Many musicians, even today, complain that local artistes are always looked down upon, irrespective of the talent they possess.
In order to provide a platform and give priority to the budding young local artiste along with the established ones, a group of musicians -- A Subbarao, L S Sheshagiri Rao, Bangalore Venkataram, H B Krishna Murthy, Anoor Ramakrishna and others came together in 1969 to form an organisation called Karnataka Ganakala Parishath.
R K Padmanabha, musician and president of this organisation said, "This institution was made for musicians by musicians.
The activities are not just limited to concerts but we identify artistes who have contributed immensely to the world of music and honour them.
" Established musicians are honoured with Ganakalabhushana and the young artistes are awarded the Gana Kalashree.
The organisation also organises an annual state level conference on music.
Musicians from various centres of the state participate in this five-day conference and speak about various topics related to music.
These conferences are held in different districts like Tumkur, Bellary, Hassan, Mysore and Chikmagalore.
"Along with these, lecture-demonstrations are held in the mornings, while in the evenings the platform is occupied by the musicians to render concerts," he added.
Besides, this institution also conducts monthly concerts in association with other centres across the state.
The organisation also encourages other forms of music like Hindustani classical music, folk music, light music but the priority is given to Carnatic classical music.
Though the Parishat consists of library with just 400-500 books, they do not any have plans to digitise it soon.
Many stalwarts of Indian classical music like M S Subbulakshmi, M L Vasanthakumar, K u n n a n k u d i Vaidyanathan, Lalgudi Jayaraman, T R Mahalingam and many others have performed here.
The Parishat consists of a managing committee which includes the vice president, general secretary, joint secretary and members.
Currently, the organisation accommodates over 995 members.
The organisation aims to bring musicians under one platform and impart the knowledge of music to others.
But the organisation lacks funds.
"We require more than `9 lakh per annum to conduct music concerts and dance recitals.
Though a lot of strategies are in place to develop this organisation, we do no have the funds.
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