Carnatic Vocal By The Hyderabad Sisters: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR CARNATIC VOCAL BY THE...

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.

Hyderabad Sisters will be performing a Carnatic vocal duet on the last day of the festival, at 7pm. They will be accompanied by Dwaram Satyanarayana Rao on the violin and P Jaya Bhaskar on the mridangam.

The Hyderabad Sisters, Lalitha and Haripriya, were born in 1950 and 1952 respectively, and were disciples of T G Padmanabham, belonging to the Alathur Sishya parampara. It is said that the sisters follow the style of the Alathur Brothers.

They are A-grade artists of AIR and DD, and have given several classical vocal Carnatic concerts. They have featured quite a few times in national programs of music, Radio Sangeet Sammelans and special programs of DD, and have performed at music sabhas in India and abroad.

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.