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.
Dr. Tadepalli Lokanadha Sarma will be performing a Carnatic vocal recital on the inaugural day of the festival. He will be accompanied by N C Ramanujam on the violin and P V Ramana Murthy on the mridangam.
Born on 8th June, 1945, Lokanadha Sarma hails from a family of musicians from Tenali. He was initiated into music by his father T V Subrahmanya Sastry, a vocalist. He completed his music diploma from the Madras University, and Sangeeta Vidwan course from the Central College of Carnatic Music in Madras.
After finishing his BA in Music in 1967 and MA in Music in 1969, from the S V University (Tirupati), Sarma was awarded a PhD by the Mysore University, for his research work in "A Study Of Musical Instrumentation With Particular Reference To Sanskrit Musical Literature".
Lokanadha Sarma received his training from Musiri Subramania Iyer and Chittoor Subramania Pillai. He is an A-grade artiste of All-India Radio.
Sarma imbibes other musical forms, including folk songs of different regions, into his music. He has been singing for about three and half decades now, and has presented classical concerts in several cities and towns in India.
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.