Saxophone Recital By Dr. Kadri Gopalnath

On the occasion of its 40th Annual Cultural Festival of Music, Dance & Drama, Kalasagaram is organising a grand music, dance and drama festival for 9 days, from 23rd November to 1st December, at the Keyes High School campus. Eminent musicians such as saxophonist Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, vocalists Sudha Raghunathan, the Priya Sisters, Trichur V Ramachandran and T V Sankaranarayanan, flautist Dr N Ramani, and two Tamil dramas Vaasthu Vasu and Plastic Kadavul by United Visuals from Chennai, will be part of the 9-day treat.

Today, the first day, Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, along with A Kanyakumari on the violin, Patri Satish on the mridangam, K Shyam Kumar on the kanjira and Bangalore Rajasekhar on the morsing, will perform a saxophone recital.

Born in Panemangalore in Dakshina Kannada district, Kadri Gopalnath acquired a taste for music from his father Thaniappa, a nagaswaram vidwan. Thrilled on hearing the vibrant tone of the saxophone being played in the Mysore palace, Gopalnath decided to master it.

It took nearly 20 years for him to conquer the complex Western wind instrument, and he was eventually crowned "Saxophone Chakravarthy". So perfect was this adaptation of the instrument into Carnatic music that no less a musician than Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, the doyen of Indian Music, acknowledged Gopalnath as a true Carnatic music genius.

Gopalnath learnt playing Carnatic music on the saxophone under Gopalkrishna Iyer of Kalaniketana, Mangalore. His dedication and tireless efforts enabled him to imbibe all the nuances of Carnatic music and the sax. In Madras, Gopalnath came in contact with the versatile mridangist T V Gopalkrishnan, who identified the youngster’s potential and chiseled him into an internationally famed artist.

His maiden performance was for the Chembai Memorial Trust. It was a roaring success. Gopalnath has participated in the Jazz Festival in Prague, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the International Cervantino Festival in Mexico, the Music Halle Festival in Paris and the BBC Promenade concert in 1994 at London, and has toured extensively all over the world, performing in all prestigious music venues in India and abroad.

He was awarded the Padmasri and the Kendriya Sangeeth Natak Academy Award by the President of India, in the years 2004 & 2003 respectively, Kalaimamani from the Govt. of Tamil Nadu during 1998, and several other distinctions.

Kalasagaram is a South-Indian cultural association situated in the East Nehru Nagar of East Marredpally, and has been organising Carnatic music concerts for the last 40 years. The concerts are usually held in the Keyes High School campus at the open-air theater. The singers are generally from outside Hyderabad, usually amateurs and upcoming artistes, and quite competent. Kalasagaram also occasionally stages South-Indian classical dances and Tamil plays.

The entry is by invitations for members, and season passes of Rs. 400, Rs. 300 & Rs. 200 per head for others. Please contact V Rajagopal, General Secretary of Kalasagaram, at 2773-1775 for further details.