The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Sangita Kalanidhi award conferred on Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan

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Saturday, Dec 16, 2006
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Sangita Kalanidhi award conferred on Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan

Special Correspondent

Music Academy to hold dance festival in January, monthly concerts

SIGNAL HONOUR: Justice A.P. Shah (second from right), Chief Justice, Madras High Court, conferring the Music Academy's "Sangita Kalanidhi M.S. Subbulaksmi" award on vocalist Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan during the inauguration of the academy's 80th annu al conference and concerts in Chennai on Friday. Also seen (from left to right) are mridangam exponant Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, M.S. Venkatraman and N. Murali, Joint Secretary and president of the academy respectively and flautist Sikkil Kunjumani. — Photo: V. Ganesan

CHENNAI: The Music Academy's prestigious Sangita Kalanidhi M.S. Subbulakshmi Award was conferred on renowned vocalist Madurai T.N. Seshagopalan on Friday.

The award, instituted by The Hindu , carries a cash prize of Rs.1 lakh and a citation.

Justice A.P. Shah, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, gave away the award to Mr. Seshagopalan during the inauguration of the Academy's 80th Annual Conference and Concerts.

The vocalist will chair this year's conference.

Dance festival

The Music Academy will hold a dance festival between January 3 and 9 next year, in commemoration of its 75th anniversary, N. Murali, president of the academy and managing director, The Hindu , said.

M.A. Baby, Minister for Education and Culture, Government of Kerala, will inaugurate the festival.

Depending on the response, the dance festival would be made into an annual event.

Young musicians

A monthly concert series had been launched in association with HCL Technologies to encourage young musicians.

Every six months, the series will feature a top artist. A bi-monthly dance series, featuring young and talented dancers, would commence from February next year, supported by Vital Spring Technologies and U.S.-based music patron Sreedhar Potarazu.

A website, www.musicacademymadras.in, intended to bring music and technology together, had also been set up with help from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) professor Kamakoti Veezhinathan.

The Academy was also addressing the issue of modernisation of the auditorium and adding more infrastructure facilities.

A master plan would be drawn up, with the help of leading architect P.T. Krishnan, Mr. Murali added.

Bharatanatyam guru C.V. Chandrasekar and music teacher Seeta Rajan have been selected for this year's Sangita Kala Acharya awards, Vainika Padmavathy Ananthagopalan and violinist A. Kanyakumari for the T.T.K Awards and composer Suguna Purushothaman for the Vaggeyakara Award.

In its 80 years, the Academy had grown along with the city of Chennai in its evolution as a citadel of culture, Justice Shah said, adding that the December music festival could be developed along the lines of the Edinburgh festival by incorporating elements such as painting, art shows and cultural seminars.

Tourist destination

This would make the festival a major tourist destination, the Chief Justice said.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Seshagopalan said it was an honour to be conferred the award by one of the most prestigious institutions promoting Indian classical music.

Mridangam maestro Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and flautist Sikkil Kunjumani were present during the award ceremony.

Nagaswaram recital

A nagaswaram concert by the Thiruppambaram brothers, T.K.S Swaminathan and T.K.S. Meenakshisundaram, followed the inauguration, the first in a series of more than 80 concerts — many of them by top artists — lined up by the Academy for the season.

Also scheduled are a series of lecture demonstrations, which are starting Saturday morning.

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