News - Views - Reviews
MADRAS MUSIC MELA 2001
INDIAN FINE ARTS AND HAMSADHWANI FESTIVALS INAUGURATED
Titles for E Gayathri, K J Sarasa
Vina vidushi E GayatHri and noted dance acharya K J Sarasa were conferred the titles of Sangeeta Kala Sikhamani and Natya Kala Sikhamani respectively by the Indian Fine Arts Society at the inauguration of its 69th South Indian Music Conference and Festival here on December 18.
Eminent Carnatic vocalist M Balamuralikrishna conferred the titles and lauded the service of the two artistes in the promotion of fine arts. He complimented the Indian Fine Arts Society for the steps taken by it to foster Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam.
Lavishing rich praise on Gayathri, he said to describe her talent, the following words would suffice: “For the Nagaswaram, we had Rajaratnam Pillai; for the Violin, we had Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu; for the Flute we had T R Mahalingam; and for the Vina we have Gayathri.”
Replying to the felicitations, Gayathri said though she might have attained name and fame and received several awards, she still remained Baby Gayathri, whose cardinal principle -- taraka mantram -- was practice, practice and practice. The award was the culmination of the ambition of her father, late music director G Aswatthama, the contribution of her mother, Kamala and her guru T M Tyagarajan, and the assistance of her husband E Ramakrishna.
Sarasa said she was happy to provide assistance and training to a number of youngsters in the field of dance, and many of them had turned out to be very good dancers.
N Rajalakshmi and Lakshmi Viswanathan felicitated the awardees. In his welcome address, society president V Emberumanar Chetty said nearly 200 candidates took part in the music competitions held in September. The talent promotion programme, a contest for the young dancers, would be held on January 2 and 3, 2002. In response to the appeal of the rasikas that the society should have its own auditorium in T Nagar, it would consider constructing a mini-auditorium and this proposal would fructify soon, he added. The inauguration was preceded by Nagaswaram performance of M K S Natarajan and N Manikandan. The inaugural was followed by Bharatanatyam performance of Ashwini Viswanathan.
Hamsadhwani's NRI Music festival opens
Hamsadhwani’s seventh annual NRI music festival was inaugurated last night at a colourful function in Indira Nagar here. Industrialist P Obul Reddy inaugurated the festival and Pat Alter, wife of Bernard J Alter, US consul general in Chennai, lighted the traditional lamp to mark the inauguration.
Bernard Alter, referring to the close cultural ties between India and the US, pointed out that a number of Hindu temples were coming up in more and more areas of the US. The exchange of NRI musicians had helped in the growth of cultural ties between the two countries, he said adding that US universities now offered courses on Indian culture and history.
Obul Reddy said it was nice to find a large number of budding artistes coming up in the arena of classical music. Dr S T Kasinathan, secretary, Singapore Fine Arts Society, who was the guest of honour, made a forceful plea for sabhas here to provide more opportunities for NRI musicians to perform. Former chief secretary T V Venkataraman presided over the function.
Hamsadhwani honoured R
Yagnaraman, secretary of the Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, for his services to
the field of fine arts. R Ramachandran
and T R Gopalan, secretaries of Hamsadhwani, were among those who spoke. The
inaugural was followed by a vocal concert by Master Vishal Sapuram.
Courtesy: Chennaionline.com
