Jagan Ramamoorthy may not be a household name, but his work has been heard by millions. A violinist well-versed in the North Indian classical style called “Gaayaki-Ang” (singing through the instrument), his playing emulates the flexibility of the human voice. Also a composer and vocalist who has performed across India and the United States, he contributed the violin solo to Ang Lee’s 2003 film Hulk, and his playing can be heard on other scores, including Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
But for those wanting an intimate in-person experience, Ramamoorthy will be performing at the Sierra Madre Playhouse on Sunday, Aug. 3. He will be joined by percussionist Shivam Dohl Tasha Pathak. Although the duo hasn’t performed together before, Ramamoorthy explained that he’s not nervous: “We’ve never met, [only] in a green room and given a nod on the head to each other,” he said. “Most of the compositions have been known to him or he would guess it intuitively.
“I should be more nervous than him,” he added. “When I nod my head, the composition starts. There are no verbal communications with the tabla. These are mostly traditional pieces, and improvisation is the way we are mentored by our gurus. He has to pick up the scale, the measure of time — 16 beats, 48 beats. That’s how it works; I leave it to God.”
When asked about musical gaffes, the violinist pointed out, “We all make mistakes onstage, so we don’t care about that part. We are human, not robots.”
Ramamoorthy’s early training was with his musician family. “When I was seven, I used to come home from school and hum the exercises my father used to teach his students,” he recalled. “I was lean [and] slim — hardly the size of the violin. But granny [suggested] I pick up dad’s violin. I had perfect pitch and oscillations required for South Indian music. I impressed her instantly. Then I picked up more serious training under both of them.”
But at 14, he said that he heard Dr. N. Rajam on the radio. “She’s the Paganini of the Indian violin,” he said. “It was four years before I could get close to her. I could write letters to her — she was the dean of one of the oldest universities in the world — and the journey I had to make to emulate her was when I was transitioning from Southern to Northern Indian music.” In 2004, having made that style change, Ramamoorthy came to the U.S. to study at CalArts, where he received an MFA in world music.
While his style of playing seems far afield from the musical scores of big Hollywood movies, it set him apart at school and drew A-list composers, including Danny Elfman, John Madden, and Christopher Young to him.
As Ramamoorthy explains it, “When I came to CalArts, my motive was to spread my teacher’s music here. I met Danny Elfman, [who] saw me perform somewhere in Pasadena [and] he wanted me to play solo violin parts for Hulk. But I didn’t know anything about Western classical music or how to read staff notes. His assistants were trying to make me read the music. I said, ‘Just give me the headphones and I’ll play.’ That’s how I entered [the film business].”
Ramamoorthy said he wants audiences to come away from his concerts remembering the music. “We always play music and forget about it afterward,” he said. “Whatever happened on the spur of the moment, we let the audience feel it. These are intuitive things and carry forward my teacher’s lineage. It’s a huge responsibility on our shoulders. My guru’s 88 now, and has been playing for more than 75 years, so to carry that responsibility is always huge.”
