Sydney Date/Time:	8pm, Friday 18 August 2006
Sydney Venue:	Wesley Centre, Pitt St, Sydney
Melbourne Date/Time:	8pm, Friday 25 August 2006
Melbourne Venue:	Athenaeum Theatre, Collins St, Melbourne

Concert accompanying artistes:

mrdangam (South Indian drums):	Mannargudi Easwaran
tabla (North Indian drums):	Mukundraj Deo

Listen to Sample Sounds of all FIMA 2006 Artistes

In both cities, the weekend-long series of concerts in CHARINDAA's FIMA 2006, is commenced with a jugalbandhi instrumental music concert by two of India's prominent instrumentalists: Dr N. Ramani and Dr N. Rajam. The word jugalbandhi basically means "jam session". It is typically used when two or more soloists come together and share the stage for a concert that cuts across different genres -- we have termed this an "artistic conversation". The FIMA 2006 jugalbandhi is particularly exciting because we are featuring, Dr Ramani and Dr Rajam, who are, respectively, amongst the best Carnatic (South Indian) and Hindustani (North Indian) classical instrumentalists today.

Dr N. Rajam is one of the senior legends of the North Indian classical (Hidustani) genre. She was born into a family that has a rich heritage in classical Indian music. Her father, Narayana Iyer, was a prominent classical Carnatic violinist and her brother, T. N. Krishnan, is one of the foremost Carnatic violinists performing today. Her initial instruction was from her father, before training with Pandit Onkarnath Thakur, a renowned Hindustani vocalist. She is, today, a truly magical performer. She has a silken, infallible and definite touch on the violin with not a single note being ever out of place. Dr Ramani is the foremost flautist of the South Indian Classical (Carnatic) genre today and has been at the peak of flute-playing for over five decades. Dr N. Ramani has been performing since 1947 and today, is a revered senior musician known simply as “Flute Ramani” – the South Indian flute is synonymous with his name!

Dr. N. Ramani was born in the revered sanctuary of Carnatic music; the city of Tiruvarur, the birth place of the Trinity of Carnatic music. In a city blessed with rich musical traditions, the young Ramani was exposed to music from a very young age. Ramani's grandfather, Sri Aazhiyur Narayanaswami Iyer, was his first guru and was a well known flute artist and singer. Ramani then trained with the legendary Late T. R. Mahalingam (commonly known as "Mali"). Today, Dr Ramani is the foremost Carnatic music flautist and has been at the peak of flute-playing for over five decades.
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