Embar Kannan – I discovered this young talented artist when I attended Unni Krishnan’s carnatic concert last summer in Portland. I loved his rendition and enjoyed every minute of it.
His violin guru is smt. Kanyakumari. Kanyamukari aunty played violin for my periyammas Nagercoil sisters Leela and Saroja before she was well known.
Emila Yousuf: I found the Malaysian illustrator Emila Yusof’s blog last year. I love her illustration. It transports me to my childhood memories and the books I had in my collection as a kid. I ordered few of her prints from her original illustration and she was kind enough to send me few more free goodies. For the first time I entered for a giveaway on her site and won it too.
I am still fond of my childhood story books mostly in Tamil . I remember a couple of titles like Pappu paravaikalai peedipathillai en?(why isn’t pappu catching the birds? Pappu name of the cat), Masha en uranga villai (why isn’t masha sleeping?). I vividly remember all the illustrations from those two books .Emila’s drawing takes me to that time.
My mom forced me to donate entire collection of my story books including all my Muthu comics to “Nehru Bal Bhavan” when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I was sad, annoyed and bit angry with my mom. Our city's Bal Bhavan location was so remote. It was located on the top floor of the stadium in my town which was not accessible by bus in those days. Only government functions and inter state sports meet were held in that stadium.
On our trip back home in an auto, I questioned my mother if kids would go there to read my books. My mother tried to convince me it will be really used by kids and they would be thankful to us. But till date I doubt if any kids really used/read my precious books. I bought around ten titles from my childhood book collection in 1999 for my niece.
Harpsichord: I discovered this music instrument Harpsichord . My fav TV station OPB’s Art Beat program featured the local artist Byron Wil who makes Harpsichord here in Oregon. You can check out his website for more info on harpsichord. I envy such talented artists, who makes a living doing the things that they love.
I was familiar with few western classical composers like Beethoven and Mozart when I was in India. My curiosity led to the discovery of lot of new composers (new for me) and my favorite one is Johann Sebastian Bach. And thanks to our local western classical radio station 89.9 KBPS , I was able to listen to many composition of Johann Sebastian Bach. Before the MP3 era, this was my constant source of music at work. If you are western classical fan, they are available 7/24 on the internet. Check it out.
My interest in western classical led me to Andre Rieu , the best entertainer ever. Oh, I love his music. His orchestra, Johann Strauss Orchestra plays in Portland during holidays season .
I watched this video in 2005. This little maestro is a blessed soul to play along with Andre Rieu. Can you believe Akim Camara is just a three-year old baby during this performance? . NR’s first concert was Andre Rieu’s . I was 12 weeks pregnant with NR. I am secretly hoping , wishing and praying that NR will choose music as his profession.
God sends every kid with skills needed for their survival. It's up to the parents to nurture it , admire it and respect it without worrying about other's POV. And when the kids put their mind to it they will shine and nothing can stop them. And this little guy is just an inspiration for my thoughts and beliefs. Check out his amazing performance of Dances of the Fairies.
Andre Rieu’s orchestra presents classical music in more lively form. You will come back feeling rejuvenated after his concert. We were planning to attend his concert in Europe especially at Schönbrunn Palace. Life changed, I got pregnant and with that came all the responsibilities, concerns and worries of motherhood. I hope god will grant my wish of attending his concert as a family with NR.
Lastly, I had a friendly office mate (we shared office) Johnny (tech writer)who shared the same interest in classical music like mine. He would play music in his computer, so we both can hear it. Those are the good old days of working, enjoying and getting fat pay check by the end of the month. A part of me definitely misses the days of happy work life.
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