Performing for Students — An Artist's Reflection

Performing in a grand concert hall is one experience; performing for five hundred college students sitting on the floor of a campus auditorium is another entirely. With SPIC MACAY, I have performed across Kerala from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram, in spaces ranging from ornate halls to makeshift stages under banyan trees. What strikes me every time is the quality of attention. These young audiences arrive without pretension, without the weight of expectations that concert-hall patrons carry. They listen with their whole bodies, and their questions afterwards remind me why this music deserves to outlive all of us.