Akkarai Sisters in sync at Nada Sambhrama

Akkarai Sisters will perform in Bengaluru this weekend as part of the second edition of the Nada Sambhrama concert series

The Nadathur Foundation is organising the second edition of its concert series — Nada Sambhrama. The core belief of the foundation is to promote and celebrate the rich tradition of Indian classical music. This edition will feature concerts by S Subhalakshmi and S Sornalatha, popular as the Akkarai sisters, followed by a vocal recital by Sandeep Narayan.

Akkarai sisters, hailing from a family of renowned musicians, are celebrated violinists in the world of Carnatic music. With a legacy of musical excellence, the duo continues to enthrall audiences with their music.

Trained by their father, Akkarai S Swamynathan, also a veteran violinist and founder of the Swara Raga Sudha School of Music, the duo took to music as children. Soon the sisters were in the spotlight as child prodigies, performing across venues nationally and internationally.

The sisters speak to us over a call from Chennai ahead of their Bengaluru concert. It is hard to differentiate between their voices as they complete each other’s sentences. Performing in Bengaluru is not new for the sisters but this is their first concert for the Nadathur Foundation. “Many youngsters are taking to classical music. The turnout in Bengaluru is good even for a classical concert,” Sornalatha says.

The concert will feature a variety of compositions, ragas and composers in varied tempos, says Subhalakshmi. “Since the concert is in Bengaluru we will try to bring in a composition of Purandaradasa and other Kannada composers.”

About being known as Akkarai Sisters, Sornalatha says, they are named after their grandfather’s place. “When we became musicians, we brought in the name of the place as prefix to our names.”

Insisting their father did not pamper them, Subhalakshmi says, “As a teacher he was a task master and we could not imagine getting away from a practise session. At that time, we did feel we missed out on a few things as children, but today we are grateful to him as we are where we are today in the world of music because of his dedication and discipline.”