The 71st anual Thayagaraja Festival of Music and Dance - 2013 will be held in the temple town from July 28 to August 6.
Sri Thayagaraja Festival Committee (TFC) will organise the 10-day programme in which around 300 artistes from various parts of the country will participate.
Speaking to the media here on Friday, TFC executive chairman KV Ranganathan said that the TFC is striving to bring a renaissance in the annals of the 18th century saint poet Thyagaraja’s keerthanas.
Organising the annual fete for the past seven decades is doing yeomen service to the field of music and dance, he opined. “Priority will be given to local talent,’’ he added.
“Though, we used to conduct the festival for 11 days until the previous year, we have reduced it to 10 days and the number of programmes have also been slashed to 20 against the previous 33 due to financial problems,’’ he said.
He also observed that the number of days of the annual fete might further decrease year-by-year due to financial constraints.
For the first time, the festival committee is going to enact an Odisha-based rare form of art during the festival. Bharatanatyam, Harikatha, Nadaswaram and light music are few other art forms which will be performed.
TTD executive officer MG Gopal, the chairman of the festival committee, said that at the ‘Sadas’ programme, scheduled to be held on August 4, the organisers will confer the prestigious Sapthagiri Sangeetha Vidwanmani titles on two eminent musicians-- Trichur V Ramachandran (Vocal) and Mannargudi Easwaran (Mridangam). Stating that the organising committee is planning to construct an auditorium at an estimated cost of `5 crore, Gopal said.
The auditorium will be utilised for conducting cultural events and urged the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams to bear at least 25 per cent of the cost.