Sangeetha Ksheerasagaram, in association with Vignana Samithi, Vijayanagar Fine Arts and Sujana Ranjani, is organising Sangeetha Neerajanam, a music festival in memory of Gana Dheera late Puranam Purushottama Sastry, from 26th March to 2nd April.
Senior vocalist P V Seshaiah Sastry will be performing a Carnatic vocal on the penultimate day of the festival, at 7pm. He will be accompanied by P Purnachandra on the violin and P Srinivas Gopalan on the mridangam.
Seshaiah Sastry has recently retired as the principal of Sri Thyagaraya Government College of Music at Ramkote, Hyderabad. He is a senior artiste in the field of music, and has been performing for the last 30 years. He has worked as a lecturer as well as a principal in various government music colleges. Vizianagaram D Vardhini, London Vamsi Krishna, M V P Saraswati and M V Nagalakshmi are some of his disciples who have earned recognition worldwide.
He initially trained under Pulavarti Rama Dikshitulu, and thereafter, under Susarla Sivaram and Nedunuri Krishna Murthy. He has given performances in various cities in India, including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Bilaspur, and also in New Jersey, Chicago and New York, besides, of course, Hyderabad
Puranam Purushottama Sastry, in whose memory this festival is being held, was a Carnatic vocalist, born into a music-oriented family in the year 1925. He trained under Sangeeta Kalanidhi the late Musiri Subrahmanya Iyer for 10 years, and in the process, became the 6th generation disciple of the Saint Thyagaraja line. He was awarded the Central Scholarship, and was also selected for All-India Radio without any audition. He had inputs of music from D K Rangachary and Tiger Varadachary.
Lalgudi Jayaraman, Palghat Raghu, Akella Mallikarjuna Sarma, Dr. M Bala Muralikrishna, Umayalpuram K Sivaraman, T V Gopalakrishnan, Dwaram Durgaprasad and Komunduri Seshadri are some of those who have accompanied him.
He received several awards and titles, with the Hamsa Award by the Government of Andhra Pradesh ranking foremost. He is the founder of Sadguru Thyagaraja Sampradaya Seva Samithi, a voluntary organisation promoting Saint Thyagaraja's music. He was interested in astrology, and imparted his services free of cost. And even though he never took to teaching music as a profession, he taught musicians at no cost.
Entry is free. Please contact V Ananda Mohan of Sangeeta Ksheerasagaram at 2761-4978 / 99495-90755 for further details.