He is no longer just 'Ghatam' Suresh. After three decades
of his association with the earthen percussion instrument,
Vaidyanathan Suresh has gained another recognition as
a Carnatic vocalist. He gave his maiden vocal concert
on 24th February 2005 at the Sathguru Thyagaraja Vidwath
Samajam, Mylapore, in Chennai.
'Though ghatam is my passion I wanted to become a professional
singer, too. Though I could not take up singing because
of my tight schedule, there was always this longing to
become a Carnatic vocalist. The maiden concert should
have happened a decade ago', he says.
In fact, right in their childhood, Suresh and his brother
Rajasekar, now an acclaimed mridangam vidwan, were initiated
into vocal music by their maternal grandfather Angarai
C Nataraja Iyer. So, in a way , he has now rediscovered
his flair as a singer, the fundamentals of vocal music
guiding him throughout his tutelage of percussion to develop
his style as an appreciative accompanist.
'We
(guru P S Thiagarajan and Suresh) are family friends
and when I approached him, he was ready to teach
me vocal music'.
Suresh, a cost accountant, worked for Enfield Motors
and LIC, before quitting his high profile job to
pursue a full-fledged career in music as a ghatam
artiste and now, he has become a vocalist, too.
He was accompanied by M R Gopinath on violin, Narendraan
on mridangam, Govindarajan on ghatam and Kannan
on morsing who provided him wonderful support throughout
the concert.
