Artist’s Tour Diary

Artist’s Tour Diary

Flute J A Jayant along with fellow musicians Sumanth Manjunath and Sai Giridhar arrive at Manchester airport (UK) to kick off their European tour in Liverpool on 15th October 2022
They’re welcomed to Liverpool by Milap’s Head of Programmes & Planning, Pravinder Singh at Liverpool Lime Street train station
“A mandatory picture with the Beatles – when in Liverpool! My third time with them 🙂 ”
“My second time with the Beatles in 2018”
“My first visit to Liverpool in 2015.”
Some amazing images of the concert taken by an audience member! The artists performed at the beautiful ‘Music Room’ at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall to a captive audience.
Many of the audience were experiencing Indian classical music for the very first time and left as fans thanks to an amazing concert!
Getting ready to pose for an impromptu and fun photo shoot at the historical Albert Docks on Liverpool’s famous waterfront
“In the green room with our very own Kousic Sen who was so happy to listen to my concert and had the kindest words of appreciation!”

Check back in here again soon as we follow Jayant to his next stop in Edinburgh (Scotland)!

Next stops: Edinburgh, London & Copenhagen!

A pic from the castle, with all of Edinburgh seen in the background!
Nature – Breathtaking view!
At the Edinburgh Castle!
Some more posing! It was one of the most memorable walks – walking through this jungle trail by the side of a creek. Right from the rattling of leaves to sound of the water stream, it was all so therapeutic! Nature inspires me and my music!
Beautiful picture from the concert in Edinburgh – at one of the oldest concert halls in Scotland, St.Cecilia’s Hall! It was a great experience performing in Edinburgh for the first time ever and that too for a packed hall!
A moment from the concert in Edinburgh! Presenting a Bhajan on my bass flute!
Post concert snap with the 300 year old vintage organ!
Pre-concert snap with the team
Caught in the act! It was such an amazing feeling to hear my double bass flute in this acoustic hall! The tones and the resonance that this flute could produce without any amplification was humbling and made me play more of it than usual!
Next stop was London – Castletown Road 🙂 feels good to keep coming back to perform in London!
Candid! Always a heartwarming sight to see oneself in media 🙂
London concert – sound check time. One of the most important parts of a concert presentation is the mandatory sound check! It is important that musicians ensure they get the best sound mix and balance before the concert begins! I have always believed good music with good sound has a much better reach.
It was my 4th time performing at the Bhavan in London. It gets better every time I go there! Our concert in London, despite being the night before Diwali, had a huge turn out with so many rasikas, friends, musicians and relatives making it to the concert!
It was an honour to have the 85 year old legendary Mridangam artiste, Sri Karaikudi Krishnamurthy ji attend my concert in and sit through the two hour recital.
Arriving in Copenhagen at 1am! This is my first impression of this beautiful city.
Masterclass & Performance – at the Danish National Academy of Music for advanced students. It was an honour to introduce Carnatic music to the students here attending a Carnatic concert for the very first time!
This is beautiful hall hosted our recital / master class at the conservatory 🙂
The Q&A session at the end of the masterclass! It was fascinating to see how the students enjoyed our music. They came up with such interesting set of questions based on their observations! A fulfilling experience doing our small bit in spreading the art of Carnatic music!
We presented a traditional set list of compositions. At the same time explaining each of these ragas, compositions and thalamus…The significance of gamma system in Carnatic music and complex rhythm intricacies etc.
A picture of the audience!
Copenhagen Concert – moment to cherish for a lifetime. A post concert photograph with some of the finest world class musicians, who were all kind enough to make it to my concert! It was an unforgettable experience for me personally, to be performing for such distinguished musicians as team, seated in the audience’s side and to see how they responded listening to a Carnatic recital. It is amazing how music connects people across continents! Music indeed is my best spoken language! 🙂
Exploring Copenhagen at night!
Will miss Copenhagen – hope to be back this beautiful city very soon! On to the next destination now – an early bus to Berlin 🙂

Next Stops: FRANCE & GERMANY

We started with our tour of France by performing in this beautiful cathedral in Belfort! The natural sound of my flute along with the sounds of the violin, mridangam and kanjira is indescribable. This happened to the first ever time a Carnatic music concert was presented in Belfort!
Pre-concert picture 🙂
Sold out show in Hericourt
Yet another sold out show at this beautiful 350 year old church in Germany. This was the 3rd time I performed here in this beautiful venue. I recognised some members of the audience from the last time I was here four years ago and ended up having a memorable chit chat with them! Felt good realising that nothing much had changed in life post covid.
A close up shot 🙂
Our next stop was at Metz. This vintage house we stopped over for a few hours had a fire place and I couldn’t resist but practice for sometime before the concert. Photo credits go to my friend and fellow musician Sai Giridhar who did some magic behind the camera this time!
This picture, which captures a small part of this vintage concert hall is special! This acoustic concert for a full house of about 120 odd people in the middle of the week was one of the most memorable performances of this tour. A small town with lovely people, who ended up asking for encore four times with never-ending applause at the end of every piece is something I shall cherish for a very long time to come 🙂 About a dozen people from this concert also followed us to the next concert on the following day.
Chamber concerts or ‘Baithaks’, connect musicians with their audiences and I have always felt an intimate setting such as this brings the best out of a musician. The concert hall was filled to its brim with rasikas. A dozen of them had travelled to this city, Nancy, to listen to the concert from the previous evening. We presented Raga Mohanam as the main for the concert.
Sightseeing around Nancy, France.
The Metz Cathedral
Metz Cathedral
Strasbourg is special to me. The last couple of times I have been to this city, it has always been a delight to perform for the discerning audiences here. This concert was yet another full house show in this tour and the joy in performing an acoustic concert is immeasurable.
We performed Carnatic raga Kamas, Hamsanadham, Jaganmohini, Kamboji and Valaji.
This is at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart. This was our fourth concert in succession and what an unforgettable trip this has been so far! Here, we presented Ragas Reetigowla, Nattai, Kapi, Bhoopali and Sindubhairavi. Can’t wait to perform the rest of the concerts in this tour! We head off to Paris to perform next.
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