CHENNAI: For 25-year-old Rahul Narayan, juggling his profession and passion comes easy. An aircraft performance instructor at a leading airline company, Narayan wowed the audience recently with his vocals at Ragasudha Hall, Mylapore. Narayan’s panache for classical music showed in his choice of krithis and the way he strung them together. Accompanied by Raghul on the violin and Ramsabode Ramkumar on the mridangam, the highlight of his recital was the Tyagaraja krithi in raga Bhavapriya set to Adi talam, which was the most appreciated by rasikas. The Virutham in a Ragamalika in Vasantha, Dhanyasi and Kamboji ragas beautifully led to a composition in Kamboji in Kanta Chaappu by Paapa Vinaasa Mudaliar. Rahul’s recital was a blend of an array of ragas and experimented with different kinds of talam that set the tempo for the concert. The precision with which the vocalist had patterned his concert, showed the detailing and depth through which Narayan has pursued art. A B-Tech in aerospace engineering at IIT-Madras, Narayan said, “Carnatic music is my passion. My focus is not on earning money, but earning a good name in the field.” Currently based out of Mumbai, Narayan hails from Chennai and is pursuing Carnatic music since he was six years old. “I started my training under Shakuntala Seshadri. Thereafter, I trained under CR Vaidyanathan (disciple of PS Narayanaswamy) and later from Chitravina Ganesh. Now, after moving to Mumbai, I have been learning under Smt TR Balamani for four years.”Narayan has performed in all major sabhas in Chennai and gave about seven performances in December last year. “I keep flying to Chennai once a month for a concert,” says the busy artiste. Though Narayan plans to quit his job at the airline to prepare for MBA entrance examination, he advises fellow artiste to reconsider choosing music as a full-time career option. “It’s a bit risky to get into music full time. One needs to have a regular job, but he/she can pursue music post working hours. Once settled, one can consider pursuing music full time.”Commenting on his role models in Carnatic music, Narayan said, “I mostly listen to the grand old masters of Carnatic music. I love the Brinda school of music. I also listen to TN Rajarathnam Pillai (nadaswaram vidwan), Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Ramnad Krishnan, DK Pattammal and the likes.”
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