Carnatic Vocal By Hyderabad Brothers: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR CARNATIC VOCAL BY HYDERABAD...

The South Indian Cultural Association (SICA), in association with the Vinjamuri Trust, is organising the annual 3-day Vinjamuri Memorial music concerts from 24th to 26th October, in memory of late Ganakalanidhi Dr. Vinjamuri Varadaraja Iyengar. Today, the inaugural day, the Hyderabad Brothers will present a Carnatic vocal recital. Hari Narayan on the mridangam and Peri Sriram Murthy on the violin will provide the music support.

The Hyderabad Brothers, D Seshachari & D Raghavachari, hail from Hyderabad. Born in a family of musicians, they received their initial training under the guidance of their father Sangeeta Sahitya Vidwan Daroor Ratnamacharyulu and mother Sulochana Devi. They perfected their skills under Late Susarla Sivaram at the Government College of Music in Hyderabad.

Their style of singing resembles that of the great Alathur Brothers, and singing together, the duo have always held the fascination of Carnatic music lovers. Seshachari is a staff artiste with AIR, Hyderabad, and is also an accomplished mridangam player, while Raghavachari works at the National Mineral Development Corporation.

Seshachari is the younger of the siblings, and is more of an extrovert, while Raghavachari is content playing the quieter role. The Hyderabad brothers have performed in all major institutions, festivals & sabhas in India. They have also performed at the Madras Music Academy, the Krishna Gana Sabha, the Mylapore Fine Arts Club, the Indian Fine Arts Society, and other sabhas of repute. They have also given innumerable concerts for AIR & Doordarshan.

In addition, they have released several commercial recordings of cassettes & CDs, and have performed extensively in India & North America. During the initial stages of their career, the Sangeetha Nataka Akademi of Hyderabad awarded them the Best Young Talent award in 1977 & 1978. After that, a lot many awards and honors followed. In 1992, they were nominated as the Asthana Vidwans of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.

Hailing from Guntur district, Varadaraja Iyengar was a musician, musicologist and a composer. He belonged to the Sishya Parampara of Saint Thyagaraja. His initial guru was Piratla Sankara Sastry who belonged to Veena Kuppaiar School, and thereafter learned under late Tiger Varadachary of Manambuchavadi Venkata Subramanya Iyer School. Varadaraja imbided the best of these traditions. He was with AIR, Chennai and Hyderabad for a long time and was mainly instrumental in propagating Bhakti Music. He also served SICA as its Vice President till his demise in 1991.

SICA was founded in 1959 by Dewan Bahadur Aramuda Iyengar, the Finance Minister of Hyderabad's Nizam and a great patron of Carnatic music. The association has since organised more than 1,000 concerts. It has provided a basic platform for upcoming artistes like U P Raju and Nagamani, Mandolin Srinivas and the Malladi Brothers. It conducts workshops, felicitates artistes, and provides both moral and financial support to upcoming artistes. Dr S Chakravarthy, IAS, former Chief Secretary to the Govt. Of AP, is the current President of the association, and R Chakrapani is the General Secretary.

The entry to the concert is by invitations for members - members of the general public need to buy donor passes of Rs. 25 or Rs. 50 per head. Please contact R Chakrapani at 2742-5374/98491-24675 or V Ramachandran at 92461-61420 for further details.