needs of the younger musicians. In the 80s and 90s, the YACM focused on providing platforms and opportunities for the youth, while in the 2000s the YACM started organising events that directly interacted with school children and tried to make the art-form more accessible and fun. Thus, the YACM has constantly evolved in terms of areas of focus and objectives.

Post the last actively working committee in 2009, the YACM has now been revived after a gap of over a decade. This team believes that opportunities are plenty for today’s youth, especially for the more popular youngsters. Their focus is to provide stages for the artists to experiment, collaborate and create a community that is welcoming of their creative pursuits. 

The first event by the new YACM took place at The Artery on the 14th of July under the name ‘Kutcheri Labs’. The event was well marketed on YACM’s Instagram page with well-designed posts. Clearly, they are the youth of today, who use the digital medium to their best. Kutcheri Labs brought together five artists - Srivathsava, Mukunda Sai, K Sudev, Sai Harini and R Srikriti who played the flute, khanjira, mridangam, veena and violin respectively. The Artery yet again proved to be the perfect environment for its warmth, perfect acoustics and lighting and aesthetic setting. It was quite intriguing to see what five instrumental artists would do. 

Sai Harini started off with a ragamalika tanam on the veena. Sai Harini aced every bit of it. Next was K. Sudev who played a tani avartanam in the classic two kalai Adi. Srivathsava presented Evaroora in Mohanam, followed by Lalgudi Jayaraman’s Revathi tillana. Mukunda Sai’s khanjira performance was off-beat (not literally) as he did a koraippu that was diametrically opposite to the usual practice. He led the koraippu, while Sudev followed. Srikrithi played pieces composed by her guru A.Kanyakumari - Bhagirathi Devi (Dasar padam tuned in raga Ganga) and the Trishakti tillana. She shows promising talent and handled these ragas with ease. Just as I was starting to feel underwhelmed about the artists performing separately thus displaying nothing novel, the team played a koraippu in three ragas - Shanmukhapriya, Rasikapriya and Natakapriya. This piece was the highlight of the evening without a doubt. It made me look forward to more such collaborative pieces in the subsequent events rather than artists playing separate segments. The instruments blended well and the concert ended on a high note! The event was in collaboration with Cumulus wealth, Sound creed, Isai, Dr. Sunder's Freedom Trust and Resileo labs. Among the audience were the former YACM office bearers, Vijay Siva and Rithvik Raja. The team also received support from Bharat Sundar and Priyanka Haresh. Overall, the YACM made the right noise upon their comeback!

It was a delight to meet the vibrant team from YACM and hear about their exciting plans for the future. In line with their objectives, they plan to host more Kutcheri Labs events and celebrate the organization's 39th anniversary this year. They are also introducing a membership scheme, offering members access to annual member-only concerts, frequent newsletters, exclusive YouTube content, and discounts on workshops hosted by YACM.

Additionally, they aspire to provide financial aid to artists, offer finance management assistance, and support mental health. Another significant initiative is the promotion of legal rights for artists, addressing the lack of contracts from local concert organizers, who typically operate based on trust.

YACM is also committed to environmental sustainability by eliminating plastic bottles in favor of metal ones, reusing canvas banners, and going completely digital with membership forms to reduce paper waste. 

The current core committee (in pic) includes musicans, Core Archana Murali, Arya Nagarajan, Hemanth Menon, Jyotsna Akhilan, Pramath Subramanian, Purva Dhanashree Cotah, Sanjana Harikumar, Sannath Parameshwaran , Siddharth Vijayaraghavan, Srikrishnan Subramanian, Surya Sriram, Sayujya Srinivasan and Yadushree Venkatesh.

YACM promises unique, innovative ideas and events for the future. Let’s hope for the best!

By

Musical Musings