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KGS Confers Choodamani Awards

November 3, 2018, 12:46 am
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The Sangeeta Choodamani and Acharya Choodamani titles were conferred on Kadri Gopalnath (saxophone) and Suguna Varadachari (musician-guru) respectively, by G.K. Vasan, president of the Tamil Manila Congress, during the inaugural function of the 63rd Gokulashtami Sangeetha Utsavam on 1 September at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai. Sangita Kalanidhi T.V. Gopalakrishnan and Prof. Mysore V. Subramanya felicitated the awardees. Office bearers of YCPA Sri Krishna Gana Sabha Trust were also present.
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Pran Nath

November 3, 2018, 12:48 am
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
3.11.1918 - 13.6.1996
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Kalamandalam Sathyabhama

November 3, 2018, 11:03 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries

4.11.1937 - 13.9.2015
Kalamandalam V. Sathyabhama, hailed as the “mother of Mohini Attam”. The art form has losta personwho nurtured it and was one of its strongestpillars. Her contribution to the sustenance of MohiniAttam, as we see it today, is unmatched.

Sathyabhama’s last recorded interview was for me, and I am glad that I videographed this historic document for my personal footage. In December last year, she allowed my men to video-shoot her class at the Kalamandalam as a visiting professor.

 Sathyabhama was born on 4 November 1937 to Kadambatt Krishnan Nair from Thalassery (Kannur) and Venat Ammini Amma in Shoranur (Palakkad). Recalling her childhood she told me, “I became interested in dance, watching classes at my school, Ezhuthachan UP School, Shoranur. So while studying in the fifth standard I started training in dance with a teacher called Balan.

He visited my home and taught me a couple of items such as Siva-Parvati nrittam and Pooja dance. My father had passed away, but my mother and brother appreciated my interest in dance. Some of the neighbours frowned at me – a girl from a decent Nair family being trained in dance. But we ignored it. We were inspired by the music and dance of T.R. Rajakumari, Sai-Subbulakshmi, and Baby Kamala in Tamil films, which we passionately loved. The brothers Achutha Warrier and Krishnankutty Warrier, who were teaching Bharatanatyam at Kalamandalam, were staying in a rented house near the institution. Arrangements were made for me to learn Bharatanatyam from them as a private student along with my teacher Balan Master. After some time when Balan Master left Shoranur, my dance training stopped as I was twelve and found it difficult to go alone for dance training to a house where only two men lived.
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R K Singhajit Singh

November 3, 2018, 11:19 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries

4.11.1932
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Balram Pathak

November 4, 2018, 10:26 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
5.11.1926 - 15.2.1996
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T. Brinda

November 4, 2018, 10:27 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
5.11.1912
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T. R. Mahalingam

November 5, 2018, 10:25 pm
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6.11.1926 - 31.5.1986
Birthdays & Anniversaries

In 1937, after listening to T.R. Mahalingam for the first time, Mysore Vasudevachar is reported to have observed : "We all go in search of tala, but [Mahalingam] is like Lord Krishna— the tala goes in search of him." Even as a child Mahalingam astounded everyone with his superb sense of rhythm and the intricatepermutations and combinations of the beat of music that imparted an exciting pulse to the melody he wrought out of the simplebamboo.

Pudukottai Dakshinamurthi Pillai and Palghat Mani Iyer were the incarnations of tala who, to use the great Karnataka composer's figure of speech, went in search of Mahalingam.

Asked once why he was willing to play with Mahalingam who couldn't be depended upon to fulfil his concert engagements, Mani Iyer had retorted with a rhetorical question : "Who else is there who can provide me work for my mind and hands in such a glorious manner?"

Mahalingam and Mani Iyer were made for each other. Their combination clicked most perfectly. Child prodigies and masters of laya both, they rode together the waves of musical creativity with the precision as well as the excitement of champion surfers.

As far as the public knew, his death was sudden and most unexpected. And most tragic. 

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V. Subrahmaniam

November 5, 2018, 9:21 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
6.11.1934

Subrahmaniam was born on 6 November 1934 to Meenakshi and S. Vaidyanatha Iyer in the Princely State of Tiruvananthapuram. The immediate family saw great promise in the child, when he identified ragas and picked up songs naturally without any formal training. His musical career formally began in 1951 at the age of 17 (somewhat late compared to the rush of today’s young prodigies), under the tutelage of Prof. Sankara Iyer from the Swati Tirunal Music Academy. Despite the late start, he soon went on to give his maiden performance in 1953, such was his confidence and performance skill. His real break came in 1956 when he came under the wing of the doyen and ace teacher, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, with whom he was closely associated for the next 50 years until Semmangudi passed away.

Subrahmaniam remained deeply devoted to his guru learning innumerable kritis and honing his music from years of association and absorption. By his own admission, he learnt many a subtle nuance and phrase while giving vocal support to his guru which he did for four decades. He held his guru’s pathantaram to be sacrosanct, never altering a single note from the way Semmangudi taught him. He gave vent to his creativity while exploring ragas, singing niraval and swara sancharas and won much applause during Semmangudi’s concerts when the guru as was his wont with his students, allowed him manodharma interludes. Subrahmaniam’s raga delineations were filled with bhava while never losing sight of the inherent grammar. He often remarked that music should be so as to touch the heart, not just an intellectual exercise.

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R. N. Tharanathan

November 5, 2018, 9:24 pm
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Sunanda Patnaik

November 6, 2018, 9:26 pm
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                                                              Birthdays & Anniversaries
7.11.1934
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N. Channakeshaviah

November 6, 2018, 9:29 pm
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Sulochana Brahaspati

November 6, 2018, 9:31 pm
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                                                            Birthdays & Anniversaries
7.11.1937
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P L Deshpande

November 7, 2018, 9:33 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
8.11.1919 - 12.6.2000

Purushottam Laxman Deshpande was born on 8 November 1919 in Bombay to Laxman and Lakshmibai Deshpande of the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community. Pu La did his schooling in Bombay, went to Fergusson College, Pune, for undergraduate studies and did an M.A. from Willingdon College, Sangli.

P.L. Deshpande, popularly known by his Marathi initials ‘Pu La’, strode the cultural firmament of Maharashtra like a colossus for over four decades. He was a multifaceted genius – illustrious Marathi writer, film and stage actor, singer, harmonium player, music composer and director, and an orator. He was also a noted philanthropist.

The Department of Posts issued a commemorative stamp in honour of P.L. Deshpande on 16 June 2002, his second death anniversary. The multicoloured stamp in the denomination of Rs. 4, has perf. 13.5, and was printed on Matt Chrome paper by photo offset process at Calcutta Security Printers.

The stamp has a portrait of Deshpande, and in the background is a picture of him in the role of Sant Tukaram in his play Tuka Mhane Ata. The cancellation, in the shape of a pen and a tambura, represents his writings and music. On the First Day Cover are pictures of some of his roles on the stage (see below).

To read full story, visit sruti.com and buy Sruti 345
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R. Vedavalli

November 8, 2018, 9:36 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
9.11.1935
To read full story, visit sruti.com and buy Sruti 254
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Chitresh Das

November 8, 2018, 9:38 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries

9.11.1944 - 4.1.2015
Chitresh Das is a pioneer in introducing Kathak to the United States of America. His dream is to break through cultural barriers and ensure the continuation of the Kathak tradition at its highest artistic level.

His mission began in 1970 when he received a Whitney Fellowship through the University of Maryland to teach Kathak even while he was studying Modern dance. A year later, he was invited by sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan to establish a Kathak dance programme at the renowned Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. While there, Chitresh Das created three major dance-dramas in the Kathak idiom, with over 40 musicians and dancers participating— the first venture of the kind in the Indo-American performing arts scene.

Das founded his own dance company and school called Chhandam in the San Francisco Bay Area, in 1980. It now has additional branches in Boston and Toronto.

Trained from age nine Mishra, Chitresh was schooled in both major Kathak traditions and absorbed each in his artistry: the graceful and sensual elements of the Lucknow school, as well as the dynamic and powerful rhythms and movements of the Jaipur school. His performing career was launched in India when he was invited by sitar maestro Ravi Shankar to perform at the Rimpa Festival in Varanasi.

To read full story, visit sruti.com and buy Sruti 224
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C R Vyas

November 8, 2018, 9:40 pm
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                                                               Birthdays & Anniversaries 
9.11.1924 - 10.1.2002
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R. K. Venkatarama Sastry

November 9, 2018, 10:57 pm
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10.11.1907
Birthdays & Anniversaries

There is a school of thought that to be a great Carnatic musician, you need to be blessed with the serendipity of being born on the banks of the Kaveri in a pious family leading an austere lifestyle in the vicinity of a temple. A staple of vadu mangai and buttermilk and pazhaiyathu, or their Karnataka equivalent if you happened to wet your feet in the river closer to its origins, would help too, not to mention a strict regimen of sandhyavandanam three times a day.

By all accounts, musician, Harikatha artist, playwright and Sanskrit and Kannada scholar Rudrapatnam Krishna Sastry, who married singer Sannakka, daughter of vainika-violinist Bettadapura Narayanaswamy, in the early years of the 20th century, enjoyed just such a concatenation of circumstances. His first son, Rudrapatnam Krishna Venkatarama Sastry, was born on November 10th 1907 at Rudrapatnam, a stone’s throw from the waters of the sacred river. Venkatarama Sastry — whose birth centenary celebrations begin from 11th November 2007 with a music festival in Chennai — showed early signs of musical talent which his father nourished by exposing him to the best available training with distinguished guru-s.

(This Sanketi family from the Hassan district of Karnataka went on to produce some nine more musicians at last count. For a detailed account, see the R.K. Srikantan profile in Sruti 134, November 1995). After spending more than a decade learning violin from Veena Subbanna and Mysore T. Chowdiah, he moved to Madras in 1936, to join All India Radio when it was formed. 

To read full story, visit sruti.com and buy Sruti 278
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Journal on Laya in Carnatic Music

November 9, 2018, 11:00 pm
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Indian Musicological Society, in association with the Music Forum, released a special journal Laya in Carnatic Music, on 21 October 2018 in Chennai. The first copy of the journal was presented by Sangita Kalanidhi Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman to Sangita Kalanidhi Sudha Ragunathan. Dr S. Sunder, Convener, Music Forum, Chennai Chapter; Ganeshkumar, Chairman, Music Forum; Snehal Muzoomdar, president of the Indian Musicological Society; and K.N. Ramaswamy, Director, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; offered their felicitations. Articles on laya, written by eleven eminent authors, have been compiled and edited by senior mridangist Mannarkoil J. Balaji (2nd from R).
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F. G. Natesa Iyer

November 10, 2018, 10:14 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
11.11.1880 - 23.1.1963
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Abdul Karim Khan

November 10, 2018, 10:16 pm
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
11.11.1872 - 27.10.1937
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