Akkarai Sisters

Posted 2016-08-13

Apart from the concerts with Beches Brew Akkarai Sisters gave some classical Karnatic concerts and workshops during the Swedish tour in 2016. The concert on October 26 is released on November 20, 2020 as at Royal College of Music, Stockholm (CEX32) along with a vocal duet, at Narada Gana Sabha (CEX30) during the Magazhi season 2019, the last one before the Corona struck the world this spring.

We were so happy to have Akkarai Sisters with Jayachandra Rao and Shreesundarkumar back in October 2018 for some concerts. This time the setting was to be a little more intimate as they made music together with the Berger Knutsson Spering Schultz quartet. This was our 2018 schedule:
October 17 Folkteatern, Göteborg
October 18 Umeå Jazz Studio, Umeå
October 20 Stockholm Jazz Festival at Fasching, Stockholm
and then two classical Karnatic concerts:
October 21 Curious Classics, Re:Orient Uppsala Konsert & Kongress
October 22 Alice/Global, Copenhagen, Denmark
Here is the opening piece from the Karnatic concert in Uppsala, a Varnam composed by their grandfather Suchindram S P Sivasubramaniam, Varuga varugave in ragam Valaji, Adi talam:

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and here is the second piece, Muttuswamy Dikshitar’s Maha Ganapathim in raag Naattai, Eka tala:

The last time Akkarai Sisters played in Sweden was in 2016. We are very proud and happy to have Akkarai Subhalakshmi and Akkarai Sornalatha, the great Karnatic violinists/vocalists, join Beches Brew for the Beches Indian Brew concert series in Sweden and Denmark during October 2016. They will be joined by two of the best percussionists in India today, Jayachandra Rao on mridangam and Shreesundar Kumar on mridangam/khanjira.

In August 2017 we released a great album of live recordings from the Swedish tour:

Beches Indian Brew arrival

Akkarai Sornalatha took part in the first leg of the project, our concerts in India in January 2016, together with J.B. Srutisagar, V. Suresh, N. Amrit, Nityanand Haldipur and Sadanand Naimpalli.

Apart from the concerts with Beches Brew they gave some classical Karnatic concerts and workshops during the tour. The concert on October 26 is released on November 20, 2020 as at Royal College of Music, Stockholm (CEX32)

Akkarai Sisters, Akkarai Subhalakshmi and Akkarai Sornalatha, violin, voice: ”The two sisters has created quite a storm in the South Indian classical music community, they perform duets of the highest quaility, they do it as a violin duo AND they do it equally great as a vocal duo which is something unheard of before. When we played in Chennai the younger sister Sornalatha played with us but after hearing the sisters in concert we liked it so much that we invited the elder sister Subhalakshmi to join us as well and we are so happy that she liked our music and is coming along on this tour as well.” – http://akkarai.in

K. U. Jayachandra Rao, mridangam, He is one of the stalwarts in the world of Indian rhythm today and regularly performs with all the leading musicians on the Karnatic classical scene but he is equally at home on the world music scene. Jayachandra hails from a family of musicians and is an incredible virtuoso who will add considerably to our music. Coming straight from a tour with Flute Shankar, he will join Beches Indian Brew from October 21. – http://jayaranjani.org/home.php

B. Shree Sundarkumar, ”Kanjira Man”, khanjira, mridangam is one of the leading Khanjira artists today who started playing at age 3 and has learned first from his father Dr. K.B.S. Mani, and later from Guru Kaaraikudi Mani Iyer. Besides being a great accompanist in the classical field, Sundarkumar is also doing a lot of contemporary music as Kanjira Man with a great attitude and sense of humour that will fit in very well in Beches Indian Brew. – www.kanjiraman.com