Art and Dance Festival at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha
inaugurated
The 51st Art and Dance Festival, 26th Natya Kala
Conference and the 19th Pongal Nagaswara Isai Vizha of
the Krishna Gana Sabha was inaugurated on Dec.7.
Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetty, President of the Krishna Gana
Sabha, welcomed the gathering, after which L. Sabaretnam,
Director, Chennai Petroleum Corporation officially
inaugurated the Festival.
The highlight of the evening was the conferring of the
Birudhu 'Nritya Choodamani' on dancer Ananda Shankar
Jayant and 'Aacharya Choodamani' on dancer-guru Jayanthi
Subramaniam. Dancers Anita Ratnam, Bharati Sivaji,
Mohiniattam exponent and the convenor of this year's
Natya Kala Conference and 'Hamsadhwani' Ramachandran
felicitated both the awardees.
Almost the whole of the dancing fraternity was present
on the occasion including senior artistes Kalanidhi
Narayan, Adyar. K. Lakshman, Dhananjayans, Chitra
Visweswaran, Padma Subramaniam, Prof. C.V.Chandrasekar
to name a few.
The Narasimhacharis honoured the awardees on behalf of
S.Sarada from Kalakshetra.
The inaugural function was followed by the
Bharathanatyam recital of Mythili Prakash of the USA.
The Sabha is featuring not only top most artistes during
the season for music and dance but are also encouraging
new young talent this year.
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Honours for T. V. Sankarnarayanan and Vempatti Chinnasatyam
The curtains raised at the 37th Annual festival of the Nugambakkam Cultural Academy at the Ramarao Kala Mantap, T.Nagar. As the city battled peak hour traffic in T. Nagar, Local Administration minister M.K. Stalin drove in to the venue to inaugurate the festival. Though it was not full house, familiar faces from the music fraternity were present.
Vocalist Nithyasree Mahadevan sang the invocation song, with the backdrop beautifully decorated . The title of Sangeetha Kala Shironmani was conferred on Vocalist T.V.Sankaranaryanan, Natya Kala Shironmani on Kuchipudi exponent Vempatti Chinna Satyam and Natya Kala Shironmani on drama artist A.R.Srinivasan. The awards comprised of a citation, a gold medal and a cash component of Rs. 10000 each. Former Director of AIR, A.Natrajan, and Bharatnatyam exponent Padma Subrahmanyam felicitated the artistes.
The awardees for the day shared their own experiences with the sabha. From this year, the Nugambakkam Cultural Academy trust has instituted the NCAT excellence award. The recipients are vocalist O.S.Arun, dancer Jayarama Sharma and dramatist Kovai Padmanabhan.
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Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan kicks off music festival
The annual music and dance festival of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Kalakendra and Kalapradarshiniwas inaugurated on Nov. 23 by the Governor Surjit Singh Barnala. Saxophone sister - Lavanya and Subbulaxmi performed a concert after the ianuguration.
The music festival is on till Nov. 12. Singers Nityashree Mahadevan, Sanjay Subramaniam, T. M. Krishna, S. Sowmya, Bombay Jayashree, Sudha Raghunathan are among the many performers.
A six day dance festival will follow from Dec. 10 to 16. Dancers Revathi Ramachandran, Rajeswari sainath, Jayanthi Subramaniam, Narthaki Nataraj, Leela Samson and Jayabharati will perform during the festival. A group presentation, Kuravanji, by Roja Kannan, Priya Murle and Lananya Ananth will be held on Dec. 14 at 7pm.
For schedule of concerts click here
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'Isai Peroli' for Malladi Brothers
The awardees - vocalists Malladi brothers and dancee Bhargavi Gopalan at the fuction
Karthik Fine Arts inaugurated their 32nd annual art festival on Dec. 1 at Narada Gana Sabha’s main hall.
View photos
The title ‘Isai Peroli’ was conferred on vocalists Malladi brothers - Sriram Prasad and Ravi Kumar. Dancer Bhargavi Gopalan received the title 'Nadanamamani'.
The ‘D.K.Pattamal award of excellence’ was presented to young vocalist M. Balamuralikrishna and the 'Kartik Rajagopal Golden Jubilee committee award for best organiser' was presented to Yagnaraman, secretary of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai.
Mridangam maestro Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and senior dancer- guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy felicitated the awardees. The sabha’s annual fest also features Tamil Isai Vizha where they would honour senior artiste D. K. Pattamal with the title Tamil Isai Vendar.
Umayalpuram Sivaraman appreciated Malladi Brothers, learning under the veteran musician Nedunuri Kriashnamurthy for carrying forward the rich tradition of Prof. Pinakapani’s music. Bhargavi Gopalan a student of Guru K. J. Sarasa, is also a professor at SRM Easwari college of Engineering. On this occasion her guru appreciated the effort taken by her student in dedicating herself to this art.
The event saw thin audience. A few family members of the awardees and musicians like Gayatri Venkatraghavan, Violinists Lalitha and Nandini had come to encourage the awardees. The function was followed by a Bharathanatyam performance by Mathura Viswanathan, disciple of A.Lakshman.
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