Chennai prodigy Lydian Nadhaswaram is ‘The World’s Best’
As his fingers flew over the keys, it became clear that Lydian Nadhaswaram, the 13-year-old child prodigy from Chennai, was the favourite to win ‘The World’s Best’ global talent contest. On Thursday Lydian was declared the winner, taking home $1 million in prize money.
The Chennai youngster, who spent four years at maestro A.R. Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory and is now tutored by his father Varshan Satish, stunned the judges at the contest by playing 280 beats per minute. He then increased his speed to 325 beats per minute.
“This is genuinely one of the best things I’ve ever seen live,” tweeted James Corden, host of the show.
Lydian also featured on the Ellen DeGeneres show last week after his appearance on the ‘The World’s Best’ contest.
The teenager, who is home schooled, told The Hindu that he spends on an average of six hours a day practising music under the guidance of his father Varshan Satish, a music director.
“I listen to music on YouTube and spend time going through music software. Along with my sister, I experiment a lot and we compose our own music,” said Lydian. The prodigy can play blindfolded, handle two pianos simultaneously, apart from being adept at playing the guitar and mridangam, his mother Jhansi said with legitimate pride.
Currently, he is investing time on the technical side learning skills such as mixing, sound systems.
The lad does not watch much television, but he is a regular on YouTube. “I recently picked up a movie from YouTube, then muted the sound and created my own audio. It was fun,” he said. Citing an example, he said he had tried this experiment with the animation Storks.
His performance has earned him an invite to the Jazz Foundation of America’s annual gala “A Great Night in Harlem” at the Apollo Theatre in New York on April 4.
Lydian says he wants to compose music for Hollywood. “I want to work for an animation film,” he said, adding that he also wants to play the piano on the moon at some point.
Lydian’s father, Varshan, said: “Last year, Micheal Novogratz sent Lydian a Steinway grand piano. Now he has invited him to perform at the concert with some musicians.”
His mother Jhansi proudly said that he also plays the guitar, mridangam among other instruments.
On Thursday afternoon, Oscar winner A R Rahman went to Lydian’s house in Saligramam (Chennai) and appreciated him. Lydian has spent four-years training on a full-scholarship at AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory under Surojeet Chatterji in the Russian Piano School.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
