Arts This Week: SPICMACAY at UVA Spring Concert
By Sage Tanguay
Sage Tanguay 00:08
The UVA Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPICMACAY) is hosting their Spring Concert on Saturday, March 1st. For Arts This Week, we spoke to the SPICMACAY at UVA co-presidents, Bhadra Kadangal and Aashni Shetty.
Aashni Shetty 00:24
I’m Aashni. I’m a second year student studying public policy at UVA.
Bhadra Kadangal 00:24
I’m Bhadra. I am one of the co-presidents at SPICMACAY at UVA. I am a third year undergraduate student. So this Saturday is our spring concert. We are bringing in a world-renowned Carnatic vocalist, Dr. R. Suryaprakash, and he’s going to be accompanied by also a couple of other musicians. We expect, usually around 300 to 400 people in the audience. It’s a really fun night to always enjoy and indulge.
Aashni Shetty 00:57
Yeah, so that’s this Saturday in the UVA Chemistry Building. The event is at 6pm, and reception starts in the lobby at 5pm. Carnatic music is South Indian classical music, and it’s kind of based in this fundamental concept of ragas. It uses the same seven notes octave that we use in western music, but you’re kind of constrained to a certain combination of those notes, and so there are some ragas that’ll be more somber, a little slower, some ragas that are more energetic, and you will be experiencing multiple of those when you come to the concert. And it’s really awesome.
Sage Tanguay 01:40
Could you tell me a little bit about this special guest and why people might want to come see him perform?
Bhadra Kadangal 01:46
Dr. R. Suryaprakash is a well-acclaimed and widely-traveled performing vocalist. He’s never been to Charlottesville or performed here, but he’s basically performed all over the world. And he’s a musician, scholar, composer, lyricist, and a guru in the sphere of Carnatic music today. He has a temple bell-like ringing voice, and it traverses through three octaves and just provides enthralling music. Yeah, he’s just a very well known artist in the industry. One of the people performing is actually a previous president, Srikar Chittari on mridangam. We have Samyuktha Sreeram on the ghatam, and Kamalakiran Vinjamuri on violin.
Sage Tanguay 02:27
Do you two perform as part of the club ever?
Aashni Shetty 02:31
Yeah. So every spring, we have, like, our annual student showcase called Indian Classical Night, and this year will actually be our 10th, and I’m sure we’ll be back on the show to promote that when it’s time for it. But I sing North Indian classical music, which is Hindustani music.
Bhadra Kadangal 02:47
And I’m a dancer, so I do Bharatanatyam classical dance. It’s a form of classical dance from Tamil Nadu. So yeah.
Sage Tanguay 02:54
So it sounds like both of you have performance experience in these art forms. Did you have that before you came to UVA?
Bhadra Kadangal 03:00
Yeah, that’s honestly a common reason why a lot of people join our organization. SPICMACAY. We do have some people who haven’t gotten exposure to these classical art forms beforehand, but the most common kind of thread that we see is a lot of people being trained since a young age, and then we came into UVA and wanted to bring that On Grounds and also have a chance to kind of find that community and practice our art forms and stuff like that. So we got to explore it through this club.
Aashni Shetty 03:28
Yeah, and I definitely think, like, music’s a very big cultural aspect of India, so, like, it really helps build that Indian community that we, most of us, seek when we are Indian and going to UVA.
Bhadra Kadangal 03:40
It’s really easy to say, “oh, spring concert on Saturday.” It doesn’t seem like a big event sometimes, but it really is so rewarding. And I’ve even felt that being on the board. I think every time I go to one of our events and just sit in the audience as a member, it’s such an enriching experience. And I think one of the greatest things is being able to experience live music and live dance. I think that makes such a big difference.
Aashni Shetty 04:04
Really, just having someone from like the heart of India coming to showcase their talent, it’s really, really cool and awesome.
Sage Tanguay 04:12
The Saturday performance is free and will take place from 6 to 8pm at the Chemistry Building, with a reception beginning at 5pm More information can be found at www.spicmacayatuva.org, or on their Instagram.
Arts This Week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more at pvcc.edu
