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Rich treat in store for music lovers

Correspondent

Idea is to give a break to budding singers

BHUBANESWAR: For connoisseurs of music, here is a reason to rejoice. The city's cultural calendar will soon witness addition of an annual music festival courtesy popular music composer and singer Laxmikant Palit and his family of singers.

The festival is being hosted by Sushama Sangeet Sadan, named after Palit's singer-mother and first music teacher. While Palit is the director of the institution, his wife Bidyutprava and sons Randip and Bandish are the co-hosts.

Annual event

"Although we have scores of talented musicians and artistes -- both singers and instrumentalists -- in the State, we have hardly any platform to present them.

This prompted me and my family members to launch this annual event that will be a tribute to my mother and music of my motherland," explained Palit who is also an anchor of renown of cultural events.

Unique setting

The festival, slated for April 5 and 6 at Jayadev Bhawan, will be mounted in a unique manner.

"There would be two sets of musicians on the stage during the inaugural evening representing the two major music traditions -- Odissi and Hindustani -- who would perform one after the other.

The concluding evening will be devoted to light music known as `sugam sangeet,' Palit added.

The inaugural evening, devoted to classical music, will feature Chittaranjan Pani, Debendra Narayan Satpathy, Randip Palit and Bandish Palit in Hindustani style while Odissi style will be represented by Ramahari Das, Bijay Kumar Jena, Binod Panda and Sangeeta Panda.

Honouring greats

The "sugam sangeet sandhya" on Friday will feature several veterans and promising singers who will present old melodies from films and non-film songs.

They include Pranab Patnaik, Sikandar Alam, Gita Das, Mitali Chinara, Jhumki Rath, Adyasha Das, Ramahari Das, Bibhu Das, Sourav Nayak and Susmita Das.

The institute has instituted three annual awards for the three styles of music that will be presented to people for their lifetime contributions to their respective fields.

Gopal Panda (Odissi), Damodar Hota (Hindustani) and Shantanu Mohapatra (light music) will be honoured this year, it was learnt.

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