Lydian Nadhaswaram puts Chennai on the world stage

It was just a couple of days ago that we’d written about the piano prodigy from Chennai, Lydian Nadhaswaram, who had reached the semifinals of the American talent show, The World’s Best... And, on Tuesday (it was aired on Wednesday), Lydian won the show, and bagged a cool $1 million as the prize money.
Lydian’s already back in Chennai, and the elated lad says his father’s phone has been ringing continuously ever since the news of achievement reached everyone. Well-wishers are calling up to congratulate the young pianist, who says, “Romba happy-a-irukku”. He continues, “I played Beethoven’s Für Elise and Etude by Chopin. Für Elise is a very famous piece and Etude is one of the toughest pieces to play. So, I decided to play them and that too, on two pianos simultaneously.” And imagine how long he took to master these two pieces before the finals? “Just one day,” replies Lydian, and leaves to attend another call, telling us that he will be back in a jiffy.
His father, Varshan Satish, who accompanied him to the US for the finals, says, “Many music lovers have been calling me since last night to congratulate Lydian and they are all in tears. Rahman sir emailed me and said he would be holding a felicitation ceremony today (Thursday). And he has mentioned that he’d be coming home before that.”
And about the final, Varshan says, “I was very confident of him acing it. But since all the judges were not from the music industry, I wasn’t sure how much they’d understand the quality of what he performed. Kukkiwon (the martial arts group from South Korea), which was the other finalist, has a lot of fan following. But finally, Lydian won,” shares Varshan. His mother adds, “More than feeling proud, we feel blessed. I’ve no words to express my happiness.”