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Music Buzz 2019
Festival in the name of a spiritual guru
- 09 December 2019
Every year, for over three decades mridangam maestro Karaikudi Mani has hosted a short music festival during the December Season and this fest always starts with a one-hour long awards ceremony.
On Sunday, December 8 the famed mridangist despite recovering from medical treatment was at the head of the annual event at a new venue - the TAG auditorium opposite Narada Gana Sabha, Chennai.
Mani's fest is different from the sabha shows. It is dedicated to his spiritual guru - Sri Surajananda - and also to mridanga goddess Saileswari. And Mani arranges to have a swamiji as the chief guest. This time it was Sri Sri Muralidhara swamiji who runs an ashram outside the city limits.
The award which remembers Mani's guru was given to arts critic V. Srinivasan who is more known as VSV; he was with the Ananda Vikatan for some four decades and had been a longtime music critic. A man who says he often wrote for rasikas who didnt have opportunities to attend many concerts.
VSV collaborated with Bombay Jayashri to script a musical play in Thamizh based on Thyagaraja's life and music, which was dramatised by T. V. Varadarajhen and has dozens of shows, here and abroad.
Another award of Mani's Sruti Laya Kendra was given to well-known Carnatic music vocalist Aruna Sairam.
Responding to the honour, Aruna said that she owed a lot to her mother whose singing that began before dawn when she offered prayers in the puja room impacted her in her very early years and later, the presence of visiting music gurus and their lessons at their apartment in Mumbai. She also credited her in-laws who encouraged her with her music.
Mani also awards a pursue to a senior musician in the evening of his life. This time, violinist T. R. Balu was the recepient.
