Giridhar Udupa has several credits to his name — he gave his first public concert at the age of nine, was the first percussionist to be invited to the Krakow International Music festival in Poland, and was part of the troupe with vocalist Bombay Jayashree, which had the honour to be the first ensemble to present a Carnatic music concert at the main hall of the iconic Sydney Opera House. And the list goes on. With such illustrious accomplishments, he certainly needs no introduction. He is a percussion artiste of repute and is popularly known as Ghatam Udupa. In his 30-plus years as a pakka vadhya artiste, he has performed with all the leading Carnatic and Hindustani musicians. The awards and citations that he has received stand testimony to his musical prowess.
Concert tales
In a free-wheeling chat, he shared interesting anecdotes from his concerts. He recalls an early morning, 6-am open-air concert that he performed at the historic Gateway of India, Mumbai along with Sarod player Ustad Amjad Ali khan. A small milieu of 25 people rapidly became a 4000-people audience! Just before the start of the concert, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan told Giridhar that he would be performing a 19-maatra piece and wanted Giridhar to do a similar solo piece on the ghatam. Giridhar was caught unawares. He knew of the 19-maatra rhythm but had not played it before. Also, in a solo piece, he had to follow the lehra (unlike Carnatic music where there is a taalam to keep track and follow). He took it as a challenge and played the piece determinedly. Giridhar remembers the maestro acknowledging his skilful playing with a smile and ‘Shabhash’!
Another concert that he remembers distinctly is the one with Chitra veena exponent Vidwan N Ravi Kiran in Chennai’s Parthasarathy Sabha in December 2011 during the Margazhi Utsavam. Giridhar had performed with him the earlier week in Mysuru and knew that he played the ‘C’ pitch. So Giridhar had brought along the ghatam accordingly. But that evening, when he reached the venue, Vidwan Ravi Kiran casually informed him that he would be playing on the ‘G-Sharp’ pitch that day. Giridhar was completely taken aback — he did not have the right ghatam and it would be a disaster — the shrutis of their two instruments would not match. After several failed calls for help, he contacted Vidwan Vikku Vinayakram’s son Umashankar who promptly brought the specific ghatam to the concert hall. It was marked Vikku-MSS; Giridhar had goosebumps when he realised that this was the same ghatam that Vidwan Vinayakram played on while accompanying the all-time great singer M S Subbbulakshmi. He was completely astounded and performed the concert in a trance!
Exploring musical forms
Giridhar has accompanied most of the Carnatic musicians — violinists Mysore Brothers, Vidwan Umayalapuram K Sivaraman, Vidwan Guru Karaikudi Mani, Violinist Dr L Subramaniam, Vidushi Jayanthi Kumaresh, Vidwan Ganesh and Kumaresh, among others. He has also experimented with other forms of music — Hindustani, Jazz, Flamenco, Irish, and African tribal music. He has performed with many stalwarts like Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pt Jasraj, and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, to name a few. He has also collaborated with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for Bollywood numbers.
He is part of two European bands — ‘Indialucia’,— for flamenco music and ‘Saagara’ — for jazz. He started a percussion band titled ‘Layatharanga’ in 1998 with four other Indian musicians — where they blend different music forms — Carnatic, western and African rhythms. Earlier this year, he toured Europe for 45 days performing solo concerts and conducting workshops.
Giving it back
Giridhar started the Udupa Foundation to make music inclusive — he takes music performances to various locations and to people who are unable to attend regular concerts and provides a platform for upcoming musicians.
Giridhar also hosts the Udupa Music Festival, involving the legends of music. The collections from these ticketed performances are used to fund the free concerts performed under the aegis of the Udupa Foundation. He recently started the Udupa Centre for Performing Arts, aptly titled ThaDhim, which provides both online and live courses in various music and dance forms for passionate students.
Giridhar attributes his success to having the right attitude in life. As he puts it, “Genuine respect for people, humility, and a positive disposition opens doors and endears a person to one and all.” He is extremely grateful to his Gurus — father Mridangam Vidwan Nagendra Udupa who first initiated him, Sukanya Ramgopal, and Vidwan V Suresh for helping him gain mastery over the instrument.