“I could not envision life without music. It’s the most engaging of everything I do and it also allows me to have a really rich emotional life. More than seeing my days in terms of happy days and sad days, I see days in terms of interesting, stimulating and engaging days or days that are boring. Music allows me to have less of the latter and more of the former”.

Abhishek is a violinist, vocalist and percussionist based in Manchester. He was born in Tamil Nadu, South India, where he learnt to play Carnatic music. He trained as a doctor, and remains a licensed practitioner, but he has always kept one foot in the artistic world. In 2019, he put this foot forward when he left India to follow his passion for music, photography and creative writing. He is currently studying violin at the Royal Northern College of Music while also capturing the people and stories of Manchester through his urban portraitures.

ABHISHEK’S MUSICAL LIFE STORY

Abhishek was born into a medical family in the town of Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu, South India. Both his parents are doctors and, in his extended family, there are more than 50 medical practitioners, so Abhishek’s path in becoming a doctor was already mapped out. However, from an early age, Abhishek was also exposed to Carnatic music. He grew up listening to cassettes and CDs in this style, he learnt to play the mridangam, a South Indian percussion instrument, and his family went to concerts in Chennai, a major Carnatic music hub.

“The one artistic advantage of being close to Chennai and being born to my family, which is a Hindu Brahmin family…is that there is a lot of emphasis on Carnatic music and Carnatic music training…Chennai is the Carnatic music hub of the entire place so, growing up, we had cassettes and CDs of Carnatic music that I used to hear many times in the background in my home”.

Abhishek followed the family tradition to study medicine but, needing “something more”, he decided to pursue his interests in music alongside his studies. He started learning the violin in the Western classical style, which was a challenge because there were not many teachers available in his surrounding area. He travelled to Chennai for some lessons, but mainly taught himself new pieces orally by listening to recordings and watching videos online. During his third year of medicine, Abhishek joined the Indian National Youth Orchestra, where he made great friends and contacts.

“Western classical music is not big in India…so the training wasn’t great. After a while, I was learning pieces faster than my teacher…My days would end up being like going to medical college…come back at 9 or 10 in the night to study, and then play the violin from 10 to 1 in the morning…Somehow through contrition and failed attempts, I further progressed on my violin training, mainly just on YouTube. I just see videos or hear recordings and masterclasses and I just forced myself to somehow play it…I was fully immersed in the Western canon, listening to symphonies and concertos, which is extremely unusual in hindsight…It’s like a person born in Midwest USA suddenly deciding to be a Carnatic musician. It’s that bizarre, because I’m not from the culture of Western classical music, I am an Indian brown kid through and through!”.

After finishing his medical studies, Abhishek had to complete an extremely gruelling one-year internship in critical care and in psychiatry and neurology, during which he had no choice but to pause his artistic pursuits. This experience left him somewhat disillusioned with the realities of working as a doctor in India, as the intensity of the system prevented him from leading a balanced life and following his broader interests. At an Indian National Youth Orchestra performance in February 2019, an audience member encouraged him to apply for a classical masterclass in Italy. Abhishek sent off an audition tape of the Vivaldi “Summer” concerto, learning the piece from recordings by Julia Fischer and Itzhak Perlman, and became one of only four Indian citizens to have ever been selected for the masterclass. This programme helped Abhishek to decide that music was his true passion.

“I never wanted to fit in, as my journey can attest to! Despite several of my professors and friends and colleagues and even my own parents being against the decision to leave medicine and do music instead, I just didn’t care what they thought. I just said I am just going to do what I want to do because I will follow my bliss…I need to do something artistic to be fulfilled”.

“I had a whole list of options with no idea how to narrow it down…music, photography, cinematography, photojournalism or creative writing, and I was also thinking about public health or mental health…It was in this state of confusion that I took the flight to go to Italy and I went to the masterclass. For the first time, I had a Western classical teacher who was properly educated in the system…and I was meeting other musicians…That’s where I decided that’s what I want to do”.

After returning from the masterclass, Abhishek decided that he wanted to travel to study further with classical music experts. After a deep dive into online research, he decided to apply to study in the UK. He picked a Mozart concerto and learnt it over the course of three weeks for the auditions. He won a place at Birmingham Conservatoire and called off the other auditions because the staff had been so supportive of his dreams. Unfortunately, Abhishek had his place withdrawn after Birmingham City University was put under investigation for immigration fraud, but the Head of Strings at the conservatoire sent his audition tape on to the Royal Northern College of Music and they offered him a place instead, which brought Abhishek to his music studies in Manchester. There, he met Czech violin professor, Pavel Fischer, who inspired him with his combination of rigorous classical training and eclectic musical interests. In addition to his studies in music at the RNCM, Abhishek is building a photography portfolio by taking portraits of people in Manchester and performs with MIUAWGA (Make-it-up-as-we-go-along), an improvisational jazz ensemble based at the RNCM. He is also composing pieces which fuse together Carnatic and Western classical musics, representing a new musical style and reflecting his own personal journey as a musician.

“I really love Western classical music…but that’s not all I am and I have a lot more to offer…I come from an eclectic collection of music. In India, you have pure Carnatic music…which does not have harmony because it’s all linear and monophonic…but almost all of the film songs and other music that’s being produced also combines a lot of Western harmony…I was always a big fan of jazz, like Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Chet Baker, and I started incorporating blue scales and blue notes into my improvisation during my time studying medicine…I chose Pavel Fischer because I would love to follow [his] footsteps. He had an extraordinary career…he was the first violinist of the Skampa Quartet, who were artists in residence at the Wigmore Hall…[but] he quit his career early and said, ‘I want to do my own folk music from Czech and I want to do music closer to my roots’. That’s something I extremely appreciate, because that’s something I want to do as well…I can actually play Indian music for [Pavel] in class…The fact I can do that in a Western conservatory, and have such support from my teacher, it’s an extraordinary experience”.

“Ravi Shankar, the sitar player…he had a lot of albums with Yehudi Menuhin, like West Meets East, but he also wrote a few wonderful attempts at a sitar and orchestral concerto…One of the things I do want to do in the future is to write a Carnatic opera…This requires a very nuanced understanding of the orchestra and composition along with a nuanced understanding of Indian classical music. And I think that’s where I am one of the very few people who can do that…I feel like that’s one of my biggest goals”.

THE MEANINGS OF ABHISHEK’S MUSIC

Music has a number of meanings for Abhishek, but the most fundamental is its ability to “make life interesting” due to its limitless scope for learning.

“I got bored of medicine…I was getting burnt out from the same kind of repetition, I needed something more. Music is this extraordinary complex system…Even if you’re playing the Mozart D major concerto for 10 years continuously, every new day you’ll make another error or another new thing to work on so you never really get bored…[Music] never really ends”.

“I enjoy the philosophical difference [between] different styles of music. Improvisation was always something that I enjoyed but, in Indian Carnatic improvisation, you are allowing the improvisation to stay in the same raga and the philosophy is not getting from A to B, it’s just meditative and being present in the moment…With jazz, it’s its own style of improvisation –because there are chord progressions, there’s also a journey, so you’re trying to get from place A to place B in a certain way, so it’s an improvisation with a strong sense of direction…I feel like this philosophical difference teaches you a lot”.

Beyond this, Abhishek suggests that music has an important meditative function, both for himself as a practising Buddhist and also with regards to the relationship between performer and audience.

“I’m a very spiritual person. I help run the Manchester Buddhist Society with guided meditations. I have my own spiritual practise on a daily basis. I have my statue to Buddha, it’s a small shrine in the corner of my studio room. So I really enjoy the meditative aspects of life…[Music] leads you to a  very rich emotional life in many ways…Musicians never seem to be emotionally poor or emotionally bereft…You don’t have poverty of spirit if you’re an artist…Religious or spiritual experience is defined as something that’s noetic and ineffable – noetic is the sense that you’ve learned or experienced something new or gained something new and ineffable is that you can’t really put it into words…Music allows you to transcend material things and transcend normal boundaries. The act of making music together allows you to transcend your own kind of ego boundary and have this experience together that allows you to connect in a way that you cannot with words that easily…Music is something that really allows you to experience the present moment…As a performer and as a listener, you’re meditating…It allows you to have this shared experience that just brings people closer”.

CARNATIC MUSIC IN MANCHESTER

Abhishek highlights that, having arrived relatively recently in Manchester, he is still getting to know the city artistically. He feels that, through his photography, he is connecting with Manchester visually, but he is still finding his place musically. The RNCM has served as a central hub where he has met many musicians from different backgrounds. The musical and cultural vibrancy of the city has made a significant impression and led him to engage in several cross-cultural collaboration projects.

“How I see Manchester is as a space where a lot of people can find a sustainable environment to be an artist…I enjoy the culture and the youthfulness of this place…Because of the many artists that have come from Manchester, [its] cultural zeitgeist has inspired me to compose…Playing music for people here allows me to understand my performance, and that has influenced it in ways…If I had stayed in India, the music I would have written would be vastly different to what I am doing here being in Manchester”.

“Rather than see ‘cultures’, I tend to connect with people…I want to have a freelance career where I can just collaborate with other musicians…I feel that Manchester allows that to happen and it supports it really well. When you see that people from extraordinary cultures are giving concerts at an extraordinary level in Manchester and they are able to do that, you realise that you can do that too. This is a city that allows it to be possible…I play in a trio with two musicians – Emilio and Alejandro. Alejandro is a flamenco guitarist, he’s trained by extraordinary Spanish masters who came to Mexico, and Emilio plays percussion. We improvise. With me growing up in Chengalpattu and Alejandro and Emilio growing up in Mexico, we have literally grown up on opposite sides of the hemisphere, but we get together and now he can play my music and I can play his music. Flamenco bulería, it’s extraordinary rhythmic complexities but, because I come from India, where we have our own rhythmic complexity, I just convert 123-456-789-10 to ta-ka-da-ta-ka-da! The nonverbal side of music…allows it to transcend the boundaries that often limit people from connecting”.

For Carnatic music specifically, Abhishek has been overwhelmed with how this musical tradition has been welcomed at the RNCM and believes that it definitely has its place in the musical mosaic of the city, pointing out the irony that there may potentially be more support available for Indian classical music in the UK than in the modern culture of India itself. However, he feels that there is much work to do to strengthen the relationship between Carnatic music and audiences in Manchester, particularly in terms of connecting with the substantial South Asian diaspora.

“India in its modern culture does not emphasise the importance of art at all. In India, you’re either a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, or a failure…Because of that, there’s not much importance paid for Indian classical music. In fact, it’s much easier to get support and promote Indian classical music in the UK or US than in India…My uncle is an extraordinary Carnatic singer…but he has to relegate himself to giving free concerts once a year in Chennai because nobody attends a paid concert. The culture of listening to pure Carnatic music is dying…None of the parents are saying, ‘My child should learn music’. In India, they say ‘Why play the violin? Why do you want to do that? They have no support for it whatsoever. Are you gonna beg in the streets?’. I have to say there are careers! That’s the problem I had, that’s why I love being in the UK and playing music here”.

“Whenever I play anything that’s Carnatic, people in Manchester appreciate it so much. They want to do it in the RNCM. So I am welcomed as a musician…But the great shame is, I’ve attended several concerts in Manchester now, and the audience makeup does not reflect the multicultural nature of Manchester…There’s a huge Asian community here, and none of them attend concerts…I think it’s primarily because the music that they respond to is not being represented. They can train themselves to understand Western classical music, but the music that’s closer to their roots…is not being represented on most of Manchester’s big stages…So that’s something I really want to see because I’m sure the kind of music I might be able to create will be a lot more accessible to these communities…I would like to help generate an audience…I think there’s a place for Carnatic music, but there’s also a place for Carnatic music-influenced classical pieces…I feel like their music should be represented on the stages as well”.