Sikkil Gurucharan has been singing at The Music Academy for many years now, but something felt different in November 2025. With the very first hum, he felt a sense of fulfilment. The timbre of his voice sounded like how it would at home, amplified many times over, with clarity. “All I want in that first hum is a fallback that gives me the confidence I can sing without holding back — the low hums and the upper octaves,” he says.
On December 31, he sang again, and it was the fag end of the Season. “You know how our voices are after a month of singing. As the kutcheri progressed, I was able to tell myself to go out of my comfort zone, because the sound was so good — I knew my voice would not strain.”
Over the past few weeks, social media has been seeing posts by members of the audience wondering what has changed in the sound factor at the nearly-a-century-old The Music Academy, one of the hallowed venues for classical music in Chennai. On the other hand, musicians have been sending messages to music producer and sound engineer Sai Shravanam, the brain behind the change, telling him performing there has been a joy this year.
Sometime in 2023, Sai was part of a couple of concerts and dance performances at The Academy. “When I attempted a playback, I was hearing differently based on where I was, and there was a rattling in some places.”
Sai, who has worked with many artistes in India and abroad, and has been a part of the 2015 film The Man Who Knew Infinity, knew there had been a major audio renovation at the Academy, pre-Covid. “But, I could not stop myself from mailing them.” He offered to work with them to sort out the niggling issues. “The only medium for music to translate is through sound, and if it does not carry the effort of the artiste, the purpose is defeated,” says Sai.
A straight view of the stage.
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Special Arrangement
On May 22, 2024, Sai was invited to the Academy to give a demo of what he felt the issues were. N. Murali, the president, would be around too. As he had requested, the air conditioning had been switched on. Sai went with an oscillator that produced a frequency between 80 hertz and 120 hertz. He walked with Murali, and kept marking the problem areas with tape.
“A concert is mostly always a struggle between the artiste, audience and sound engineer. Did you know, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain once requested people sitting in the Academy’s balcony to come down, because he felt they were not hearing it as he intended them to,” recalls Sai.
Soon after the 2024 music season, the Academy was closed for three months. “We had to study the building, the acoustics, the material used, because that too makes a difference to the output, and the humidity in the hall when it is a full house — when the air is dense, sound travels fast. We created a 3D CAD model of the Academy and I worked with Adriaan VAN DER WALT from L-Acoustics, known for its high-resolution sound in classical music.”
The result was visible when the Academy reopened and concerts began. The musicians were the first to realise the change. The audience soon followed.
Because of the new system, loudness has been replaced by clarity. And, things have changed on-stage too. “Usually, we have wires on the floor, and there are chances for people to trip. We put in place flying speakers. I went back and forth with Adriaan on Zoom calls to design a system suitable for Indian music. While sound does not know genres, our music works within a certain frequency range. And, you have to work with sound and physics to mitigate issues.”
The new system was placed keeping in mind seepage due to the North East monsoon rain, and other logistics issues. “Whatever technology you deploy, the ear is the biggest perception tool. And our ears told us the new system worked,” says Sai.
When musician A.R. Rahman inaugurated the Margazhi festival at the Academy, he made special mention of the sound system. “Right now, from the balcony to the first floor, every row has the same sound experience.”
Sai is a tabla artiste himself, and knows what happens when artistes hear better on stage. “It enhances a performance, and the audience ultimately benefits.” Dancer Rama Vaidyanathan told him she danced her heart out, because the sound was so good, veena artiste Ramana Balachandhran mentioned the “clean sound” and mridangam artiste Patri Satish Kumar told him it was a joy to perform with the “super sound”.
But what makes Sai happiest is the feedback from rasikas who have no idea of what happened up above inside the false ceiling. “When their ear perceives this new sound and gives them a superior experience, it all becomes worth it.”
