Oscar-winning music director AR Rahman said on Monday (Dec 15, 2025) that one of the challenges today is how to bring younger audiences to concert halls to enjoy classical music.
Mr. Rahman, who inaugurated the 99th Annual Music Conference and Concerts of the Music Academy in Chennai, said he expected to see many youngsters in the audience but found that most were of his own age group.
“How do we get them? That’s my task for the last 10 years. I’ve been working on ideas for the script, how to make the film and all kinds of crazy ideas that I haven’t told anyone about,” said Mr. Rahman, who presented the MS Subbulakshmi Award and a cash prize instituted by The Hindu to violinist RK Shriramkumar, designer of Sangita2025 Kalanidhi.
N. Murali, President welcomes music maestro AR Rahman to inaugurate the 99th Annual Conference and Concerts in Chennai on December 15, 2025. | Photo credit: B. Velankanni Raj
Mr. Rahman said that music must travel the world and be experienced in a way that excites and engrosses the audience. “It’s not just about the performer or the mastery of the song, it’s about the venue and the way the spaces are designed to make the music a much better experience for people,” he said.
The music director pointed out that people today have been constantly “seduced by social media, artificial intelligence and many other incredible influences – good and bad – and said that all of this can happen on screen.
“The Human Experience”
“But can you sing with a tambourine and hold an audience for three hours? That’s the question. At the same time, how can we expand the experience? The human experience is irreplaceable. Performing art plays a major role and must be reinvented again and again to attract audiences, create an economy and instill pride in our traditions,” he said.
Mr. Rahman added that while creating the music was one aspect, marketing it in a way that allowed the world to enjoy it was just as important.
“My musical experience is that I have learned from everyone. I don’t draw boundaries between traditions. I value and respect traditions. Everything comes from bhakti, from devotion – be it Sufi music, Carnatic music, Hindustani music or gospel music. Everything comes from surrendering to tradition,” he said.
A self-described “outlaw” as a musician, Mr Rahman said: “I learned music, but I deviated from tradition to rediscover it, so I gained the freedom to innovate and collaborate and the freedom not to feel guilty about breaking the rules. I’ve discovered more beauty as I’ve gotten older, and now we’re facing a serious challenge.”
Mr. Shriramkumar recalled his first concert at the Music Academy, for which he borrowed both his instrument and his clothes. “Since then, my appearances at the Academy have been an uninterrupted sequence,” he said.
He noted that Carnatic music as a genre is characterized by unique soundscapes, gamaka structures, compositional masterpieces and rhythmic intricacies. “It is of the utmost importance that this beautiful soundstage is never sacrificed in performance,” he said.
“Man of Humility”
N. Murali, president of the Academy of Music, said Mr. Rahman incorporated several classical elements from both the Carnatic and Hindustani streams.
N. Murali, President and Executive Committee Members of the Music Academy presenting a memento to Music Maestro AR Rahman at the opening ceremony of the 99th Annual Conference and Concerts of the Music Academy in Chennai on December 15, 2025. | Photo credit: B. Velankanni Raj
Quoting Australian director Baz Luhrmann – “the more I encountered AR’s music, the more I was struck by the sheer variety of styles, from swinging brass bands to triumphant anthems, from jaunty pop to a West End musical” – Mr Murali said Mr Rahman “remains a man of humility and an ambassador for our city”.
Mr. Murali added a new, first-class, state-of-the-art audio and acoustic system from leading international brand L-Acoustics of France, which was commissioned at the Academy in June 2025.
Sangita Kalanidhis TM Krishna and Bombay Jayashree were present. R. Srinivasan, Vice-President of the Academy proposed the vote of thanks.
Published – 15 Dec 2025 21:29 IST
