Flute Recital By V Nagaraju

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.



The 4th day of the festival will feature V Nagaraju playing some Carnatic music tunes on the flute. He will be accompanied by Peri Srirama Murthy on the violin, V Kali Prasad on the mridangam and R Srikanth on the kanjira.



Nagaraju is a senior flautist, and was a disciple of Manda Balarama Sarma in 1972. He is a A-High graded artiste of AIR, Vijayawada. He is also a staff member and A-grade artiste of AIR, Hyderabad. He has performed in several parts of the country, particularly in North India. He has also toured London, Brazil, Singapore and Malaysia.



He won the 1st prize in the All-India AIR Music Competitions in 1980, and had the privilege of receiving this award from the late M S Subbalakshmi. He received the titles of Venu Gana Vidhya Visharada and Venu Gana Vayidya Praveena from cultural associations.



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.