Carnatic Vocal By Sudha Raghunathan: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR CARNATIC VOCAL BY SUDHA...

On the occasion of its 40th Annual Cultural Festival of Music, Dance & Drama, Kalasagaram is organising a grand music, dance and drama festival for 9 days, from 23rd November to 1st December, at the Keyes High School campus. Eminent musicians such as saxophonist Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, vocalists Sudha Raghunathan, the Priya Sisters, Trichur V Ramachandran and T V Sankaranarayanan, flautist Dr N Ramani, and two Tamil dramas Vaasthu Vasu and Plastic Kadavul by United Visuals from Chennai, will be part of the 9-day treat.

Today, the 2nd day of the festival, one of the leading vocalists of the country, Sudha Raghunathan, will perform a Carnatic vocal recital with music support from M R Gopinath on the violin, Palladam Ravi on the mridangam and R Raman on the morsing.

Raghunathan inherited an interest in music from her mother Choodamani, and started her formal training at the age of 9. Later, she learnt from T V Viswanathan and B V Lakshman for a brief period.

She came under the tutelage of the illustrious Padmabhushan and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. M L Vasantha Kumari in 1977, when she won a Govt. of India Scholarship given to young artistes for advanced training in music.

It was only with Dr. M L V's encouragement that Raghunathan pursued music as a career. She had the golden opportunity of providing vocal support to Dr. M L V for a decade. She is considered Dr. M L V's "vaarisu" by music lovers.

Sudha Raghunathan is a top-ranking artiste of the All-India Radio, Chennai, and performs regularly on AIR and Doordharshan. She has performed at concerts in all the major cities of India, besides undertaking concert tours all over the world. She won more than 250 awards and prizes, with Kalaimamani from the Govt. of Tamil Nadu in 1993, the Padmasri from the Govt. of India in 2004, the Sangeetha Kalasagara in 2003, the Sangeetha Choodamani from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in 1997, and the Isai Peroli and the VST Award for excellence from Karthik Fine Arts, ranking as her best ones.

Kalasagaram is a South-Indian cultural association situated in the East Nehru Nagar of East Marredpally, and has been organising Carnatic music concerts for the last 40 years. The concerts are usually held in the Keyes High School campus at the open-air theater. The singers are generally from outside Hyderabad, usually amateurs and upcoming artistes, and quite competent. Kalasagaram also occasionally stages South-Indian classical dances and Tamil plays.

The entry is by invitations for members, and by season passes of Rs. 400, Rs. 300 & Rs. 200 per head and daily passes of Rs. 100, Rs. 50 and Rs. 25 per head for others. Please contact V Rajagopal, General Secretary of Kalasagaram, at 2773-1775 for further details.