It was time for the young artistes of Karnataka to get together. Ananya, the Bangalore based arts organisation hosted its annual music festival, 'Sangati - Yuva Sangeethotsava' in the first week of May in Bangalore.

Being held for the second consecutive year, this five-day music fest to promote young musicians from all over Karnataka, brought together over 50 musicians, who performed at concerts at different parts of Bangalore. The fest was jointly conducted by Ananya, BTM Cultural Academy, Sri Rama Lalithakala Mandira and Sri Tyagaraja Gana Sabha.

At the valedictory function held at Gayana Samaja, awards were presented to vidushi M.K. Saraswathi, a senior vocal and veena artiste hailing from Mysore and to musicologist Dr. T. Shachidevi.

Young artistes G. Ravikiran (vocal), Mysore V. Srikanth (violin), Tumkur B. Ravishankar (mridangam) and S.V. Balakrishna (morsing) were presented the 'Yuva Puraskara'.

The function commenced with a Nagaswara recital by Vid. Manjunath and party and a recital by the winners of the Yuva Puraskara awards.

Noted litterateur and Jnanpith award winner, Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy, who is also the Chairman of Ananya, presided over the valedictory function.

The award ceremony began with an invocation by R.Poornima, disciple of vocalist M.S. Sheela. Vidwan Anooru Ananthakrishna Sharma welcomed the gathering. Following this, M.S. Sheela briefly described the activities of Ananya. In her felicitation speech, Vidushi T.S. Sathyavathi, spoke about the Ananya Puraskara and Shastra Kausthuba awardees highlighting their contributions to the field of music.

In her 'Ananya Puraskara' award speech, M.K. Saraswathi opined that young musicians are showing an increasing preference towards western instruments such as mandolin and guitar instead of traditional instruments such as Veena. She felt that special effort should be put in to retain interest in traditional instruments.

In response, Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy said, "Carnatic music seems to be imbibing some aspects of Western music as its own today. Perhaps this is because there is a lot of commonality between the two forms of music - Carnatic and Western. As it is, we seem to have adopted violin as our own. The younger generation is expressing keen interest in Carnatic music. This is a good trend."

Inspector General of Police, K.V.R. Tagore presented the Yuva Puraskara awards and mementoes to all the participants of Sangati. In his speech he said, "Music should be one of the subjects for police personnel in police training schools. Music brings peace of mind. Our culture is the best in the world. But our artistes do not lead a comfortable life. Most of them may look well placed, but are poorly paid."

The awards ceremony was followed by a instrumental ensemble by the participants of Sangathi. The lively and entertaining ensemble was directed by Vidwan Anooru Ananthakrishna Sharma. Dr. Raghavendra, Managing Trustee of Ananya proposed a vote of thanks. The programme was well attended and was a treat to the music loving populace of Bangalore.

For more info, contact: Dr. R.V. Raghavendra, Managing Trustee, Ananya, GML Cultural Academy, 91/2, 4th Main, Malleswara, Bangalore - 560 003.Ph: 080-23345069 E-mail: gml1980@vsnl.net