Violin Recital By Kokkonda Subrahmanya Sarma

He spent 20 years just taking advanced lessons. In business, it would be called creating unfair entry barriers. Fortunately, we can just enjoy him.

The Andhra Music Academy is organising its 7th Annual Music & Dance Festival from 24th to 29th January. The 6-day festival has some of best music vidhwans and most talented artistes of the current and the past generations performing, notably O S Thiyagarajan, Dr Yella Venkateshwara Rao, Akella Mallikarjuna Sarma, Garimella Balakrishna Prasad, Dwaram Durga Prasad and Satyanarayana Rao, the Hyderabad Brothers, Poosarla Manorama, Geeta Krishnamurthy, U Nagamani, Emani Lalithakrishna and Kumar Mardur.

Today, the inaugural day, Violin Vidhwan Kokkonda Subrahmanya Sarma of Angara will be performing. He will be accompanied by Kapa Srinivasa Rao of Hyderabad on the mridangam.

Kokkonda Subrahmanya Sarma is a retired violin staff artiste of the All-India Radio. He started learning Carnatic music lessons in the traditional gurukula system under the guidance of his brother-in-law Gundu Suryanarayana Murthy, and later on had his advanced lessons from Late Garimella Srirama Murthy, a veteran violinist, for 20 years. He thereafter obtained a Diploma in Carnatic Music.

Sarma accompanied on his violin, great masters in the field of Carnatic music like Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhavatar, Dr M L Vasantha Kumari, Mridangam Vidwan Palghat Mani Iyer, Dr Sripada Pinakapani, Dr Nedunuri Krishna Murty, flute legend Dr N Ramani (Flute), Vidwan Voleti Venkateswarlu, Maharajapuram Santanam, T N Seshagopalan, T V Sankaranarayan, M S Bala Subrahmanya Sarma and T Brinda, all over India and also abroad.

Subrahmanya Sarma was honored with the Vayuleena Vidwat Sekhara title by the Akhilandhra Sangeeta Parishad of Rajahmundry, the Vayuleena Sudhakara title by the Sri Rama Samajam of Kakinada, the Sunada Vayuleena Vidwan title by His Holiness Ganapati Sachhidananda Swami of the Mysore Datta Peetham, the Annual Sree Rama Navami Puraskar Award of Sanatana Dharma Charitable Trust by His Holiness Kandukuri Sivananda Murty of Bhimunipatnam, and the Sangeeta Nidhi title by the Uttara Center For Performing Arts, Hyderabad.

The Andhra Music Academy was formed in 2001 to sponsor, support and patronise music. In this endeavour, the academy has roped in some very eminent musicians into its advisory panel, like Dr Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna, Dr Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana and Nedunuri Krishna Murthy. The academy organises and conducts various music festivals every year and plans to soon organise these every month.

Every year, the prestigious awards of Sangeeta Vidyanidhi and Natya Vidyanidhi are conferred upon music and dancing legends. Dr Balamurali Krishna, Nedunuri, Nookala, M S Gopalakrishna, Annavarapu Ramaswamy, Pt Jasraj and Puranam Purushottama Sastry received the Sangeeta Vidyanidhi, while Vempati Chinna Satyam, Nataraja Ramakrishna and Vendantam Satyanarayana Sarma were the Natya Vidyanidhi awardees during the previous festivals.

The concert starts at 11:00am and the entry is free. For further details, please contact 94401-93582/98480-59020.