Star artistes talk about their art

Brhaddvani, an organization committed to world music and research founded by Dr. Karaikudi Subramanian is holding a 3-day music festival titled “Universe of Sound” from December 18 to 20, 2009 at M Ct. M International School, Mylapore.

Aruna Sairam, Ravi Kiran and Trichy Sankaran will discuss their music and art under thematic subjects and talking to them will be artistes from abroad.

There will be performances by young artistes.

And the coffee place 'Peepul' will be open to rasikas.

For more information, you may visit www.brhaddvani.org/universeofsound.

Book on The Music Academy

A new book on The Music Academy is to be released on Dec.11 evening at the Academy.

Titled ' Four Score & More - The History of the Music Academy, Madras' it has been written by V. Sriram and Malathi Rangaswami.

Senior musicians R Vedavalli and R K Srikantan will receive the first copies.

A special concert on GNB follows - led by Trichur V Ramachandran,

The Academy members can buy the book for Rs1200 (one copy only) and for others the price is Rs.1700. Copies are sold at the Academy office.

The event starts at 6 pm.

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Half a dozen sabhas launch fests

Guess why the December Season starts in November?

Because December has only 31 days. And not all the come-lately sabhas or the ones that have eight week long programmes can live with December alone.

The past week, many sabhas opened their fests.

This morning, Sri Ragam Fine Arts ( Mandaveli based) opened its five day fest at a glorious venue few rasikas have enjoyed. The ballroom of the TN Music College on the banks of the Adyar river.

A space that is rarely used. The core complex of the college was once the first large bungalow that the British built and its owner, Brodie ( Brodies Castle it was called and R K Math Road was once called Brodies Road) who enjoyed the expanse but had a tragic end in the river waters.

Today, after terribly long speeches, T N Krishnan and his daughter Viji performed. This is indeed a different atmosphere - fresh air, green all around, large windows and doors, huge ballroom and classical music.

In central Chennai, Kala Kruthi, a sabha run by women opened its fest in Chetpet. The team makes a genuine effort to develop rasikas in the Egmore area, once part of the core of the city.

A fest also opened in the campus of the Meenakshi College, Kodambakkam which has a grand auditorium. And Naadabrahmam, music journal and Nalinakanti at the MGR Janaki College ( once Satya Studios, MGR's favourite)

More fests will open in Velachery and K K Nagar and Anna Nagar which is good for rasikas who have had to live in the suburbs and cant make it to the Mylapore hub.

Some may say the season's madness gets bigger!

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Brahma Gana Sabha fest opens

It rained again!

As the curtains went up on the annual December Art Festival 2009 of Brahma Gana Sabha at the Sivagami Petachi Auditorium in Alwarpet on December 3.

The chief guest was Indian Bank's CMD, M S Sundararajan.

It may seem a trifle late in the day to award a senior artiste like T. H. Vinayakram but the vidwan, always a bundle of energy and smiles was gracious.

He was given a title along with two others - the head of Sangeet Natak Akademi, Jayant Kastuar, a Kathak dancer too and theatre and film artise, Y Gee Mahendra.

Y Gee invited the audience to his play, 'Vietnam Veedu' which will be staged at this venue later in the month and has been doing the rounds of the sabhas.

The past years, the 'season' has entertained Thamizh plays under its umbrella though most of them are 'living room' comedies.

The formal event was followed by a nadaswaram-thavil concert featuring A K Palanivel.

Brahma Gana Sabha, with 'Nalli' Kuppuswamy at the helm has a long drawn fest - with a focus on dance in January 2010.

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Sabha's livewire secy passes away

D S Ramanujam, the hyperactive secretary of Kartik Fine Arts passed away minutes after the sabha had ended its opening evening of the December season fest.

The end came at his Mandavelipakkam home, obviously exhausted after a long day at the venue.

Ramanujam, a retired Chennai Telephones staffer was a core team member of the sabha. He took forward the ideas of its founder Rajagopal and was keen to employ ideas that would take the sabha forward.

He had a heart problem and had been advised to go slow by the docs but this sabha exec chose to do what he has been doing best for over 3 decades.

The funeral was held on Wednesday.

His family can be reached at 91-44-2461 3399.

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