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performed at prominent venues like the Theatre de la Ville(Paris), Vienna Palace (Austria), Tate Modern Gallery (London), National Theatre (Australia), the Institute of World Music (New York), Oji Hall (Japan), Esplanade (Singapore), Sadler's Wells (London) and at events such as The Millennium Festival, World Circuit Arts Festival (UK), International Music Festival (France), Brisbane International Festival (Australia), Radio Koln Festival (Germany), Harborfront Festival, Treasures of India Festival (Canada), Festivals of India (France, Germany and Switzerland), and the Cleveland Tyagaraja Festival (USA).
Consolidating the achievements of his predecessors, Ravikiran has re-established the chitravina's rightful stature as an ideal medium to express Carnatic music. However, the enormity of his contribution has to be measured against the backdrop that for a brief while before his arrival, the chitravina used to be considered as an ideal instrument for mourning. In fact, the All India Radio regularly used recordings of the instrument while announcing the demise of national leaders. Since Ravikiran's entry into the scene, the instrument is only heard on auspicious occasions such as weddings, international academic/social conferences and major political events.
In addition to this, Ravikiran has successfully introduced it to the world music scene, through collaborations with top-notch musicians from diverse systems such as Jazz, Western Classical, African, Brazilian, Mid-Eastern, Chinese not to mention North Indian.
His style - which closely follows the vocal approach, in keeping with Carnatic tradition - is a combination of emotive appeal, intellectual sophistication, virtuosity and classicism, without detracting from grammatical correctness or aesthetic values. In his fidelity to pitch, rhythm and ornamentation, and in his perception and communication of the musical spirit of great composers, Ravikiran stands out as a deeply evolved musician.
Ravikiran's penchant to project instrumental capabilities has also given him room for numerous artistic innovations. A case in point is his concert in Madras in November 1995, where he played a unique ragam-tanam-pallavi using over 100
ragas (Shataragamalika).
He proved the versatility of the chitravina with his collaborative concerts with eminent Indian vocalists including Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Dr Balamuralikrishna,
T Brinda, and instrumentalists like Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Dr N Ramani.
Ravikiran has expanded the horizons of the instrument as well, by introducing several measures that have positively impacted the world of slide-instruments. For instance, his adoption of teflon slide at the behest of Mr Hemmige Varadarajan, a scientist based in California, (as opposed to ebony, bison horn, glass or steel) has definitely improved the purity of the instrument's output and has inspired a few others to do the same. He has also worked on what he himself calls "faithful amplifying techniques", whereby he has made it possible for the microtonal nuances of the normally soft chitravina to be heard by large audiences while retaining its original tone to a large extent.
Ravikiran has also performed on the electric
slide-guitar (Hawaiian
guitar) but has
found it inadequate
to express all
his musical ideas.
This resulted
in his designing
the navachitravina,
a sleek 20-stringed
slide-instrument
that also gives
him flexibility
in pitch, apart
from a sharper
tone.
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