July 25 2008 is the birth centenary of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, the doyen of Carnatic Music.
The Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer Golden Jubilee Foundation and the Centenary Celebrations Committee have planned a special celebration of the life and times of this legend. The Foundation was created by Semmangudi’s disciples in 1976 to commemorate 50 years of his service to Carnatic music. Its activities include an annual music festival where a senior musician is honoured and a monthly pension scheme for musicians in indigent circumstances.

The celebrations commence with a curtain raiser concert by Ranjani and Gayatri at 6.30 pm on July 24 at the TTK Auditorium of The Music Academy, accompanied by B. U. Ganesh Prasad (violin) and Arun Prakash (mridangam)

On July 25, the birth centenary of Semmangudi, the celebrations would be formally inaugurated by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India. He will release a commemorative coffee table book on Semmangudi authored by V. Subrahmaniam and V. Sriram. The book covers the musical prowess and life of Semmangudi. The book is accompanied by a CD containing excerpts from his concerts.

Two recordings of live concerts featuring the maestro, published by the Carnatica Archival Centre for music & dance will be released by M. A. Baby, Minister for Education and Culture, Govt. of Kerala.
One recording is of a live performance of Semmangudi in the year 1974, accompanied by maestros Lalgudi Jayaraman & Trichy Sankaran. The second one, titled ‘Sangamam – The Celestial Confluence’, is a unique chamber concert featuring three Sangita Kalanidhi awardees: Semmangudi, M. S. Subbulakshmi & vina vidwan K. S. Narayanaswamy.
Another CD being brought out by Carnatica on this occasion contains the three Swarajathis of Shyama Sastri rendered by the senior disciples of Semmangudi as obeisance to their guru.

A special postal cover is also being released to mark the centenary event by Indira Krishnakumar (Principal Chief Postmaster General, Tamil Nadu Circle). The releases will be capped by an audio-visual presentation on Semmangudi. R. K. Srikantan will perform a special concert after the function, accompanied by R. K. Shriramkumar (violin) and Maanrgudi A. Easwaran (mridangam).

On July 26 at 9.30 am, veteran musician Parassala Ponnammal will give a vocal concert accompanied by Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi (violin) and J. Vaidyanathan (mridangam).
This will be followed by an interactive session on Semmangudi’s music, with R. Vedavalli as moderator. At 5.30 pm Swarajatis of Shyama Sastri will be rendered by senior disciples of Semmangudi, followed by a concert of Sudha Raghunathan with M. R. Gopinath (violin), Neyveli Skandasubramaniam (mridangam) and R. Raman (morsing).

On July 27, there is a vocal concert of Seetha Rajan with B. U. Ganesh Prasad (violin) and Patri Suresh Kumar (mridangam) at 9.30 am, followed by Sangeethanjali by disciples of P. S. Narayanaswamy and V. Subrahmaniam.
The grand finale at 6.30 pm will be a vocal concert of T. M. Krishna with R. K. Shriramkumar (violin), Guruvayur Dorai (mridangam) and B. S. Purushothaman (khanjira).