The saxophone girls...

Mangalore Sisters M.S. Lavanya and M.S. Subbalaxmi play the saxophone and they are students of Kadri Gopalnath. They gave their first concert at the December Season in Chennai on Dec. 16 at Narada Gana Sabha.

The youngsters say they took to saxophone because their father M.R. Sainath accompanied Kadri on the mridangam. Says Lavanya, "Our interest in the instrument grew as we watched our guru play it over the years." The past eight years, the sisters have been training in saxophone at Mangalore, whenever Kadri visited his hometown. They have recently moved to Chennai to continue their training.

Recipients of the prestigious Rajyotsava award in Karnataka, the sisters have been performing widely. In the next one month they have a busy concert schedule and they tour Kerala, Bangalore and Hyderabad.