Connoisseurs in the Capital will be treated to yet another music and dance extravaganza in the form of the Sanjukta & Raghunath Panigrahi Festival of Music and Dance. The four-day festival will begin at Rabindra Mandap here on Tuesday.
The event is being hosted by the Sanjukta and Raghunath Panigrahi Cultural Heritage Foundation with financial support from the Odisha Tourism.
Foundation’s managing trustee Baboo Panigrahi told mediapersons on Monday that the foundation had instituted four annual awards in the name of the couple. The festival this year will feature playback singer Hariharan during the inaugural evening. Hariharan would be conferred the Raghunath Panigrahi award for excellence in music. The ` 1.25-lakh award will be presented by Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh.
Veteran ghazal singer Chandan Dass and Mumbai-based Odissi dancer Jhelum Paranjpe will perform on the second evening while celebrated singer couple Bhupinder-Mitali Singh will regale the audience with their ghazals and old Hindi film songs on the third day.
The concluding evening will see performances by Hindustani vocalist Rashid Khan and New Delhi-based Kathak dancer-choreographer Aditi Mangaldas. The latter will be conferred the Sanjukta Panigrahi award for excellence in dance by Governor M C Bhandare.
Panigrahi also announced that Yuva Pratibha Samman would be given to a young Odissi dancer and a young singer of the State. Award-winners will be announced during the inauguration.