Hari Sivanesan (veena) in Northern Sri Lanka with location recordings, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 "World Routes" 2011.07.23 FLAC master


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For the 2011 World Routes Academy, London born veena player Hari Sivanesan, retraces his family's roots in the Northern Sri Lankan province of Jaffna, and discovers how music is faring now that the civil war is over.

Making the tricky journey to Northen Sri Lanka, along the bumpy A9 highway flanked by military checkpoints and gun posts, Lucy Duran and Hari Sivanesan head to the lively town of Jaffna, where Hari lived briefly as a baby before spending the rest of his life in London. They visit a riotous Temple Chariot Festival as the country celebrates New Year, and Hari meets and plays with one of the foremost performers in the Carnatic tradition, violinist Radakrishnan.

They watch a performance by a troupe of Vasanthan Koothu dancers, who have not been able to return to their village because of the strict military control over certain High Security Zones, and are now the sole custodians of this rural song and dance tradition. As night draws in, Hari and Lucy meet with a group of women who sing a disappearing lullaby tradition, and who also sing mourning songs. The painful reality is that each of the women has lost a husband or a son in the civil conflict that tore the country apart, and as they talk they perform these heart rending laments bringing Sri Lankas recent past into sharp focus.

The World Routes Academy is a BBC Radio 3 initiative which aims to support and inspire young UK based world music artists by bringing them together with an internationally renowned artist in the same field and belonging to the same tradition.


Details of music broadcast

Inuvil Kandasamy Temple Musicians — Katpaga Valli - Ragamalika - Tala Adi
Performers: Chinnarajah Raveendran (tavil) Balakrishnan Narmadan (tavil) Ganesan Bhavapriyan (nadaswaram) Kumaradas Nagadeepan (nadaswaram)

BBC Location Recording, Inuvil Kandasamy Temple

Thaavadi Pillaiyaar Temple Musicians — Chariot Festival
BBC Location Recording, Thaavadi Pillaiyaar Temple

Vasanthan Koothtu performers — Mallaka Chetty (Vasanthan Koothtu)
Performers: Murugesu Sivapragasm (voice) Uthayasutharshini Kuganesan (voice) Kurusamy Srithar (mridangam) Thairiyanathan Justin (harmonium)

BBC Location Recording, Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Vasanthan Koothtu performers — Kurathi (Vasanthan Koothtu)
Performers: Murugesu Sivapragasm (voice) Uthayasutharshini Kuganesan (voice) Kurusamy Srithar (mridangam) Thairiyanathan Justin (harmonium)

BBC Location Recording, Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Hari Sivanesen — Innikka Innikka Paaduven - Raga Durga - Tala Adi
Performers: Hari Sivanesen (voice)

BBC Location Recording, Tellipalai Durga Amman

Valliyama Kalimuthu — Lullaby
BBC Location Recording, Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Thavamani Myvahanam, Sellamma Iyaththurai, Punithavathy Tharmalingham — Mourning song
BBC Location Recording, Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Hari Sivanesen, Radakrishnan — Ananda Nadamadum
Performers: Hari Sivanesen (veena) Radakrishnan (violin)

BBC Location Recording, Inuvil Sivakami Ambaal Temple

Hari Sivanesen, Radakrishnan — Mattu Nagar - Raga Desh - Tala Tisra Adi
Performers: Hari Sivanesen (veena) Radakrishnan (violin)

BBC Location Recording, Inuvil Sivakami Ambaal Temple