R. Yagnaraman was probably the best known sabha Head in the south Indian city of Chennai. His leaderships and skills had a lot to do with the growth of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in T. Nagar, a busy shopping and residential area of the city.

Since his demise, this sabha’s team has hosted a art festival in Yagnaraman’s memory.

This ear, this fest runs from June 30 to July 8 and presents a variety of concerts and dances.

On June 30 evening, is a Bharatanatyam-Kuchipudi jugalbandhi starring Rukmini Vijaykumar from Bangalore and Uma Murali from Chennai.

On July 1 evening, is a concert titled ‘ Amma; Music Unplugged’ which stars Anil Srinivasan on the piano and vocalists Manasi Prasad, Saaswathi Prabhu, Saindhavi and Srilekha Parthasarathy. The concert is a bouquet of classical, light and film songs on the Mother.

On July 2 evening, is a concert titled ‘Crossroads’ featuring Embar Kannan on silent violin, Sathyanarayanan on keyboard, Patri Satishkumar on mridangam, B S Arun Kumar on rhythm pad and V. Manikandan on bass guitar.

On July 3 evening is a Sufi music concert by a group of the famed Mangniar artistes who hail from Rajasthan. Bheekha Khan, vocalist will present himself and his musicians here.

On July 4 evening, is a dance jugalbandhi of the Bharatanatyam and Odissi styles featuring Janaki Rengarajan and Rahul Acharya.

On July 5 morning (10.30 am) Daksha Mahendra Joshi presents the Sonal Garaba group dance form of Gujarat.

On July 5 evening is a concert titled ‘Strings Attached’ featuring Rajhesh Vaidhya on veena, Purbayan Chatterjee on sitar, Patri Satishkumar on mridangam and D Chandrajith on tabla.

On July 6 morning (10.30 am), is a recital of the Somana Kunitha folk dance form from Karnataka.

On July 6 evening, the young vocalists, Trichur Brothers, Krishna and Ramkumar present ‘Anubhuthy’, which amalgamates classical music with world music. The duo will have a string of artistes who play the mridangam, accoustic guitar, percussion instruments and more.

On July 7 evening, is a jugalbandhi concert featuring Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt ( mohana veena) and Mysore Manjunath ( violin) with Karaikudi Mani (mridangam) and Ramkumar Mishra (tabla).

The finale is on July 8 evening, when the Yagnaraman Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to mridangam vidwan Umayalpuram Sivaraman. There are also awards for violinist Padma Sankar and Bharatanatyam dancer Janaki Rengarajan,

A Maharashtra abhang recital by K Ganesh Kumar follows.

Admission is free and open to all.

Contact 044-28140806