Folk Arts - Master Artist - Vidya Ramakrishnan

Vidya Ramakrishnan is a music teacher living in Sammamish, Washington. She teaches Carnatic music, a type of vocal performance, originating in southern India, structured around repeating ragas (melodic scales) and talas (rhythmic scales). Ramakrishnan was raised in a family with a deep sensibility towards Carnatic music and first learned Carnatic devotional songs from her mother. She began formal music training at age seven and continued with these studies through college. Carnatic music is an art form that requires a thorough understanding of both its practical and theoretical components. It plays a significant part in Indian culture, enriching celebrations, such as Diwali, which gather the community and call for performance.

In 2008, Ramakrishnan received a Folk Arts Apprenticeship grant. She will work with Narender Gunna, who has been under her training for two years and will study more advanced concepts in Carnatic music. He will focus on krithis, lyrically dense compositions often performed in concerts, and some of the improvisations possible within a krithi. Ramakrishnan and Gunna share a passion for Carnatic music and view it as a positive force which can bring together the community through concerts, lectures, and lessons. To preserve this traditional form, Ramakrishnan believes, it is essential to teach it to younger generations. Gunna, who has already begun to assist teaching Ramakrishnan’s beginning students, hopes to spread his enthusiasm for Carnatic music by offering lectures and demonstrations, organizing concerts that encourage young people to perform, and performing, himself, at events in the Seattle area.