Carnatic music’s global conversation: No matter where you are, you take your roots along | Events Movie News

From the intimacy of the guru–shishya parampara to collaborations with jazz ensembles, electronic producers and global festival stages, Carnatic music has expanded its vocabulary without abandoning its grammar. What began as a closely guarded classical tradition has, over decades, learnt to converse with the world — through improvisation, listening and a shared musical language.‘The world became the stage, but the audience stayed human’As Carnatic musicians began performing internationally, the emphasis shifted from representation to experience. “I create music for human beings,” says Karthik. “Country, race or culture doesn’t matter. What matters is whether the music reaches people,” he says. Varijashree places this moment in continuity rather than novelty. “This has been happening for decades. The internet only made it more accessible,” she says. Jagadeesh observes how global platforms feed back into local ecosystems. “Young people who may never have heard this music before start following it,” he says, recalling festival audiences encountering Carnatic-rooted work for the first time. Madhuri finds reassurance in this shift There are younger audiences now. That interest in culture matters,” she tells us.‘Tradition does not shrink when it travels’Across voices, one belief remains constant: tradition is not threatened by movement. “Tradition only grows. This entire journey is driven by curiosity,” says Jagadeesh. Varijashree calls the present moment a “golden era”, but also a fragile one. “There is a volcano of independent music. I just wish it gets more space and visibility,” she says. Madhuri notes how genre boundaries are dissolving. She says, “The separateness is disappearing. Composition-led work is finally being heard.” Karthik, however, returns to the idea of experience. He says, “Every concert should become something you carry with you. Something that stays.”‘Improvisation is where the music learns to travel’If discipline forms the base, improvisation becomes the bridge. “I got inclined towards jazz because of the improvisational formats. That curiosity is an everyday thing. It’s always a work in progress,” says Varijashree. She strips the idea of crossover to its essentials. “I call it sa-ri-ga-ma-pa-da-ni. They call it do-re-mi-fa-fa. But the notes are the same,” she explains.The sound of Carnatic music has been my first mother tongue. Everything else I approach through that sensibility— Varijashree Venugopal

Jagadeesh sees this openness as a shared instinct. “Both Carnatic music and jazz are driven by personal exploration,” he says., adding, “It’s a continuous dialogue. There is no finishing point.” Madhuri notes how this dialogue has evolved. She says, “Earlier, it felt like consciously putting things together. Now it feels seamless. It’s no longer separate.” For Karthik, improvisation is also about precision. “Every second counts,” he says. “What sound fits, where silence works, where to push tempo. In a seven-minute piece, every decision matters.”

‘Collaboration is not blending styles, it is learning to listen’Across genres and geographies, collaboration is described less as fusion and more as attentive listening. “You learn each other’s culture, you learn to respect each other’s music. Composition becomes the meeting point,” says Jagadeesh.

Varijashree agrees that unpredictability is essential. “You can’t predict what will come out of it,” she says, explaining, “Everyone involved takes something back.” Often, it’s not technique but nuance — “how space is used, how emotion is controlled. Sometimes the silence between two words decides the impact,” she says. Madhuri points out how this process is often misunderstood. She points out, “People think it’s jugalbandi. It’s not. It’s not separate worlds coming together.” Karthik sees every collaboration as a reset. “Nothing is repeated,” he says, adding, “Every time, it feels like a first.”‘Music is the fabric of life’For musicians who now perform across continents, Carnatic music was never something they consciously “entered”. It was home. “The sound of Carnatic music has been the fabric of my life,” says Varijashree. She recalls curiosity always existing alongside discipline. “I would write notations to any music I listened to — film songs, Western pop, anything. I was trying to understand it using the vocabulary I already had.” Madhuri echoes the permanence of that grounding. “You cannot escape our roots and our foundation,” she says. Even as her work increasingly leans towards jazz, “everything remains fundamentally Indian.” For Karthik, this openness has historical precedent. “Pioneers took Carnatic music as the core and spread it over time,” he says. Jagadeesh underlines that expansion does not dilute tradition. “As new disciplines and platforms emerge, tradition remains. In fact, it only grows,” he says.