AndyMusicBlog-thodi

My tribute to vocal maestro Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer on his 100th Birth centenary. The first thought that came to my mind is that had I been born a day earlier, I would have had the privilege of sharing my birthday with this great maestro. People (musicians /his students/ critics ) have written a lot about this doyen of music who also earned the name Pita Maha of Carnatic music as he had a long innings of 70 + years as a performing artiste and lived to a ripe old age of 96. So I won't delve on these aspects. I felt that the best way of paying tribute to SSI on his birthday was by listening to a concert of his as he he will leave on for ever in the form of his music. I chose a vintage concert of his in which he is accompanied by Lalgudi G Jayaraman and Vellore Ramabhadran. I had picked this concert album released by Carnatica at the Rama Navami Festival at Fort High school ground music this year. It includes a lot of songs which SSI made famous and which one will always associate

I attended a concert by Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan at Bangalore Gayana Samaja yesterday morning. She is a brilliant artiste who plays the Thanjavur Bani and an acknowledged master of Muthuswamy Dikshithar Compositions. What I found more amazing is her energy and dedication to the art of Carnatic music at the age of 87. An article by Gowri Ramnarayan published in Hindu on Smt. Kalpakam Swaminathan http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/07/27/stories/2007072750570300.htm She was accompanied by Sri Cheluvaraju on the Mridangam and a disciple of hers on another Veena. Reached the venue a little late. Listened to the following songs by her. Meenakshi Memudam Dehi - Purvikalyani , Muthuswamy Dikshithar GowliPantu- could not identify the composition. Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi - Dharmavati (It was announced later that she learnt the composition by Veena Seshanna just the day before the concert , as a tribute to the Veena maestro, which shows her greatness.) Tillana - Chenchurriti. She was conferred the pres

Sunday 27th July, 2008 to Sunday 3rd August, 2008 - Evening Music Concerts Daily 6 PM Sunday 27th July, 2008 Sri SANJAY SUBRAMANYAM - Vocal Sri S. VARADARAJAN - Violin Sri NEYVELI B. VENKATESH - Mridangam Sri G. GURUPRASSANNA - Khanjira Monday 28st July, 2008 Sri T.M.KRISHNA - Vocal Sri H.K.VENKATRAM - Violin Sri GURUVAYUR DORAI - Mridangam Sri GIRIDHAR UDUPA -Ghatam Tuesday 29th July, 2008 Prof. T.K.KRISHNAN - Violin Sri VELLORE RAMABHADRAN - Mridangam Sri M.A.KRISHNASWAMY - Ghatam Wednesday 30th July, 2008 Sri BELLARY M.VENKATESTACHAR and M.RAGHAVENDRA - Vocal Sri MYSORE M. NAGARAJ - Violin Sri H.S.SUDHEENDRA- Mridangam Sri M.GURURAJ - Morsing Thursday 31st July, 2008 Sri T.V. SHANKARANARAYANAN - Vocal DR. MYSORE M. MANJUNATH - Violin Sri B.HARIKUMAR - Mridangam Sri B.N.CHANDRAMOULI - Khanjira Friday 1st August 2008 Sri LALGUDI J.G.R.KRISHNAN & Smt. LALGUDI VIJAYALAKSHMI (VIOLIN-DUET) Sri PATRI SATISH KUMAR - Mridangam Sri AMRUTH N - Khanjira Saturday 2nd August 2008 Smt. RANJAN

40th MUSIC CONFERENCE AND BIRTH CENTENARY OF SEMMANGUDI SRINIVASA IYER Conference President : Bellary M Venkateshachar Theme of the Conference : Semmanugudi Experts Sessions : Monday 28th July, 2008 to Saturday 2nd August,2008 Daily 9.45 AM to 12.30 PM Monday 28st July, 2008 Semmangudi's Life and Achievements - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Dr. Sri R.K.Srikanthan Semmangudi's Research in Music - Sri. T.M.Krishna Pallavi - Bellary Venkateshachar - Demonstration - M.Raghavendra Tuesday 29th July, 2008 Semmangudi - The Ideal Guru - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Prof. T.N.Krishnan Laya Excellence in Semmangudi' music - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Vellore Ramabhadran Neraval - Smt. Neela Ramgopal Wednesday 30th July, 2008 Semmangudi - The Tunesmith - Sangeeta Kalanidhi Madurai T.N.Sheshagopalan Kucheri planning of Semmangudi - Sri. V. Subramanyam Semmangudi Bani - R.K.Padmanabha New Compositions promoted by KrishnaRaja Wodeyar IV Thursday 31st July, 2008 Social and Public Services by Semmangudi Reminis

The Bangalore Gayana Samaja, Sri KR Road, Bangalore, 560004, Cordially invites you to the BIRTH CENTENARY OF SEMMANGUDI SRINIVASA IYER Sunday 20th July, 2008 to Sunday 3rd August,2008 40th Music Conference Conference President : Bellary M Venkateshachar Theme of the Conference : Semmanugudi Inauguration : Sunday 27th July, 2008 Experts Sessions : Monday 28th July, 2008 to Saturday 2nd August,2008 Daily 9.45 AM to 12.30 PM SADAS : Sunday 3rd August,2008 at 10 AM Conferring titles and honoring "Artistes of the Year" Sunday 20th July, 2008 to Saturday 26th July, 2008 - Daily 6 PM Sunday 20th July, 2008 RUDRAPATNAM BROS. - Sri R.N.Thyagarajan and R.N.Taranathan Smt. AKKARAI SUBBALAKSHMI - Violin Sri GURUVAYUR DORAI - Mridangam Sri B.N. CHANDRAMOULI - Khanjira Monday 21st July, 2008 Sri MALLADI BROTHERS (SRIRAM PRASAD & RAVI KUMAR) Sri H.K. VENKATRAM - Violin Sri ARJUN KUMAR - Mridangam Sri N. AMRUT - Khanjira Tuesday 22nd July, 2008 Sri. A. CHANDANKUMAR - Venu aka flute Sri G

Conferring of Awards by Percussive Arts Centre (founded by Sangeetha Kalarathna Bangalore K. Venkatram) , Organizers of the 5 Day music festival. 1.) Palani Subramanya Pillai Memorial Centenary Award to Smt. D.K.PattamAl 2.) Palghat Maini Iyer Memorial Award to mridangam maestro Sri Madurai T.Srinivasan 3.) Bangalore K. Venkataram Memorial Award to Dr. R. Sathyanarayana 4.) H. Puttachar Memorial Award to Sri N. Vasudev 5.) PAC - CMANA Endowment Prize to Sri B.S. ArunKumar (Courtesy: Carnatic Music Association of North America) This was followed by laya VinyAsa a TAla VAdya Kucheri by Vrushti (Percussion Ensemble Of Percussive Arts Centre) directed by Anoor Anathakrishna Sharma, B.Krishna (mridangam - shadja), G.Guruprasanna (khanjira), B.S.Arun Kumar (drums), Anoor Anathakrishna Sharma (dolu /thavil), Udayraj Karpur (tabla), B.C.Manjunath (konakkol & mridangam - panchama) with M.K.Pranesh (flute) The composition was a raga malika in Kalyani, ShankarAbharanam and Shanmukhap

Vijay Siva - vocal Charulatha Ramanujam - Violin Arjun Kumar - Mridangam Guru Prasanna - Kanjiri B.S.Arun Kumar - Morsing This concert was part of the 5 day festival organized by Percussive Arts Center Foundation. We reached the venue a bit late and came to know from a mAmi sitting beside us that we had missed the first couple of songs which were : 1. nAda tanumanisham - Chittaranjani - Adi - Saint ThyAgarAja 2. innum parAmukham eno - begadA 3. karuna judavamma in Ragam PantuvarAli (Adi 2 kalai ) by Shyama Shastri was in progress as we entered the Venue. He sang Neraval & swarams @ marakatAngi panchanadisu rani. 4. Vijay Siva sang a nice Alapanai in Yadukula Kamboji. Since it was a Saturday, I assumed he would sing Dikshithar Navagraha Kriti. He did just that. After a befitting reply to his AlApanai by Charulatha, he sang "niLAnjana-samAbhAsam ravi-putram yamAgrajam chAya-mArtaAnda-sambhutam tam namAmi shanaishcharam" a Shloka dedicated to Lord Shani from the Navagraha