The 112th music festival of Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha — the city’s oldest carnatic sabha — was inaugurated by Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami at Vidya Bharathi Hall in Mylapore on Saturday. The festival, a 19-day event, will feature about 100 musical programmes, and will conclude on January 2, 2013.
The Swami, on the occasion, conferred the title of Sangeetha Kalasarathy to noted singer P Unnikrishnan for his contribution to the field of Carnatic music.
The award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a gold medal. The cash prize is derived from an endowment created by art patrons P Vijayakumar Reddy and Preetha Reddy.
Also, the Palghat Mani Iyer Centenary Award was presented to mridangam artiste Dr T K Murthy; the Dr M L V Award to Sriranjani Santhanagopalan, daughter of noted Carnatic exponent Neyveli R Santhanagopalan. Artistes N Vijay Siva and Dr S Soumya offered the felicitations to the awardees.
On December 23, eminent musician and musicologist Suguna Purushothaman will be conferred with the Sangeetha Kala Ratna Award for her contribution to the development of Carnatic music. The Bharatanatyam Natya Kalasarathy Award will be presented to Dr Srinidhi Chidambaram during the dance festival on January 22.
The festival will also include lecture demonstration sessions, which will commence everyday at 8.30 am.
Art patron, industrialist and president of the Parthasarathy Swami Sabha Dr Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti presided over the function.
Music college principal Veena E Gayathri was also present.