Carnatic Vocal By Chinmaya Sisters: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR CARNATIC VOCAL BY CHINMAYA...

What is 5 out of 9? Depressing for scores of music-lovers around town. This 9-day festival hits the half-way mark today, and time seems to have flown. But this one has a golden lining every day. Today, it's 2 young prodigies.

The 17th Annual Cultural Festival and the 160th Aradhana of Sri Thyagaraja Swamy is being organised by Sharada Cultural Trust from 10th to 18th February at Srirangam Srimad Andavan Ashramam. The 9-day music festival will feature kacheris of renowned artistes, like I S Thiyagarajan, Sikkil Gurucharan, Malladi Brothers, Chinmaya Sisters, Sudha Raghunathan and Lalgudi G J R Krishnan.

Today, the fifth day, a Carnatic vocal recital by the young Chinmaya Sisters will keep the music festival spirits going. The Chinmaya Sisters, Padma and Radhika, were initiated into music by their mother Bhavani Natesan, a Music Academy Sangeetha Ratna certificate holder and a performer at AIR Mumbai. Subsequently, they came under the tutelage of Neyveli R Santhanagopalan, from whom they learned music for 12 years, and have been undergoing advanced training from Madurai T N Seshagoplan for the last 8 years.

A-grade artists of the All-India Radio, the sisters have won many prestigious awards from well-known institutions like the Indian Fine Arts Society. They also have 5 music albums to their credit, the most recent one being a 3-volume set titled Raaga Archana from Magnasound. Highly positive reviews obtained consistently from renowned music critics have earned them a place in the concert series of most leading organizations.

Called Gana Kuyil (nightingales of music), the sisters have been inspired so much by the blessings of Swami Chinmayananda that their guru Santhanagopalan called them as the Chinmaya Sisters, and then on, they have been performing together under this name.

The Sharada Cultural Trust was formed in 2000 by a group of female musicians and music-loving housewives. The trust trains youngsters and housewives in Carnatic vocal and instrumental music. Every year during January-February, the trust conducts a grand Thyagaraja festival where renowned musicians participate, but utmost preference is given to youngsters. Without draining too many resources on shamianas and garlands, the trust comes up with some of the best music festivals.

The entry to the festival is free of cost. For further details, please contact 2786-0680/2780-1662.