Valayapatti festival is on in Royapettah

Valayapatti Kaashyap Naadhalaya Festival was inaugurated on Dec. 23 at AVM Rajeswari Kalyana Mandapam.

Vocalist Sudha Ragunathan was given the Naadhalaya Sironmani Award at the inauguration of Valayapatti Kaashyap Naadhalaya's twelfth year music fest.

Madurai Somu memorial award was presented on Sembanarkoil Brothers (nadaswaram).

Valayapatti award was conferred on Dr. Pakkiriswamy Bharathi, Principal, Tamil Nadu Govt. Music College. Two young artistes were awarded Child Artiste awards. T. Sai Saran for vocal and Vidya Nandi N. Iyer for veena received the awards. Scholarships for students were given away.

The festival is on till Dec. 31 at Hemamalini Kalyana Mandapam, Royapettah.

Honours for S.R. Janakiraman

Senior musician and musicologist Prof. S. R. Janakiraraman was conferred with the title 'Nadha Yogi' by Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. Known for lec-dems, S. R. Janakiraman has a passion for the compositions of Annamacharya. The award function was preceded by a lec-dem by S. R. Janakiraman on 'Some similar themes of Annamacharya and Thyagaraja'.

Coffee-table book by Bombay Jayashri and T. M. Krishna

Here comes the first coffee table book on Carnatic music greats.

A project of T. M. Krishna and 'Bombay' Jayashri.

Singing is their profession but these two famous artistes have worked up another interest.
To publish.

So on Christmas morning, the duo presented a short preview of the planned book on seven great masters of Carnatic music.

Titled 'Voices Within', this smartly produced book is not just a document of biographies: it also deals with the socio-political issues of the period when those musicians were performing, say the authors.

The preview on the book was held at The Music Academy mini hall.

The multimedia presentation gave the invitees a look into the photos that will appear in the book.

The book is printed at one of the best printers in India, Pragati based in Hyderabad.

Jayashri says that she and Krishna told themselves that the best should go into the production of this book. In a way, the book shares their own perceptions and stories on the Carnatic music greats featured here.

The book will be published by 'Matrka', a society founded by the duo for this purpose, and is due for sale in January.

Look out for it!

Concert featuring ancient veena . . .

An ancient musical instrument, the veena is scarcely seen on stage these days.But those who love the music stick by it. Or promote it zealously.

Here is one case.B. S. S. Rao who is an arts promoter in Mysore says he had a chance to listen to Bangalore-based R. K. Padmanabha playing a very old veena, and felt it needed better exposure.

Padmanabha brought a 250 year old instrument to Chennai this weekend. The magical tone of the instrument reigned when he performed at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on Dec.23.

The veena, made out of a single piece of wood, has a image of goddess Saraswathi carved in silver, on the instrument. 'The instrument is made as per 'agama sastra'. It has a cobra made in ivory on its head side' says Padmanabha remembering an incident from Bakshi Subbanna's life.

The veena maestro Subbanna, who was the guru of Padmanabha's father originally owned the instrument. 'The instrument has also a gold parrot on it. I prefer to present the original sound without using a contact mike, as the tone of the instrument is just magical,' said Padmanabha.

How does he maintain the instrument? 'It needs a lot of care. I tune the instrument everyday and keep it perfectly sruti-aligned always. The divinity of the instrument is what touches my heart.'

Padmanabha usually plays this instrument at all his concerts.