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Nirmala Rajasekar, singer, vina player, composer, and music teacher
Nirmala is a lifelong musician whose extensive and ongoing training is in the ancient tradition of Carnatic music. Since leaving her home country of India, however, she has composed and performed theater and dance music, non-traditional variations on Carnatic music, and poetry accompaniment music. She has also engaged in musical collaborations with local musicians from various musical traditions. After leaving India in 1990, Nirmala lived first in London, England, then in New York, and finally, since 1995, in the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth, where she lives with her husband and two young children. In addition to her performing schedule, Nirmala works full-time as a systems analyst, and teaches the vina and Carnatic singing in her home studio.
Nirmala's music education
How Nirmala came to the Twin Cities
Nirmala's involvement in the annual Aradhana
Nirmala's projects around the Twin Cities
Nirmala's teaching
Family and music
Nirmala's musical diversification since leaving India
Hear song samples from the Aradhana 2002
Hear some sound samples from the 2002 Aradhana!
This is an annual Carnatic music festival, presented by the Indian Music Society of Minnesota, for which Nirmala performs and teaches during the year-long group rehearsals. For some basic information and terminology on Carnatic music, go to this site's Carnatic music page, where you can also find additional links with more in-depth information.
Thillana
This is a fast-paced song that was very well received by the audience. The raga is Des, the tala is Adi, and the composer is Lalgudi Jayaraman. Jayaraman is a contemporary violin maestro and has composed many thillanas.
RealMedia download (526 KB)
MP3 download (1.13 MB)
Shankari
This song's raga is Saveri, the tala is Thisraadi, and the composer is Shyama Shastri.
RealMedia download (1.43 MB)
MP3 download (3.22 MB)
Dasanamadi
This song's raga is Nadanamakriya, the tala is Adi, and the composer is Purandasa Dasa. Dasa is the father of Carnatic music and was a highly prolific composer and creator of rāgas.
RealMedia download (1.51 MB)
MP3 download (3.41 MB)
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Nirmala's music education
Nirmala was born in 1966 in Madras, India, and she grew up and received much of her music education there. She started performing solo when she was thirteen, and began music lessons at six.
She learnt from some very knowledgeable masters. Her Gurus in Veena were the late G. Chennamma and E.P. Alamelu when she lived in Bangalore. When she moved to Madras, she began training with Kalpakam Swaminathan. Nirmala still takes lessons from her when she goes to India. Her pursuit of vocal music was guided by veteran teachers Sitarama Sarma, of the "Kalapeetham" music school in Madras and Professor T.R. Subramaniam, University of Delhi. Nirmala completed the Government of India's National Merit scholarship program under Professor T.R. Subramaniam. She also took lessons from the late Calcutta K.S. Krishnamurti. Nirmala credits her teachers and her supportive parents for her musical success. Looking back she says "I've had excellent teachers. I am amazed at my parents and very grateful to them that they believed so much in me and went to such lengths to give me the very best."
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NS: My mother says that I used to love music even as a child, and she‚s heard me sing full length compositions when I was two and three ... she has a very good understanding of music and has trained vocally - she has a wonderful, sweet singing voice; my father is very knowledgeable too though he did not take formal lessons.
When I was five/six years old, I began taking music classes. My grandfather would take me for most lessons. He was very keen on me pursuing veena. He would give me ten paise every day I went for a lesson. (I could buy candy with it).Eventually, I felt guilty about taking the ten paise and told him 'Thatha, you don't have to give me money, I really like to go to music classes.'
My father would find time to sit with me about eleven, twelve in the night, after he was done with all his work, during summer and holidays - he would sit and have me play and he would not laugh, I‚m sure I was playing despicably. He‚s got some recordings of mine when I played, seven or eight years old, and he threatens once in a while, 'if you get too big for your boots, I‚ll play this in public.' [Laughs] They‚re really terrible, and I even asked him, I said, 'how did you even spend money on my music?' The lessons were expensive, I had the best teachers. I asked him, 'how did you not give up?' He said, 'well, one hopes.' My parents are just phenomenally nice people.
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How Nirmala came to the Twin Cities
NS: We came to the Twin Cities in March of 1995, my husband Raj works for a software company, out of Atlanta at that time, and he had a project here, so we decided to come here just to check it out, we lived in Europe for a few years before that ... We thought we will just live here for a while and then move on. We like it here. Except for the harsh winters, everything else is great, the children like it here and my music is doing all right, I‚m able to play, I‚m able to perform...
Nirmala's involvement in the annual Aradhana
NS: The Aradhana was one thing I got into as soon as I came to the Twin Cities. I arrived here in March of 1995. The Aradhana was in May that year and it was the first time we ever did it. I heard about it from some people, and then I got into it and I started practicing with the group. It was a group made up of mostly amateurs, and people were doing it just to keep their love for music going, and keep that tradition going for themselves and the second/third generation children growing up here... When it started that year, we met, practiced, and went home. We had not come up with the format that we see now. This format evolved over the next two years and continues to evolve taking new ideas into its fold even today.
The Aradhana
June 1, 2002
St. Paul Student Center, University of Minnesota
NS: Normally what happens in the Annual Aradhana in India, people get together and present the five songs 'Pantharathnas' (5 gems) of Thyagaraja‚s as a group maybe with a coupld more compositions by the same composer-saint. They don‚t get together or rehearse together to make this performance happen, because they are all probably from very different schools of training. On the designated day, they meet and sing. But in the Twin Cities we decided to do it a little differently. In India several festivals are performed each for a different composer. Since we here perform only one Aradhana every year, we wanted to bring in more than one composer‚s works and honor and celebrate others as well. We chose the trinity of Thyagaraja, Dikshidar and Shyama Shastri to begin with. But, since there are so many composers in India we decided to open it and just do as many as we can. This is how we came up with the current format for the Aradhana.
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The second thing we did different was we started training together, so we had three of us that taught... The three teachers would first meet and plan the songs that we wanted to present. Then we would jointly script it in such a way that we could teach it to the group. Copies of the script would be available to the group and so would recordings of the pieces themselves as learning aids.
So there‚s something unique about this. It‚s not just getting together, sitting on stage and singing, we‚re trying to sing it as a cohesive group, something not seen very often in Indian classical music. Indian classical music is primarily a solo tradition. So as we were preparing for the Aradhana year after year, we were learning from the previous mistakes, and fising what could be improved. Hopefully, as we move forward every year, it is getting better and better!
Nirmala's projects around the Twin Cities
Nirmala's performance engagements usually come about through word of mouth. Somebody hears of her, and calls her to book a performance. She considers herself a performer first and foremost, and wouldn't mind playing out of town perhaps once a month, but her role as parent to her young children keep her from playing out more: "I'm always worried; will it take me away from the kids? ... I‚m hoping I‚ll get more such opportunities that keep me here, but if I have to go out, I wouldn‚t mind, if it‚s once a month or something like that..." Despite this, and her full-time job, Nirmala has been engaged in a wide variety of projects and performances all over the Twin Cities almost since she arrived here.
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Theater
Ragmala Theater: Play, performed in several productions since 1997
Pangea World Theater:
Inner World, performed in 1996, for which Nirmala composed the music
Partitions, a period piece performed in 2002 about the India-Pakistan political situation from the early 1940's and 1980's
Katha Dance Theatre: Play, composed music and performed in 'Unveiling'with Rita Mustafi. This play about stories of Indian Women was performed in May 2001
Southern Theater: Play,'Bhakti,' performed in February-March 2003, with Aparna Ramaswami and Ruth MacKenzie, about Andhal, a 9th century South Indian saint (actual life dates are contested) who wrote several poems in praise of the god Lord Vishnu, and 11th century German saint Hildegaard von Bingen. Nirmala composed and sang for this production.
NS: For that project, I wrote to my mother immediately, I said I need some material now. I know of [Andal's] work because we learn her compositions called Thiruppavai, there are thirty of them, and I have learned many of them. I have performed them, I have sung them, and I have enjoyed those compositions. But with regard to her spiritualism, and why and how, I need to know materials ... that really helps. My mom was really happy that I‚m involved in these kinds of projects.
Music venues
Indian Music Society of Minnesota: performances in '95 or '96, again in 2001
Shubert Club, A Taste of Indian Classical Music
Walker Art Center: vina performance in 2001
Minnesota Orchestra Hall - Sommer Fest 2001
Poetry accompaniment
Robert Bly's "Poems of Mirabai". Nirmala's playing as well as singing is featured on this album.
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NS: I discovered that I like to work with poetry when I began my work with Robert Bly. I‚ve probably worked with him about six times in the last three, four years, and released one album, but every experience has been so wonderful, just to share the podium with him I think is a very special thing, and he‚s such a wonderful human being too. He‚s Uncle Bly to me, I cannot bring myself to call him Robert. He said, 'ok, you can call me Uncle Bly or Uncle Roberto' and that‚s what I call him. 'I just could not bring myself to calling him Robert - my upbringing will not let me!'
Film
The Story of Vishnu the Temple Elephant, a documentary film about a temple elephant, shot by film producer Denise Cresile while she was in India. Nirmala has scored and performed with St. Paul musician/composer Eddie Estrin on this project.
Dance
Nirmala works a lot with dance companies now. There, she doesn't play the vina at all, because she feels that there is not much of a challenge there, whereas when she starts singing it, she's playing a bigger role for the dance companies, by providing strong vocals. She has worked with Katha Dance theater and has also composed and performed with University of Minnesota dance Professor Ananya Chatterjee.
Nirmala's teaching
NS: I enjoy teaching despite the time constraint that I constantly face to be able to do this. I would like to teach whatever I have learned and have been blessed with, I just want to pass it on. The veena is such an incredible instrument, though one wonders how many folks actually understand the value of this fantastic instrument as there is not many people playing it. This makes me all the more insistent or keen to do my little bit here and spread the word about the veena. I would love to start a music school.
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Her pupils
NS: Most of my students are adult learners. Several of them tell me that they come with the realization that now they have either discovered the value and brilliance of Indian classical music - a thought that they did not have in their childhood or teen years as they thought that classical meant boring or 'uncool', probably in comparison to folk music or popular music!
We have a common goal and a common passion - music. Some of them studied music when they were kids, but even thought they were exposed to it, they did not really want to learn for one reason or another. Now they feel they cannot let another opportunity pass by because they love it so much, and they realize it‚s probably something they really want to do... All ot them now enjoy music. I also teach some people who have learned for many years prior to meeting me and want to continue learning. When I teach, I am learning, all the time.
I have some students that tako only veena lessons. My children learn from me too, that‚s the only small group of kids that I teach. I don‚t teach kids very much, the lack of time being the prime reason. If and when I taught more children, I would want to spend some time each lesson getting to know them better and becomeing more then just their music teacher.
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Teaching as learning
NS: I taught in India too before I came here, but now I feel just blessed. Because every class I teach is so different in terms of levels and drone pitches. I teach two classes for men too! I realized that after I started teaching them, my range has increased. Teaching them I would hit notes I didn‚t know I could hit.
I guess you could say I‚m 'ahem' - a fairly strict teacher. I clearly define expectations and expect a lot out of my students. When I hear something that doesn‚t sound right I let them know right away. They come to learn, they know my style. I hope that they know I give my best every lesson.
In the Aradhana, thoughm, everybody is not my student. There are people that are just there for the fun of it, and sometimes I wonder if I my standards are too hight there. That‚s a bit of a balancing act!
Her methods
NS: I sometimes pit the boys against the girls...it‚s healthy competition, right now, since they‚re so good at memory, I decided to teach them the seventy-two melakartha names, so they‚re at sixty-two right now, I teach them four a week. Some of those names are very tough to pronounce and sound very alien to the... That‚s the marvelous part of teaching children. They learn so fast, their memory is phenomenal ... I don‚t teach eveerything in Mayamalavagowla (the Raga in which many of the basic exercises are built in). I change ragas all the time, and I write their exercises in different ragas. Mohanam, for example, has only 5 notes, but I teach them exercises in 5 notes. And then I change it in such a way that they get exposure to Janya ragas, children ragas which may not have all seven notes, and thys expose them to the combinations. So, if I do Mohanam today, I will probably work with a very different scale the next time. By the time they‚ve done three or four different ragas, not only have they learned their exercises, but have also gotten all the 12 frequencies.
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Family and music
Mirjana Lausevic: So you obviously want your children to learn your style of music ...?
NS: I‚d like for them to know music, at least to the extent of making it a hobby, I don‚t know if I‚d want them to make it a profession, that‚s God‚s will and their own interest, and whatever. But I want to show them this wonderful world of music. My son takes Western violin lessons. He‚s been taking it for four, five years now. He‚s got a wonderful teacher, and now he‚s trying to play some of our music on it, though it‚s funny for me to watch him hold it [the Western] way and play. I‚m used to hearing Indian music from a violin held and played very differnetly. I am happy to see that he wants to try it. My daughter is taking keyboard lessons nd is enjoying it immensely. I just want them to be aware of this beautiful world of music, because it has the power to make one forget about everything else in the most beautiful way.
ML: Do they dance to Hindi to films and things?
NS: Oh, yes, they love to dance. My son is a big fan of the Back Street Boys, 'N Sync, et cetera, et cetera. And of course Indian movies, but we don‚t watch as many as they‚d like to, maybe because we don‚t have the time to do that, we are fairly strict about bedtimes and things like that ... they love that music and dancing ... my daughter loves to sing ...
My husband Raj supports me totally, also it‚s quite a challenge to be at a full time job and have a career in the arts. When you‚re a performer, logistics such as show times and rehearsal schedules are quite demanding! Most people are very understanding and know that I have to go home to my family as soon as I am done with whatever needs to be done and that helps! There are times when I know that if I had stayed a little longer it might have helped but that is the choice I‚ve made and even though I may not be quite pleased about it at that moment, I balance it all with Raj‚s help!
There are times when I have to tour and I always try to either take my little one with me or return as soon as I can. To go out to perform a lot is a good thing but I don‚t know if I‚m ready to do that with my six year old yet, I think she would miss me a lot more than she cares to admit. I would miss them for sure!!
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Nirmala's musical diversification since leaving India
NS: I‚ve always enjoyed the strength of Indian classical music because of which I am able to open my wings and try to fly to other lands of music. Some of these adventures that I‚ve landed fairly smootly on include collaborations with Ananya Chatterjee (singing for a system of dance, Oddesi, that is normally performed with North Indian music), Partitions, the play with PANGEA World Theater, etc. All the music I scored and performed in that project was from the Northwestern part of India... I feel that I have changed my way of singing by instinct and can maybe sing in varying modes and styles too, not just South Indian classical. Something about my singing, I do not know what it is, is obviously going down well with those systems too. Of course, there is a whole new world to explore in these areas out there!
I work a lot with Marcus Wise ... Marcus has now adapted his tabla playing to a more Mridangam like style. I don‚t know if he likes this aspect of his playing, but I enjoy it. He stated listening to a lot of mridangam playing, and he accompanies me in a pseudo-mridangam-like manner on the tabla, so it‚s a very interesting meeting for us. He‚s had to change quite a bit ... We decided to work towards that. Marcus and I sat down and said what can we do to make our presentation unique? And then I said, for one, a tabla player playing tabla for a South Indian vocalist is unheard of, if you have to really accompany, you have to do it the way they do it ... so Marcus said, ok, let me try to do that ... The novelty of this whole process for me is that the tabla language lives entirely in its own new world and this brings a very special facet to the performance.
ML: So you feel pretty comfortable with exploring other avenues for music-making and just working with other people?
NS: Yes, I think that‚s the best thing that happened to me since I left India, because had I been in India, I would have been a musician in the tradition model, doing concerts every day and probably doing only that... However, since I came here I have been drawn to the multitude of areas that are available to me and have felt a powerful need to open my mind to other ideas and thoughts. I‚ve been fortunate to be involved in works that have been very well done and received. Examples of enjoyable experiences are many - I have mentioned quite a few of this already, such as working with Robert Bly, Marcus Wise, Ruth Mackenzie and Vera Mariner, directors like Dipankar Mukherjee in theater, writing for dancers such as Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, Rita Mustaphi and Ananya Chatterjee, writing music for plays. I‚ve also worked with a guitarist, Dean McGraw, several times. These new avenues of opportunity have been mine to explore ever since I‚ve begun living outside India.
New vistas have been opened to me and I‚m seeing a multitude of music forms that I‚ve explored and enjoyed and have thus discovered in me a love for things that I never knew existed. I am continuing this voyge of discovery and innovation and am looking to reach greater heights.
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