Vasanta Ganam - Musical Nite By Palagummi Vishwanatham

Saahiti, the literary wing of Saptaparini, is organising Vasanta Ganam, an evening of light classical songs by Palagummi Viswanatham, on 26th April, at Saptaparini, Road No. 8, Banjara Hills. Palagummi is a renowned music composer, and this evening he will be singing some of his compositions.

Palagummi was born in 1919, and had his music lessons under Marla Suryanarayana Murthy of Kakinada and later on under the veena maestro Emani Sankara Sastry. He worked under the music ensemble of dancer Uday Shankar for sometime. He also sharpened his music skills under Sangeetha Kalanidhi S Ramanathan.

The turning point in Palagummi's life came when he joined Hyderabad station of the All-India Radio in 1955. At AIR, his association with Devulapalli Krishna Sastry opened his talent. There was not a single song written by Devulapalli which was not tuned by Palagummi. Devulapalli too was inspired by Palagummi's tunes.

In the post-retirement period, he began composing songs for the Christian Mission in Secunderabad, at the instance of Brother Hubert, a Dutch priest, which were broadcast over Radio Ceylon and Radio Veritas, Philippines. The Telugu University sought his services to launch and develop its light music faculty, and he did it with great reverence by preparing a syllabus for this faculty.

Saahiti is a forum for the exploration of the ethos and the idiom of Telugu and Sanskrit literature and music. It has been conducting bi-monthly programmes since June 2005. Please contact 6666-7707/6682-1789 for further details.