Carnatic Vocal By Puranam Purushottama Sastry

It takes 2 full deep breaths to call him by all his titles. And 2 full lifetimes to be satiated by his performances. The Legend Himself is going live today.

To commemorate the 93rd birth anniversary of Sangeeta Ksheerasagara Uppalapati Ankaiah, Sangeeta Ksheerasagaram, in association with Sri Thyagaraya Gana Sabha, is organising musical concerts in his honor from 12th to 18th March, at Kala Subbarao Kala Vedika, the mini hall of Sri Thyagaraya Gana Sabha in Chikkadpally.

Today, the last day, Sangeeta Vidhwan, Brahmasri Puranam Purushothama Sastry will present a Carnatic vocal recital, with music support from M V N Prasad on the violin, Durga Kumar on the mridangam and B L Narasimham on the ghattam. On this occasion, Ganadheera, Sangeeta Bheeshma, Sangeeta Chakravarthy, Hansa awardee, Puranam Purushothama Sastry will also be felicitated.

Sastry is a very senior vocalist, who was born in 1925 to Puranam Kanakayya Sastry and Seetaramamma. Both his parents were musicians, and his father was also a renowned music vidhwan of those days. So music was in his blood. He learnt initially from his father. Influenced later by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer's style of singing, he developed his own way of singing.

He completed the Sangeeta Vidhwan Certification course from Central College of Carnatic Music, Chennai. In Chennai, he trained under Sangeeta Kalanidhi Musri Subrahmanya Iyer for ten 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 the All-India Radio, without any audition. He also had inputs of music from D K Rangachary and Tiger Varadachary.

Now 82 years of age, he has more than six decades of singing experience, and has toured many countries. Musicians take it as a privilege to accompany him, and legends like Lalgudi Jayaraman, Palghat Raghu, Akella Mallikarjuna Sarma, Dr M Bala Muralikrishna, Umayalpuram K Sivaraman, T V Gopalakrishnan, Dwaram Durgaprasad, Komunduri Seshadri and the like have accompanied him. He has been conferred upon many awards and titles, with the Hamsa Award by the Government of Andhra Pradesh ranking foremost.

Purushothama Sastry's is an impartial and straight-forward attitude, which commands respect from everyone. Blessed with a bold and heavy voice, his effortless rendition of any raga alapana and kriti proves his depth in music. He is an ardent devotee of Yadagirigutta Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy, and also has very high regards for Sadguru Kandukuri Sivananda Murthy of Anandavan, Bheemili.

He is also very good in astrology, and does it at free of cost. Even though he never took to teaching music as a profession, he has taught many a needful musician at no cost, because he always thought music to be a divine art that shouldn't be traded.

Sangeeta Ksheerasagaram was started by V Ananda Mohan, a disciple of Late Uppalapati Ankaiah, and he has been organizing classical music shows in memory of his guru. As a tribute to the legend, it promotes upcoming and established artists by inviting them to perform in these concerts.

Please contact V Ananda Mohan of Sangeeta Ksheerasagaram at 2761-4978, 99495-90755 for further details.