Margazhi music season 2025: Catch TM Krishna, RK Shriramkumar and others at Soulfest 2025’s mic-less concerts

At the MS Subbulakshmi Arangam astatine Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, 1 does not person to jostle for seats close up successful front, successful fearfulness of not being capable to perceive the performers singing onstage.

“The exertion present goes into however the auditorium has been designed, and not successful the usage of microphones. The auditorium is truthful designed specified that earthy voices convey evenly passim the space. Whether you’re sitting successful the past enactment oregon the second, you perceive the singers and the instruments with the aforesaid evenness and intensity,” says Sashi Kumar, chairman, Asian College of Journalism.

The sprawling abstraction volition play big to Soulfest 2025, a bid of mic-less Carnatic concerts this Margazhi euphony season, from December 24 to 28. The bid aims to observe the pristine prime of dependable and instruments, without physics amplification. Performers arsenic a portion of the line-up see violinist RK Shriramkumar, the Sangita Kalanidhi designate for 2025, Carnatic singers Sikkil Gurucharan, Archana, Aarathi, Vignesh Ishwar, Bharat Sundar, Amritha Murali, Nisha Rajagopalan, Aishwarya Vidhya Raghunath, Vijay Siva, Brindha Manickavasakan, and flautist JB Sruthi Sagar. The festival ends with a performance by Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna.

A caller philharmonic edition

While the auditorium, which has been architecturally designed for earthy acoustics, has hosted concerts for the euphony play implicit the past fewer years, this is the archetypal variation of Soulfest. With Asian College of Journalism besides celebrating its metallic jubilee year, each concerts volition beryllium escaped for the nationalist to attend, with lone registrations required.

“Hearing axenic dependable that hasn’t been amplified makes for a much immersive experience. This is not conscionable of the voice, but of the percussion and everything else. All of it comes unneurotic truthful beautifully,” Sashi says, of the performance acquisition audiences tin expect.

In its archetypal edition, Soulfest has been curated by Gowri Ramnarayan, writer, playwright and singer, who says the artistes they approached for this festival were each delighted to execute without microphones. “Today’s musicians are mostly trained to sing into microphones. There are galore factors that travel into play; including the close dependable modulation and however to execute a equilibrium truthful that the instruments bash not drown retired the vocals. We are besides utilized to amplification astatine a level overmuch higher than necessary. So erstwhile you person mic-less concerts, you request to person artistes who are perfectly consenting to instrumentality up the challenge,” she says.

Keeping successful tune with the sanction of the fest, each artiste volition talk about, and execute 1 opus that has touched their soul, oregon a portion they person a peculiar transportation with.

“We were keen connected having a equilibrium of some antheral and pistillate performers, and besides person an all-women ensemble instrumentality the signifier with vocalist Brinda Manickavasakan, who volition spotlight the compositions of Musiri Subramania Iyer. Archana and Aarthi volition sing successful arsenic galore languages arsenic they can, and we volition observe Muthuswami Dikshitar’s bequest done Vijay Siva’s concert,” Gowri says, astir the programming. “We were besides precise keen connected having RK Shriramkumar for a solo concert, to honour and observe him arsenic the Sangita Kalanidhi designate this year,” she adds.

Soulfest 2025 volition instrumentality spot from December 24 to 28 astatine MS Subbulakshmi Arangam, Asian College of Journalism, Taramani. Register for escaped astatine theticket9.com/e/ms-subbulakshmi-voice-rang