THE CONCERT

Aavaam | we two

A violin - mridangam duet by Shreya Devnath and Praveen Sparsh

Shreya Devnath and Praveen Sparsh bring you songs of traditional Indian Music, a journey

through classical and folk cultures. Songs of freedom, love, joy and self belief presented

in a seamless blend of composed and improvised music. The pieces will draw from the

diverse cultural background that India is blessed with, exploring the lyrical and musical

ideas of composers from across the country, each of whom had their own journey, but

found ultimately, liberation through their music and faith.

Shreya and Praveen will explore these pieces with different emotional and musical

intensities, interpreting them through the violin, vocals, multi-percussion and spoken

word. As a primarily instrumental concert, the musicality of these compositions will be

brought forth through the simple and pure magic of melody, rhythm and aesthetics.

THE ARTISTES

Shreya Devnath

Shreya Devnath is a student of the legendary Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman and strives to be a

worthy representative of this prestigious school of music. She is a well-established solo

violinist, who has earned much appreciation for her distinctive music. She also performs

regularly alongside prominent artistes like Sri. Vijay Siva, Sri. Sikkil Gurucharan, Sri.

Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Smt. Gayathri Venkatraghavan, Smt. S Mahathi, Sri B Kannan

(veena) and many others.

In addition, Shreya presents diverse instrumental duets. Her recent collaborative ventures

include Violin-Nadaswaram duets, Violin-Chitravina duets, Violin-Flute duets, Violin-Sitar

duets and a collaboration with Tabla Virtuoso Ms. Anuradha Pal in the prestigious

Chakradhar Samaroh Festival in Raigarh. Shreya also curates, performs and tours with “A

Carnatic Quartet”, an Carnatic instrumental ensemble, as also “An Experiment with

Sound and Music”, a duet with percussionist Praveen Sparsh. ​

She also recently ideated and presented “A Carnatic Quartet - alternate dimensions” - a

coming together of classical, folk and electronic music, as well as “Villupaatu cutcheri” - a

collaboration of artistes from Villupaatu, Tamilnadu’s traditional folk art form and Carnatic

music.

A capable vocalist, and committed teacher, Shreya handles students from different parts

of the world. She was most recently invited as Violin Faculty of the prestigious Summer

School Program (Violin) of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London.

Shreya has toured the US and UK extensively, as also Australia, Singapore, Malaysia,

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Dubai for concerts and workshops. She has also toured

widely with the productions of noted writer, playwright and musician Dr. Gowri

Ramnarayan, including “MS Subbulakshmi: Born to Sing”, “DK Pattamal: Her music Her

life” and “Songs of Peace - A tribute to the Mahatma”. She also scored and performed

the music for Dr Ramnarayan’s play “Kurukshetra: When Things Fall Apart”, staged at the

prestigious Madras Music Academy.

Shreya is the architect of two outreach programmes: 'The Special Project for the Armed

Forces', is dedicated to taking music to the base camps of the Armed Forces, wherever

they may be stationed. The second is a Music Appreciation Program for underprivileged

children, taking them on a journey from sound, to music, to classical music. The intent

behind both these initiatives, is to spread and share the joy that music brings us far, wide

and deep.

Recognition has also come in the form of awards and titles like the ‘Bharat Ratna Dr. MS

Subbulakshmi Fellowship’, ‘Parur Sundaram Iyer Award’, ‘Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer

Award for Youth Excellence’, ’Yuva Kala Bharathi’, ‘Nada Ratna’, ‘Visesha Pratibha

Puraskaram’ ‘RMKV Award of Excellence’, ‘Best Performer Award’, ‘Yuva Shakthi Youth

Achiever Award’, ‘Best Violinist’, ‘Best Instrumental Artiste’, ‘Outstanding Woman

Achiever’, ‘Ministry of Culture Scholarship for Young Artistes' amongst others.

Shreya holds a Masters Degree in Economics. She is a gold medalist with a brilliant

academic record. She is also a talented painter, poet and a short story writer. She was

awarded the RK Narayan Award for Creative Talent and her work of fiction was chosen by

famed author Ruskin Bond, for publication in a collection of short stories. However, her

interest in other art forms aside, she remains deeply passionate about music. Her music is

characterised by substance and freshness with paramount importance given to aesthetics.

It is music for the mind and soul, a journey for the artiste and the audience. ​

Praveen Sparsh

Praveen Sparsh is a multi percussionist and a music producer who started learning the art

of Mridangam playing at the age of 5 from Mridangam Maestro Guruvayur Sri Dorai. He is

the grandson of Mridangam exponent Tanjore Sri Upendran and great grandson of Tavil

exponent Valangaiman Sri Shanmugasundaram Pillai.

Praveen is one of the most sought after Mridangam exponents in the field of Carnatic

music, and performs regularly with stalwarts like Sri TM Krishna, Smt. Aruna Sairam, Smt.

Bombay Jayshree, Smt. Sowmya, Sri. Sikkil Gurucharan, amongst others. He has toured

the United States extensively, as also, countries like Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium,

Amsterdam, Singapore, Malaysia, Jakarta, Sydney, Melbourne, Israel and Palestine.

Praveen has most recently, released his solo percussion album, ‘UNRESERVED’, a

mridangam centric album that explores the sounds of everyday life. The album has since

received critical acclaim from the music and entertainment fraternity at large.

As a music producer, Praveen has scored and performed music for the play ‘Kurukshetra -

When things fall apart’, directed by noted playwright Dr. Gowri Ramnarayan where he

single handedly played instruments like the Mridangam, Kanjira, Guitar, Cajon, Darbuka

along with Konnakol (Vocal Percussion) and and other ambient percussion instruments. He

has also scored music for short films and ad jingles, and has worked with famed director

Rajeev Menon.

Prestigious awards and titles from revered institutions in the field of Carnatic Music have

also added to the recognition he has earned. These include “Laya Ratna”, “Palani

Subramania Pillai Memorial Award”, “Bharat Ratna Dr.M.S. Subbulakshmi Fellowship in

Music”, “Yuva Kala Bharati”, “Best Performer Award”, “Palghat Mani Iyer's Endownment

Award”, “Central Govt Scholarship for Mridangam”, “Best Mridangam Artiste” and “The

carnatic idol”, amongst others.

Praveen has collaborated and toured with world music bands like, “House of Waters”,

“Sid Sriram live”, “Sean Roldan and Friends”, “Aditya Prakash Ensemble”,“Poorvaa” and

many others. He has performed in various independent music festivals like the NH7

Weekender, Frostbite Festival, Riff Festival, Covelong Surf Festival, DAM Festival and

MAD festival. He curated and led a percussion ensemble with Parai artistes (traditional

folk percussion) at the Urur Olcot Music Festival. At the same festival, he also presented a

performance with a group of students from Avvai Home, a school for underprivileged girl

children, that he trained for upto 3 months prior to the performance. ​