Young violinists woo America

Ragini Shankar, is just 16 years old, but already following confidently on the footsteps of her illustrious mother Dr. Sangeeta Shankar and grand mother Padmashree Dr. N Rajam. Nandini is about 12 years old and it is amazing to see the enthusiasm in her voice and actions. Just like the two generations before them, for both of them the violin is very close to their heart.

The four of them are currently touring the US as part of the 'Three Generations Concert'. Here's how these two little girls describe their experiences so far:

Q. This is your first trip to the US. How do you feel?

Ragini (R): Coming to the USA has been extremely great! Since it is our first trip here, we are amazed to see everything so advanced, hi-tech and fast-paced. So far, we have covered Columbus, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Charlotte and we were surprised to see everything so organized and beautiful! All our concerts went off very well and the response from the audiences have been wonderful.

We have concerts only during the weekends so the rest of our time is spent either in shopping, sight-seeing, practicing, drawing,meeting people and visiting their homes for lunches and dinners and travelling. The huge roads, moderntechnology, greenery, beautiful houses, the cleanliness, sight-seeing, the malls and every product that we see is so nice and new. We went to Disneyland, Universal Studios, Beaches and many places. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!!!

Nandini (N): Yes, first time here. USA is really beautiful, clean, organized, green, and best of all, everything is developed here. We visited Disneyland and Universal Studios a week ago. Stunning rides and technology accompanied with beauties made our day! We had fun :)

The first city we visited was Columbus - peaceful, green, calm and silent. Everything quiet and perfect for living! After that was the journey to Los Angeles - a city full of life, stunning beauty and everything fast like a horse-race! People running for time, so many traffic jams, reminded me a bit of Bombay too!!! Now we're in Charlotte - an evergreen-tree storehouse. Sunny, quieter and picturesque, the perfect location for a well-settled life!

Q. Ragini, how are the concerts going? Can you describe your experiences so far?

R: In most of these places, the audiences were amazed to see us performing at such a young age! In fact in Charlotte, we got a standing ovation for our performance and we had to play again with Ammaji and Amma(my grandmother and my mother) due to the audiences' demand. In LA, it was a packed audience and we had music stalwarts like Padmabhushan T. N Krishnan, Lakshmi Shankar, Paul Livingston and many other eminent personalities listening to us. Indeed, it was a privilege to perform in front of them.

Q. Nandini, how would you describe the audience response so far?

N: We've visited 4 cities so far. The response is wonderful! In fact, we have so many people complimenting and congratulating us! Yet, we have a long way to go in perfecting our violin-playing... we've only just started out.
So far, Los Angeles and Charlotte concerts went off very well. The main reason being that the audiences were encouraging and the response was excellent. Americans in particular are amazed at our technique of violin playing - "The Gayaki Ang". It is so new to them.

In the Charlotte concert, we got a standing ovation. People were extremely happy hearing our concert. That was an amazing experience!!

Q. How do you feel sharing the stage with your mom and grand-mom- both of whom are such renowned artists? Any special moments?

R: Both of us are extremely confident on stage and we enjoy when we play. The concert sequence is unique: We perform for about 45 minutes followed by our Gurus. We have never done such a unique idea before. US has been our first concert tour so far as we have not performed in India more than 5 times. In India, one of the performances was really special, it was in front of the Art of Living Guru, Sri Sri Ravishankar.

N: Actually, the three generations concert is designed in such a way that first Ragini and I play for about half an hour to 45 minutes, followed by Ammaji and Amma playing the rest of the concert. The opportunity to play with them on the same stage is yet to come!! We've once done a three generations concert in the same manner in Jan 2005. But now we're quite accustomed to it.... 3 concerts done already.

Q. What would be your advice to the young kids of your age? How should they balance academics with their love for music?

R: The key behind balancing academics and music is to focus on your goals and to plan your day properly so that you can stabilize work and fun together. But the main factor that makes a person excel in both is hardwork and interest in them!

N: To have a good balance in all the fields you're interested in, time management is very necessary. If we plan our time and do things, it becomes very easy to manage music and education as well as have time for playing and other recreational activities.

Q. What's in store for the rest of the tour?

R: We are looking forward to all the remaining places and we are expecting all of them to be as wonderful as our previous ones.

Have fun you two! I am sure you'll woo America just as America woos you!

Three Generations previous coverage on Made In India. [ USA Schedule] [Dr. Rajam]