CHENNAI: Suswaraa Trust has been recognising the cultural talent spread all over the south. Stepping into its 34th year since its inception, Suswaraa is scheduled to celebrate the annual festival and award function — 34th Sangeetha Utsavam in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan from today.
Artistes from different southern states will participate. Of the six-day concert, three concerts will be dedicated to instrumental music and the rest to vocal music. Instrumentalists include Prapancham S. Balachandran, an ‘A-Top’ graded Carnatic flautist, who hails from a family of illustrious musicians, and one of the senior-most disciples of N Ramani.
On March 26, at the Vidwath Sadas, the award function has been scheduled. This year, for the first time, a dramatist will be awarded. Vainika Revathi Srinivasan and dansuse Roja Kannan will be conferred with the ‘Sangita Kala Jyoti’ title. ‘Nataka Kala Jyoti’ for drama on S Shivpprasadh, a director of Nataka Kavalar Chemmal RS Manohar’s NXGs and ‘Gana Saraswati Peeth Puraskar’ will be presented to VVL Srinivasa Murthy for his contribution to fine arts.
Yuva Sangita Kala Jyoti, instituted in 2015, will be conferred on six young promising artistes — Baradwaj Raman for Vina, S Hiranmayee for Vocal, Haritha Narayanan for Violin, Kisore Ramesh for Mrudangam, G Ganapathy for Ghatam and P Innisaivendan for Arumughanam (this is the first time Suswaraa is giving away an award for this newly invented instrument by Vidvan S Gopakumar of Puducherry).
Kalaimamani KN Ramaswamy, director, BVB, Chennai Kendra, will present the awards. To achieve these feats, over time, many cultural organisations originated with different definite objectives and one such which was started in the late 80s is Suswaraa Trust, by veteran Carnatic vocalist Tadepally Lokanadha Sarma and authored by M Krishnaswami, who was then president of the Thyagaraja Festival Committee, Tirupathi.
Since its inception, this Academy of Music and Dance has been serving the cause of Indian classical fine arts. From 1989, Suswaraa is presenting a title of honour called ‘Sangita Kala Jyothi’ and an award, instituted by Marutibala Tadepallys, ‘Jñana Saraswathi Peeth Puraskar’. The first recipient of the title and award was the veteran musician Sangita Kalanidhi Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao. Prof SR Janakiraman, Mani Krishnaswamy, R Vedavalli, Salem Jayalakshmi, PS Narayanaswamy, Dwaram Mangathayaru, Calcutta KS Krishnamurthy, Bangalore K Venkatram, Karakurichi S Narayanan, Padmavathy Anantagopalan, S Ramachandran, KS Venkatraman, VV Srivatsa, V Thiagarajan are some of the stalwarts who were honoured from the trust.
Till 2001, both the award and title were given to the same artiste chosen for the honour. From 2002, Suswaraa started honouring ‘Sangita Kala Jyothi’ on two artistes — one from the discipline of music and the other from dance.