The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Guru Gandharva title for Gangubai Hangal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Guru Gandharva title for Gangubai Hangal

Raghava M.

BANGALORE: Gururao Deshpande Sangeetha Sabha, has constituted the Gururao Deshpande Rashtriya Sangeet Puraskar , a national award to honour musicians’ contribution to Hindustani music. Music doyenne Gangubai Hangal will be the first recipient of the award. The sabha will confer her with the Guru Gandharva title at a grand function to be held in Hubli on September 22. The Hubli function is among the host of events to be conducted as a part of the sabha’s silver jubilee celebrations. The award comprises Rs. 25,000 and a citation.

Talking to presspersons on Tuesday, Hindustani vocalist Vinayak Torvi, who is the founder of the sabha, said the award was in recognition of contribution of the “94 years young” music doyenne, “who has followed my guru’s (the late Gururao Deshpande) performance closely”. “Incidentally, she was the first musician to perform in the sabha’s first programme conducted in city in 1982,” he said.

The sabha started with an all-night music programme in 1982 in memory of vocalist Gururao Deshpande. For the past eight years the event has been held in the IISc.’s gymkhana. The sabha has also been conducting other programmes such as Youth Festival, Malhar Sangeet Utsav and “Dharwad Sangeet Utsav. This year there will be one-day music conferences in Hubli, Belgaum, Mangalore, Sirsi, Mysore, Gulbarga, Mumbai, Puna and New Delhi. The conference will have lectures and demonstrations and a session on music appreciation.

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